Parul Gupta, Smruti Sarangi, Shivkumar Kalyanaraman [IBM Research – India]

Zhen Bo Zhu, Lin Chen, Yong Hua Lin, Ling Shao [IBM Research – China]

The Future of Software Radio:

Wireless Network Cloud

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Outline

 Cellular wireless systems and convergence trends (esp in emerging markets)

 Today’s 2G/3G architectures and the trend towards 4G (all-IP and OFDMA for PHY/MAC
layers)

 Increasing computational costs, low utilization with future generations of technology,

upgrade cycles, growing maintenance / OPEX costs.

 SDR evolution:
– Firmware OTA upgrades on vendor platforms,
– From DSP/FPGA platforms to Hybrid IT platforms,
– Multi-technology / multi-operator support
– Virtualization & cloud given fiber-to-tower availability

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Wireless: short technical summary

Rate
802.11b 4G
WLAN
3G

Other Tradeoffs:
2G Rate vs. Coverage
Rate vs. Delay
Rate vs. Cost
2G Cellular Rate vs. Energy
Mobility
1. Scarce bandwidth 2. Spectral Efficiency: 3. Tradeoffs: Rate vs X
(10-100 MHz/operator) MHz -> Mbps (signal to noise ratio is key!) (no free lunch!)

Today With femto cells & MIMO

antennas

Wireless networks are designed to maximize spectral efficiency, support mobility,

coverage, and Quality-of-Service under severe spectrum/bandwidth constraints

In emerging markets the dependence on wireless is high and growing.

ARPU pressures are severe: $2 incremental ARPU today.
Operators aggressively outsource their (wireless/wired) networks and IT.
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Version 0.1 Wireless IT©convergence
2009 IBM Corporation
 Wireless Convergence: Closed Vertically Integrated to Horizontal Open

Apps: Unified Comms (multimedia), Convergence at

Smarter Planet, mobile VAS, Internet
Circuit Voice; apps, Spoken Web/SMS platforms… Application/Solutions Level
Data overlay
Middleware: IMS, SDP Convergence at
Integrated MAC,
network functions Network Services Level
Network layer: IP
TDMA/CDMA
Convergence at
Radio layer: OFDMA/MIMO
Systems Level

2G/3G wireless 4G wireless

 System: IT and wireless systems are approaching similar system architectures

 Network Services: Convergence of enterprise wireless and operator wireless services

 Application/Solutions: Seamless integration and interaction of wireless infrastructure and

mobile applications

There is another interesting twist in this wireless / IT convergence at the systems level
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 2G-3G
4G Wireless
wireless
Network
network
over
architecture
Wireless Network Cloud
PSTN
PSTN

Cloud
Access
of Network
Wireless Access Core
Network
Network
+ Core Network Service
Network
SMS/MMS
SMS/MMS
Mobile switch center

BS BS cluster
Radio network IMS WAP GW
TD-SCDMA
controller
WiMAX
GSM

GSM
Content Service
BS Edge gateway
Management
Server
Web Service
Service support
Radio network
node Edge Gateway
controller
BS Billing gateway
Internet
Internet
BS cluster
WiMAX
WiMAX
LTE
LTE

BS

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 2G/3G/4G Wireless over Wireless Network Cloud
PSTN
PSTN

Cloud of Wireless Access Network + Core Network Service

Network
SMS/MMS

BS cluster
Service on Edge
IMS
TD-SCDMA
WiMAX
GSM

GSM
Content Service
Edge gateway
Management
Server
Web Service
Service support
node Edge
Billing gateway
Internet
Internet
BS cluster
WiMAX
WiMAX
LTE
LTE

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Mobile Infrastructure Network Hierarchy

Radio Access Network Core Network

Challenges: The radio access network is a costly and continuous investment ($100B+).
With reducing ARPUs and need for broader nationwide coverage, there are more
initiatives for sharing infrastructure
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Various Forms of Infrastructure Sharing in Wireless Networks

Network Sharing (eg: rural) Base Station Sharing (leads to

cloud)

Owner #1 Owner #1
Retail Network BSC
SDR RRU

MSC BSC BTS

Owner #2 Owner #2
BSC Base Band Unit
Retail Network
BTS

Antenna Sharing Tower Sharing (very popular)

Owner #1 Owner #1
Network BSC BTS BSC BTS
Network

O
Owner #2 Owner #2
BSC BTS BSC BTS
Network Network

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Towers: Passive vs Active Infrastructure Sharing

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Passive Sharing and Tower Companies

Eg: Indus Towers (JV controls towers of Bharti, Vodafone, Idea) has 100K towers.
Tata Teleservices, Aircel have signed deals with BSNL for sharing 60K+ towers.

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Towards Active Sharing: Unbundling Base Stations: RRU + BBU

 Distributed base station

– RRU (Remote Radio Unit)
– BBU (Base Band Unit)

 Two key standards enable distributed base

station development
– CPRI Traditional Integrated Macro BS
– OBSAI

 Benefits of distributed base station

– Reduce cost of facilitate infrastructure
– Reduce power consumption RRU

– Easy of installation
– Flexible deployment model

BBU

Distributed BS: RRU + BBU

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Distributed base station deployment #1: under the tower

Scenario #1: Unbundle at the tower

MSC
RRU RRU
<100m
BSC 5-10Km
RRU-BBU Distance <100m

5-10Km
BBU
BBU

 70% - 80% power consumption is RRUs

 3 RRU: 100 – 150W/RRU
 1 BBU: 100W
 Requirement & Challenges to BBU
 light weight < 10Kg
 small size (1U – 2U)
 low power consumption (< 100W)

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Software Radio & Software Defined Radio: One way of BBU impln

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Multi-Technology Software Radio: 1 BBU Bladecenter vs 5 boxes

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Multi-Operator Base Station with Software Radio

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Active Infrastructure Sharing: Field Trial in India (IBM/partner)

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Unbundled SDR BS w/ Open Wireless Interfaces & IT Platforms

General purpose servers

Base band
processing server
RRU adaptor (PHY, MAC, C&M)

GE switch
PCIe/IB switch
E1/T1/STM-1
...
...
Base band
processing server
RRU adaptor (PHY, MAC, C&M)
Base band
processing
RRU GPS module accelerators

SWR Base Station

CPRI/
OBSAI/
Ir IO & GPS GE/E1/ To RNC/ASN-GW/
module T1/STM-1 AGW

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 Distributed base station #2: distributed RRU + centralized BBU pool

Scenario #2: central deployment  Benefits

– Fit for super urban, urban with high
density of traffic
– Highly scalable
RRU RRU – Improve utilization by resource sharing
BBU BBU 10KM – Reduce management cost
MSC BSC
BBU BBU  Requirements & Challenges to BBU
– High density
BBU Pool – Resource sharing with BBU pool
– Low power consumption

 Key barriers:
– Fiber distance (<10Km)
– Increasing IO data throughput >10Gbs
with LTE
– Fiber construction cost
 – Synchronization in long distance
Case in China:
network
 World largest TD-SCDMA BBU pool
 Max support 72 RRUs
 Power: 400W

A city like Bangalore or Delhi could be served from <10-15 pooled sites.
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 Wireless Network Cloud: Convergence of IT Platforms, SDR & RRH,
Cloud Computing Principles & Fiber-to-the-tower

Software Radio Technology/ IT & Cloud Computing

Hybrid IT Systems Techniques

GSM RF header

GSM RF header
Server for BS
GSM
WiMAX
WCDMA
GSM
Server for Access
GW
WCDMA RF header WCDMA
GSM Resource
Remote Radio Header Technology manager
LTE
WiMAX
Server for Access
Antenna + Remote WCDMA GW
Radio Header Timing Network
over IP/Eth
WCDMA RF header

WiMAX RF header LTE RF header

Fiber (> 10Km)

BaseStation Pool

End-to-End IP Infrastructure in 4G

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Wireless Network Cloud Potential: Distributed Interference Management.
Eg: Collaborative MIMO for Elastic Capacity Allocation

Joint processing
Multi-cell environment with
frequency reuse factor 1

Optical fiber Optical fiber

I

interference
I

I
I Optical fiber
I
I

 Multiple points collaborate to mitigate ICI

or align interference for cancellation.

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An e2e Demo has been setup in IBM CRL/IRL (WiMAX@2.4GHz)

Collaboration of IBM China and India Labs:

Multiple base-stations on common IT platform, USRP & e2e flows
Demo Application
VoIP Web Browsing
VoIP Stream WiMAX
BS

Web Browsing Edge

WiMAX
Gateway BS

WiMAX RRH RRH

BS (USRP) (USRP)
Internet

SIP Server MS
WiMAX BS /Gateway (laptop simulated )
(multi-core server)

I-vieW
Soft-phone
Web Server

Multi-core Utilization Analysis Tool Radio Signal Analysis Tool

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 BS SDR System Architecture
MAC: Software Components
Prism based platform

Signal processing Wireless MAC modules

Local Switch Fabric

& PHY-MAC adaptors
BS edge router
Local Switch Fabric
server
RRH Control &

(GbE switch)
(PCIe Switch)
RRH adaptor (PHY) (P7/x86/Cell)
RRH management
... ... BS edge router

RRH
MAC MAC MAC
RRH
RRH adaptor Signal processing instance instance instance
server
Control & Manage
(PHY) (P7/x86/Cell) Switch of BS
system Adapter Adapter Adapter

To other BS chasis
To ASN gateway or core
network
To internet directly

MAC and adapter Stacks

Downlink
Uplink
Msg.
Scheduling Key technical challenges being addressed (IRL+CRL)
Defragment & Msg. • How to map the wireless software radio (SWR)
unpacking Fragment & stack/workload to massive multicore and hybrid
packing architectures?
Packets • How to meet QoS and real-time requirements for the
Decryption Packets VoIP application, especially since the wireless software
Encryption stack (such as PHY and MAC layer) will be implemented
in software using a regular OS?
t ne me ga na M CA M

Msg.
Packet Extract
Concatenation

Slow path
Fast path data
UL Adapter message
DL Adapter processing
processing

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Laundry List of Challenges

 Difference from regular computational, storage cloud: “real-time computational cloud”

– Focus on very high performance, real-time synchronized behavior.
– Cooperative techniques require greater degree of rigor in performance management
– Wireless = Critical infrastructure. Availability / reliability equally important as real-time
performance support.

 Choice of underlying platforms: hybrid systems, commodity servers and mapping it to VMs
(eg: MAC VM may work well on system A, and PHY VM work well on system B).
– Need real-time virtual switches that can tie together such component VMs into a pipeline
(Network -> MAC -> PHY)
– Cooperative techniques require redesign of protocols / implementation

 Multi-tenancy, elastic provisioning of real-time resources, tracking performance / availability

risks (eg: 4-5 nines)
– Providing backup for virtual base-stations from multiple data center sites: “cloud” attribute.

 Helping the industry move from an integrated “box” model to a software + outsourced
services model.
– Hypothesis: ARPU pressures faced by providers will ultimately drive such a move.
Aggressive outsourcing happening in markets like India.

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Summary

 Software radio is an emerging technology.

 The long term potential of software radio involves:

– Unbundling base stations into hardware, software, RF components.
– Application of IT platforms, open wireless interfaces to SDR; opening up a open-
source community of developers
– Allowing flexibility for BS software to be virtualized, and consolidated into pools for
reduced CAPEX/OPEX, higher utilization and change business models
– Fiber to towers will allow pooling and application of the Cloud model.

 Wireless network cloud can provide new benefits.

– Elastic capacity allocation & higher utilization/lower costs
– Distributed Interference Management: Collaborative MIMO etc (5th Generation Wireless)
– Integration of edge-based services at the cloud site. Eg: caching, content delivery,
unified communications, enterprise app delivery, cloud-based application delivery etc

 Perfect storm of “cloud” challenges:

– Real-time, synchrony/performance-critical, ultra-high reliability requirements.

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Terminology

 RAN – Radio Access Network

 CN – Core Network
 BTS – Base Station = BBU + RRU
 BSC – Base Station Controller
 BBU – Base Band Unit
 RRU – Remote Radio Unit
 RNC – Radio Network Controller, BSC in 3G
 NodeB – BTS in 3G
 eNB – Base Station Node in LTE
 LTE – Long Term Evolution (E-UTRAN)
 AIPN – All IP Network
 NEP – Network Equipment Provider

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