OBAN, Exploiting the Local Loop for Public Wireless Broadband The OBAN project is funded by the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme, project partners and the Swiss Bundesamt für Bildung und Wissenschaft The information in this document is provided as is and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user thereof uses the information at its sole risk and liability J. Charles Francis Swisscom Innovations

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Overview Public WLAN OBAN Approach OBAN Service Examples Opening WLAN Opportunity for Service Providers Deploy Now or Later?

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Today, there are many initiatives & approaches for offering public WLAN Hotspots Airports, hotels etc. Municipal networks Use mesh technology Access points located on street furniture WiFi sharing initiatives Grassroots Third party OBAN (operator focus)

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Some approaches have drawbacks Hotspots –Limited availability (hotels, airports etc.) –Expensive Municipal networks –Poor indoor bandwidth –Most WLAN usage is indoors!

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva The OBAN concept is to share residential broadband with the public using WiFi

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva There are many potential OBAN base-stations High broadband penetration Growing WLAN usage at home Conveniently located where people live OBAN service possible anywhere there are houses

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Several OBAN-enablers have evolved Standards –802.11e available (QoS) –WiFi Pre-n product certification announced (range extension) New WLAN products –Phones –Cameras –MP3 players –Video recorders

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Many potential services VPN Connectivity Video Uploads Photo Uploads VoIP Calls Music Downloads

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva High-speed connection to the work place

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Holiday photos or videos shared and secured

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Music download

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Cheap phone and video calls

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva The resident has two main reasons to open bandwidth to the public Community membership –Get access to resources of others in return for offering own Financial reward –Service provider subsidy of access line or WLAN equipment –A share of revenue from public users Preconditions –No impact on privacy & security –No impact on residential QoS –No legal implications

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva ISPs currently waste most local-loop value Local-loop capacity waste –Dedicated to one family –Not used most of the time –Bitrate is limited by Internet bottlenecks towards the server –Bitrate is limited by subscription ADSL Example (5 mbs capable copper) –2 Giga Bytes download per month => less than 0.2 % downlink used –99.8% for exploitation

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva Cellular operators can benefit Extend capacity at lower cost Avoid public concerns about unsightly masts Avoid costs of site acquisition cabling, maintenance Use cheap base-station equipment (from the Internet world) Off-load high-bandwidth traffic, low margin traffic Enter new residential business

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva There are good reasons to deploy OBAN now Leverages existing investments (local loop, WLAN) Excellent indoor coverage New WiFi products appear First ventures on the market (Fon)

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva But, there are also reasons to wait Not well understood technology Small cell size and delay in pre-N standard for range extension Unlicensed spectrum remains an issue for QoS due to inference Economics of installing external antennas versus mounting on street furniture unclear New WLAN terminal types appear, but usage habits not yet established (e.g. WLAN VoIP phones) Cheap WLAN VoIP will cannibalise cellular

Dec. 11–14, 2006BroadBand Europe, Geneva