1. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2006, ##### Design Issues for Wireless Networks Across Diverse and Fragmented Spectrum Collaborators: Bell Labs India: Supratim Deb, Kanthi Nagaraj Bell Labs USA: Piyush Gupta

2. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 2 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Mobile Data Explosion Will Result in Diverse & Fragmented Spectrum Examples: AT&T Spectrum in New York – 700MHz band, 800MHz, 1.7GHz and 2.1GHz Unlicensed Spectrum in US – DTV Whitespaces (500-700MHz), 2.4GHz and 5.1GHz

3. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 3 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Research Goal PHY + Sensing MAC + Spectrum Selection Routing + Flow Control Design a network stack that operates across 1) Fragmented and spatially varying spectrum with diverse propagation 2) Devices with different tunable center freq. and b/w range New Design Perspective Lot of research

4. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 4 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Designing MAC and above: Unique Challenges Devices can tune frequency and bandwidth Non-channelized system complex MAC No fixed interference graph Frequency dependent propagation Complicates spectrum allocation and MAC design No fixed communication graph Next-hop (hence, routing) depends on frequency Leakage power at a distance depends on frequency Adjacent channel interference (hence, guard band) varies with frequency Cross layer optimization is highly complex log f c Received Power at fixed distance, power (dB) slope = 20 Power Spectral Density All traditional network stack design issues require a fresh look.

5. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 5 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Interference Management Standard Approach: Measurement based interference map But, if the spectrum is diverse … Two devices may interfere only in certain frequency bands Design Principle: Generate different interference maps for different bands Ideally a single/small number of control channels Can use measurements over a single control channel P r (f 1 ) P r (f 2 ) 20 log (f 2 /f 1 ) Interference maps in a higher freq. band can be deduced from interference map in a lower band (and knowledge of ambient interference)

6. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2006, ##### Agile and Efficient MAC for Unlicensed Access in TV Whitespaces and ISM Bands

7. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 7 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Gist of FCC Mandate Usable Free Spectrum: Unused TV channels between 500-698 MHz for unlicensed portable access Varies from city to city Limit Interference to DTV receiver: Tx power: 16 dBm in adjacent band, 20 dBm elsewhere Out of Band Emission: Has to fall by 55 dB in the adjacent 6 MHz band Spectrum Mask

8. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 8 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Single Link Capacity With ACI Constraints Fundamental Question: Whats the optimal transmit power anyway? High power-> lower bandwidth Guard band required to prevent interference to the TV channel Low power -> reduced system capacity Observations: Optimal capacity is independent on center frequency For FCCs spectrum mask, the power cap is not too sub-optimal Design Implications: Choose fixed power (marginal loss in capacity) Ensure a minimum bandwidth (leakage depends on PSD) 20 dBm DTV Channel Freq 16 dBm DTV Channel Freq

9. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 9 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | MAC Design Considerations Fragmented spectrum + limitations on maximum tunable bandwidth of a radio implies Multi radio AP, single radio client (for cost considerations) Need to account for frequency dependent propagation Resilient to disruptions E.g. wireless microphones Evolution over WiFi Easy adoption path, quick time to market, can interoperate with ISM bands IEEE 802.11af standard already in progress

10. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 10 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Joint Spectrum Selection and Client Allocation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)(1,2,3,4,5,6,7) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)(1,2,3,4,5,6,7) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)(1,2,3,4,5,6,7) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)(1,2,3,4,5,6,7) Joint Spectrum Selection and Client Assignment is a non-trivial problem

11. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 11 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Capturing the Utility of a Band Important Observation: For most technologies, data rate/Hz depends on SNR as Data Rate / Hz = a × (SNR in dB) - b Client-1 Client-2 ASE = Data rate averaged over all clients / Hz = a × (SNR averaged over all clients in dB) – b SNR(f 1 ) SNR(f 2 ) 20 log (f 2 /f 1 ) ASE in f 1 can be generated for ASE in f 2 Design Implication: Two step ASE generation: Each AP generates ASE in control channel band. Use frequency dependence and ambient interference measurements to compute ASE in all bands.

12. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 12 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Proportional Fairness is Key for Whitespaces 6Mbps 2.4GHz 6Mbps 600MHz More likely that far away client will bring down performance of system Very simple design with minimal information overhead on top of 802.11 ensures proportional fairness

13. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 13 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Simulation Results Comparison scheme White space selection algorithm is optimal Number of clients assigned per band is proportional to number of clients 60-90% improvement in total throughput Proportionally fair Frequency agnostic schemes do not work well!

14. All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009 14 | Connecting the Next Billion 2010 | Making it Work in Practice Designed frequency translator with < 2 microsecond switching delay Dynamic range of 100- 900 MHz Integrates with a WiFi card on Sokeris box Extensive indoor trials done Waiting for experimental license for outdoor trials