Fiber Optic Networks for Distributed, Heterogeneous Fiber Optic Networks for Distributed, Heterogeneous Radio Architectures and Service Provisioning: Radio Architectures and Service Provisioning:

The case of the FUTON programmeThe case of the FUTON programme

G. HeliotisG. Heliotis, I. Chochliouros and G. Agapiou, I. Chochliouros and G. AgapiouHellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) S.A.Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) S.A.

Dept. Of Network Strategy and ArchitectureDept. Of Network Strategy and Architecture

OutlineOutline

Quick facts about the project

Introduction & motivation

Basic architecture

Objectives

Benefits

Summary - conclusions

FUTON in a Nutshell…

FUTON is a collaborative EU funded project:

30 months, 16 partners, started: 03/08

Leader: Nokia Siemens Networks

Aim: Develop a transparent fiber infrastructure that will act as an enabler of new wireless architectures

What will this infrastructure offer?

Possibility to perform joint processing at a central location

Enhanced cross-layer algorithms

Enhanced cross-system algorithms

FUTON will cover:

Concept definition and network design

Implementation and validation of basic blocks

Study of business impact and deployment

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FUTON consortium balanced between academic/ research institutes, manufacturers and operators

+ VIVO (Brazil)+ NICT (Japan)

Introduction

Europe’s future communications networks promise to usher in a new world

of business and lifestyle-enabling capabilities

Some key aspects that will characterize these networks are:

Convergence/interoperability of heterogeneous mobile and fixed broadband network technologies, enabling ubiquitous access to broadband mobile services.

Optimised traffic routing and processing between core and edge networks, that will enable ultra high speed end-to-end connectivity

High scalability, allowing a great increase in the number of connected devices and enabling the emergence of novel application opportunities

Flexible, optimised control and management procedures that will enable seamless service composition and operation across multiple telecommunication operators and business domains

Support of a wide diversity of complex service attributes and requirements, with intelligent distribution services across multiple access technologies

Service Trends and Requirements

Future services will predominantly be offered on an “on-demand” basis and Future services will predominantly be offered on an “on-demand” basis and will be highly demanding in terms of bandwidth.will be highly demanding in terms of bandwidth. Will, therefore, require high levels of capacity, configurability and resiliency Will, therefore, require high levels of capacity, configurability and resiliency from the underlying communications infrastructure. from the underlying communications infrastructure.

As such, European telecommunications operators should aim to develop new As such, European telecommunications operators should aim to develop new network infrastructures that will:network infrastructures that will: - overcome the long-term limitations of current implementations - will be driven by the need for generalised mobility, high bandwidth, scalability, security and support of a multiplicity of multimedia services

Wireless or converged fixed/wireless networks should: Wireless or converged fixed/wireless networks should: Offer high capacities to all potential user categories and support wide variety of either nomadic and being “on-the-move” interoperable devices and services, a variety of content formats and a multiplicity of delivery modes Guarantee robustness, resilience, trust and security in service platforms that are much larger in complexity and scale than currently.

Scope of the FUTON programme

●● Currently,Currently, two major trends in wireless communications arewo major trends in wireless communications are: : - development of a new broadband component - integration of the variety of heterogeneous wireless technologies

● ● FUTON takes into account these two trends and aims to address the FUTON takes into account these two trends and aims to address the growing demand for wireless servicesgrowing demand for wireless services

● FUTON aims to develop a system for wireless service provisioning FUTON aims to develop a system for wireless service provisioning with:with: - True Broadband access- True Broadband access - Increased system capacity - Increased system capacity

Conventional cellular architecture

Main elements of current architecture: - GSM Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) or UMTS Node Bs connect users to the network and perform signal processing tasks- These are in turn connected to a Base Station Controller (BSC) through microwave links or cable. - The BSC provides the “intelligence” behind the BTSs and controls a large number of them. It handles radio channel allocations, controls handovers etc and acts as a traffic concentrator towards the core network.

* Space multiplexing by treating radio signal from other cells as unknown interference

What would be an obvious solution to increase the system capacity? Cellular planning → Reduce cell size Do not treat signals from the different cells as unknown interference

Joint Processing (detection coding, resource

managing)

RSSBTSRAU

BTSRAU

BTSRAU

Radio signals transported transparently

Allows soft combination / processing at the Central Unit (CU) Signals from different cells not treated as interference

Service dataRNC

Reduced processing

Central Unit

What about the link capacity? Have mobile devices communicating simultaneously with several antennas (similar

to MIMO concepts) Conceptually, this allows the antennas to be treated as physically distributed

antennas of one composite base station.

High Co-operation is needed.

The key to achieve high cooperation is to have the radio signals transparently transmitted/received to/from a central unit where all the signal processing is performed

FUTON’s proposed solution

The network capacity (users/Km2) problem and the link capacity problem point to the same solution:

Perform a joint processing of spatially separated radio signals

Build an infrastructure that collects / distributes the radio signals from the different antennas

The technology to build that: optical fiber Huge bandwidth Low losses

Radio-over-fiber (RoF) again?

Generalized RoF network for application in cellular networks is a resurgent idea

but up to now not has not taken place

RoF has always been thought of as a remoting or extension component Optical components still expensive to provide a clear balance towards the use of

generalized remote antenna units in 2-3G

Trends call for a joint processing of distributed radio signals

what is needed is much more than remoting

● Shift the vision of RoF as a remoting component to one of an enabling infrastructure for joint processing at a central location or distributed processing of the radio signals

THIS IS THE OBJECTIVE OF FUTON

FUTON Architecture FUTON: Hybrid optical/radio infrastructure with distributed RAU units and joint central

processing

FUTON architecture for various single serving areas connected to same central unit

Geographical area to be covered is divided in serving areas (or supercells), where multifrequency RAUs are deployed and are linked to a central unit through optical fiber connections that transport the radio signals transparently Different systems can coexist and be connected to the same central unit

FUTON: Summary of Objectives Technical level

Deployment/ business level Evaluate the implications on the current wireless architecture models of the FUTON concept,

determine cost models for upgradeability / replacement and provide roadmaps for evolution.

Objective1 : Demonstrate the feasibility of

broadband systems using distributed antennas

Objective2 : Develop and demonstrate efficient

cross-system algorithms to meet the ABCS concept

Key enabling tool: transparent infrastructure to transport radio signals to allow processing at central points of distributed sources

Objective3 : Develop a flexible, reconfigurable and upgradeable RoF

infrastructure

Main Benefits I

FUTON’s architecture is inherently flexible and easily upgradeable, and provides a promising framework for the efficient integration for fixed and wireless technologies.

It can facilitate the design of efficient cross-system algorithms / protocols, and enhance interoperability between heterogeneous systems

It has the ability to achieve the very high bit rates sought for the broadband component of future wireless systems, and an increase in the overall system capacity

on a technical level

Overall, for network operators, it will provide a scheme with high reusability, easy upgradeability (in order to accommodate new services and cope with the increasing bandwidth demands), flexibility to provide ease of reconfiguration, and convergence

Main Benefits II

on a business level

Provisioning of new broadband wireless services with several use-cases

Owner of the RoF can be third party

→ infrastructure need not be owned by a single operator that provides every service, but in fact, an operator can rent its usage to new wireless service providers

This will allow the operator to make extra revenues from its infrastructure, and facilitate easy entrance of new service providers, fostering innovation for the benefit of end-users

Overall, the programme is expected to reinforce European leadership in both fixed and wireless networks, developing stronger synergies between various telecommunications stakeholders and contributing to the emergence of new business models

New European industrial and service opportunities may arise as a consequence, especially in the rapidly advancing sector of mobile Internet access

Summary

FUTON is a very recent, ambitious European research programme, that aims to develop a new hybrid optical/radio infrastructure enabling high bit rates and enhanced system capacity

Proposes the development of a fiber-based infrastructure transparently connecting distributed antenna units to a central unit where joint data processing can be performed.

The FUTON approach departs significantly from conventional RoF (Fiber infrastructure not only for extension or remoting, but enabler for new wireless architectures and techniques)

Overall, FUTON aims at providing the long sought objective of broadband to the user but with mobility added

supplement

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►►LeaderLeader:: Nokia Siemens NetworksNokia Siemens Networks (Portugal(Portugal))

►►PartnersPartners:: - - ΟΤΕΟΤΕ ((GreeceGreece)) - - Instituto de TelecomunicaçõesInstituto de Telecomunicações (Portugal(Portugal)) - - Portugal TelecomPortugal Telecom (Portugal(Portugal)) - - MotorolaMotorola (France(France)) - - Alcatel-ThalesAlcatel-Thales (France(France)) - - University of KentUniversity of Kent ((UKUK)) - - Πανεπιστήμιο ΠάτραςΠανεπιστήμιο Πάτρας ((GreeceGreece)) - - VIVOVIVO (Brazil(Brazil) ) - - SigintSigint ((CyprusCyprus)) - - AcordeAcorde (Spain(Spain)) - - Nippon Institute of ICTNippon Institute of ICT (Japan(Japan)) - - JayteckJayteck (Poland(Poland)) -- Tech. University of DresdenTech. University of Dresden (Germany(Germany)) - - VTTVTT (Finland(Finland)) - - University of AalborgUniversity of Aalborg ((DenmarkDenmark))

FUTON: ConsortiumFUTON: Consortium

MIMO

Separate streams at the antennas multiplexing gain (R=min[Mt, Mr])• But achieved only if the channel is rich scattered• But in mobile application, outdoor channel does not have too many major

scatterers, resulting in strongly correlated channel

capacity scaling not achieved• Furthermore when more than one pair of MIMO users exist, interference to

each other still exists, implying the requirement of joint processing of multiple pair of MIMO links

Solution: Build a MIMO system with far apart antennas

Transmitter Precoding

Receiver Processing

The components of the DWS I

MT: Mobile TerminalRAU: Remote Antenna Unit

Unit that interfaces with the mobile terminal on one side and OTI on the other side

Gets / sends RF signals and transceives them to / from opticalOTI: Optical Transmission Infrastructure

Optical network connecting RAU ports to CUCU: Central Unit

Physical location where the signals to / from the RAU’s covering a given area are processed

MT RAU OTI CU

The Components of the DWS II

More Detailed view

U W

MT OTI

V

CSC_CU JPU

CU

RAU_W CSC_RAU

RAU

U1 U2Optical infrastructure domain

Wireless Domain

Interfacing -conversion

• RAU_W (RAU Wireless) performs the transmitting / receiving functions that are independent from the OTI.

• CSC_RAU (Conversion Separation Combination –RAU). Performs the signal conversions between the optical and electrical.

• CSC_CU (Conversion Separation Combination –CU).

• JPU (Joint Processing Unit). Unit where the joint processing of the RF signals for a set of RAU’s is performed.

Scenarios for Distributed Wireless Systems I

Evolutionary path The evolution of a legacy system (e.g. LTE),

eventually with larger bandwidth and aiming at higher peak bit rates

The base stations are stripped versions of a full base station (only RF operation; s_BS)

• Can be sectorized and/or have multiple antennas

The areas associated with each RAU are grouped to form a cell with distributed antennas

The signals from the RAU’s are transported transparently to / from the CU

• From an architecture point of view identical to classical cellular network

but with a distributed base station

- Could allow some overlapping to facilitate handovers

CellSuper Cell

CSC_CU

JPU JPU…

CU

RAU

Uj

U2

Serving Area

Scenarios for Distributed Wireless Systems II

Evolutionary scenario

Central Unit 1

Node B Node B

CN

ServingRNC

Controller

DriftRNC

Controller

Node B Node B Node B Node B

ServingRNC

Controller

Central Unit 2

Node B Node B

DriftRNC

Controller

CN

UMTS legacy Evolution to DWSRNC Physical location of

CU

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Scenarios for Distributed Wireless Systems III

Advanced Scenario

• Rationale• In future wireless networks one should

have and accommodate- Ability to reconfigure on the fly to meet

dynamic patterns- Need to provide simple ways to upgrade /

reconfigure the network without need to redo a new planning

• Implications in terms of the FUTON concept

- RAU’s very simple- The “planning” should be a dynamic allocation of

resources to be performed real-time at the CU

• Area Covered by a Central Unit: Serving Area• The serving area can be quite large (e.g. equivalent to the area served by a RNC)

• Joint processing area: set of RAU’s which are jointly processed• Overlapping may exist to facilitate handovers

Serving area i Serving area i+1

Joint processing area

CSC_CU

JPU JPU…

CU iUj

U2

The optical transmission infrastructure I

The issue - transport of analog radio waveforms or digitized radio over the fiber?

Key design aspects for the optical infrastrucuture Should be easy to support new wireless systems Should e easy to add new RAU’s, without need for a complete

replanning

Flexibility, reconfigurability

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Key aspects

Digital Transport

Specific design for each radio system

Synchronization issues Offers noise immunity and

protection against component impairments

Very high bandwidth required

Analog Transport

With combination of subcarrier multiplexing and WDM

high flexibility, transparency

Drawbacks Dynamic range of optical links

Furthermore if signal are in digital format can be transported like analog waveforms

provide easy integration of existing digital interfaces (CPRI, OBSAI)

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The optical transmission infrastructure II

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The optical transmission infrastructure III

Electric

al subcarri

ers

1

f1

f2

f3

...

2 3 4

Optical wavelenghths

Digitized radio signals

RF signal

5

Digital optical signal for the fixed network

Reference RF signal

• Resources of the optical infrastructure

• Optical wavelengths

• Electrical

subcarriers

The optical transport infrastructure IV

Optical wavelength address the RAU’s

Electrical subcarriers, separate different systems / sectors / antennas at each RAU

Up and down converters

transport of signals in the range less than 10GHz where optical components with low cost and good linearity characteristics can be developed

CU

E/O O/E

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