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White Spaces EN StraWhitePaper
White Spaces EN StraWhitePaper
W H I T E
P A P E R
Table of contents
1 2 2 3 3 4 4 7 7 8 8 Changing the Mobile Internet White spaces will change the mobile market The Value of White Spaces White spaces are in the most valuable radio spectrum range Establishing a full white spaces ecosystem Engineering seamless, national white spaces coverage White spaces networks as a cloud service Conclusion Acronyms References Authors
1 2 3 4 5
Television, Internet and Mobile Usage in the U.S.; Three Screen Report: Volume 8, 1st Quarter 2010, Nielsen, June 2010. Anywhere Consumer: 2009 U.S. Survey Suite, Wave 1-12, Yankee Group, 2009. Global Mobile Market Outlook: 2010-15, Ovum, July 2010. Surviving the Mobile Data Revenue Roller Coaster, Yankee Group, 2010. Alcatel-Lucent analysis of mobile data market trends.
White spaces will change the mobile market To support the continuing growth of data traffic on mobile networks, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made unused wireless TV spectrum (commonly referred to as white spaces) available for open, free and unlicensed use. As a result of this regulatory change, it is expected that: Anyone can become a wireless Internet provider serving both commercial and retail users, and traditional operators will feel increased competitive pressures from new providers Users can expect inexpensive or free Wi-Fi-like services on par with traditional 3G/4G operator services Suppliers will see new customers coming from sources other than traditional operator markets The white spaces spectrum is large and in the same prime range (50MHz-698MHz) as the 700 MHz spectrum that was auctioned to operators by the FCC for $20 Billion in March 2008. Google views white spaces as Wi-Fi on steroids and, although it is difficult to attribute value to regulatory mandates, Microsoft estimates that the market is worth $100 Billion in equipment and applications revenues. As a result of the confluence of market trends, recent regulatory events and the strong demand for new wireless services, the white spaces wireless equipment market should see, in the not-too-distant future, increased volumes, pricing pressures, and rapid technological obsolescence similar to the Wi-Fi market. However, unlike the Wi-Fi market, the white spaces market will most likely expand the need for supplier expertise and services for new equipment support, distribution methodology, and customer billing and payment systems.
White spaces are in the most valuable radio spectrum range The free, unlicensed white spaces spectrum ranges from 50MHz-698MHz and has extremely good propagation characteristics. White space radios will reach much farther than current 3G/4G and Wi-Fi radios in the higher gigahertz bands and make this spectrum attractive for providing high bandwidth coverage at low costs. At the moment, committees of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) are creating standard extensions for Wi-Fi mobile white spaces use, and fixed extensions, similar to WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE). The timing for white spaces availability could not be better. By 2014 most analysts predict that 75 percent or more of all mobile phones sold in the U.S. will be smartphones. Should this trend materialize, the smartphone market share will reach 55 percent from approximately 30 percent today. In addition, the average smartphone today uses 50 times the bandwidth than normal devices, making a wireless data tsunami nearly inevitable. This is a global trend, with mobile data traffic expected to grow at 100 percent annually. New technologies with higher spectral efficiency, such as LTE, and additional licensed spectrum will only reduce the pain but cannot solve the problem. On the other hand an Alcatel-Lucent study reveals that 60-120MHz of DTV white spaces spectrum is available in several leading markets, and offers a plethora of unused bandwidth for mobile Internet use. Establishing a full white spaces ecosystem Now that the FCC has finally cleared the path for the use of white spaces, Google is lobbying to become the database administrator, and major players have started to develop products. The broad scope of strategic interests can be divided along three dimensions: Broadband services Devices, software, and platform for access Application specific services that propose to make use of the spectrum Two major alliances, Cognea and Microsoft-Dell-Google, have already been formed to establish standards and a full white spaces ecosystem. Therefore, it seems highly likely that a rich, full ecosystem of service providers and product vendors could grow at least as quickly as it did for Wi-Fi. Alcatel-Lucent is committed to work with all organizations to foster a rich and complete ecosystem, and has developed key intellectual property that will allow seamless white spaces use and operation.
AP/BS Virtualization
Network management
Performance management Virtualization engine Resource planning QoS specs Enforcing SLA
Efcient operation
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Energy saving strategies SLA negotiation Handoff engine Inter and intra technology Authentication of new clients Intelligent caching
Inventory
CDN
Access points
To support this architecture, white spaces access points are optimally deployed in a specific geographic area. Depending on the area, the deployment could comprise 802.11af access points or 802.22 base stations. Each access point would be connected via a backhaul to the white spaces database. In addition, a virtualization engine would be required at each access point to ensure that Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for different services operate simultaneously.
Cloud database
The white spaces database maintains a variety of information, such as: Location of each access point Traffic load on each access point Spectrum characteristics, such as ambient interference at each access point Real-time client information
This enables the virtualization engine in the cloud to appropriately negotiate SLAs with different service providers and allocate the correct amount of resources to different access points so that SLAs are met. In addition, there is an interface to an operators network through which the operator sends requests for data off-load. To enable efficient off-load, the operator specifies the total capacity required at a specific point in time.
Content distribution network (CDN)
The content distribution network (CDN) in the white spaces cloud enhances the quality of service (QoS) that can be provided. The CDN makes intelligent decisions on which content to cache and where based on the quality of spectrum at various access points, demand at each access point and types of devices accessing the network.
SLA negotiation engine
Both the white spaces database and the CDN are core infrastructure that supports the entire white spaces cloud. Additional elements of the architecture reside in the cloud. When an operator requests off-load capacity, an SLA negotiation engine queries the white spaces cloud database engine. Based on current network conditions, the SLA negotiation engine negotiates with the operator to arrive at the demand that can be off-loaded and the price at which this capacity is offered. This information is then fed to the network virtualization engine.
Network virtualization engine
When the SLA negotiation engine informs the network virtualization engine of the SLA agreement with an operator, the network virtualization engine first invokes the resource allocation engine to re-allocate resources so that SLAs to all existing clients and the new client are met.
Authentication engine
When a client is off-loaded from the operators network to the white spaces cloud, the client is first authenticated via the interface to the operator.
Handover engine
There are two types of handovers possible. First, is the inter-network handover. This occurs when a client switches from its operators network to the white spaces cloud and vice versa. The second type of handover is the intra-network handover, which occurs from one white spaces access point to another as the client moves around. The handover engine ensures that both these types of handovers occur seamlessly and with no perceived loss in quality to the client.
Network management
The network management engine ensures that operating expenses, such as energy expenditures, are minimized by intelligent switching between different pieces of the spectrum and by turning access points off and on based on demand. Furthermore, dynamic predictive resource allocation based on archival data ensures that SLAs of expected future demand are not violated due to unexpected current demand. Finally, the model employs automated fault management and reliability tools to ensure that faults in the network are detected early and the system is robust to node failures.
Conclusion
As a result of the confluence of market trends, recent regulatory events and the strong demand for new wireless services, the white spaces wireless equipment market should see increased volumes, pricing pressures, and rapid technological obsolescence similar to the Wi-Fi market. However, unlike the Wi-Fi market, the white spaces market will most likely expand the need for supplier expertise and services for new equipment support, distribution methodology, and customer billing and payment systems. Alcatel-Lucent is uniquely positioned to lead this nascent market by delivering services, products and unique business models to address the mobile data traffic explosion with white spaces solutions. Our global services organization consults to build the right model for each operators business, integrates, develops and manages white spaces solutions. With the Alcatel-Lucent cloud services approach, operators will be able to offload mobile traffic in an intelligent and seamless fashion, keeping customers satisfied and increasing wireless data throughput, while decreasing capital and operational expenditures. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent Services has created unique business arrangements globally (value-based pricing, and revenue sharing agreements) to manage high growth networks where cost containment and network reliability play the predominant role in determining operator financial profitability. Our white spaces end-to-end offerings employ all of the design, algorithm, software, hardware, and radio frequency expertise required to develop white spaces devices. And our world renowned Bell Labs research on network stack design for DTV white spaces provides us with a head start over any competition. In short, Alcatel-Lucent is ready with innovative white spaces prototypes where the value of white spaces to an operators business can clearly be demonstrated today.
Acronyms
ARPU CAGR CDN EIRP FCC IEEE LTE NFC SLA WAN QoS Average revenue per user Compound Annual Growth Rate content distribution network Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power Federal Communications Commission Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Long Term Evolution Near Field Communications Service Level Agreement wide area network quality of service
References
1. Measuring the TV White Space Available for Unlicensed Wireless Broadband, New America Foundation and Free Press. Available at http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/measuring_tv_white_space_available_for_unlicensed_wireless_broadband, 2006 2. 08-260, FCC. Second Rep. and Order and Memorandum Opinion and Order. 2008. 3. IEEE 802.11af standard: http://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/tgaf_update.htm 4. IEEE 802.22 standard: www.ieee802.org/22 5. FCC Second Memorandum Opinion and Order.: http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_ Business/2010/db0923/FCC-10-174A1.pdf
Authors
Kenneth E. DePaul Director of Innovations Services Kenneth E. DePaul is Director of Innovations Services and a member of the Services Global Strategy Organization at Alcatel-Lucent. He has over 30 years of experience in the industry in communications, software engineering, and services, and has filed patents in communications products and services. Kenneth holds an undergraduate degree in 1971 from Dartmouth College and a graduate degree in 1975from the University of Massachusetts. Markus Berg Senior Manager Business Modeling Markus Berg is a Senior Manager for Business Modeling in the Network Planning, Performance and Economic Analysis team at Bell Labs. He has extensive experience in financial and risk modeling and a technical focus on mobile technologies. He holds a Master degree in Telecommunications from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Supratim Deb Researcher Supratim Deb is a Researcher with Bell Labs India. Before joining Bell Labs in 2005, he was a Post-Doctoral researcher at MIT, Cambridge, USA. Supratim has more than 30 research papers in leading conferences and journals, and holds several patents in the area of telecommunication and networking. He obtained his PhD in Telecommunications from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, USA. Vikram Srinivasan Technical Manager Vikram Srinivasan has been with Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in India since 2007. His research interests are broadly in the area of wireless networks. Before joining Bell Labs, he was an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore from 2003-2007. He has published over 40 research papers and filed several patents. Vikram received his PhD in 2003 from the University of California at San Diego and a ME from the Indian Institute of Science.
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