Multi-carrier adaptive bandwidth control

maximizes capacity usage

By Eirik Nesse, Ceragon, 08.07.12 0
Share Post
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Demand for capacity constantly accelerates. Mobile telephone subscribers insist on
more data-rich services, private network operators enhance the information flow of
their networks, public safety agencies continue to improve their services to citizens.
There is no end in sight to the ever-increasing requirement for capacity. This unabated
demand for network capacity necessitates more efficient use of essential wireless links
and is fueling the rush to technologies that make more efficient use of this valuable
resource. One method is to switch from time-division multiplexing (TDM) to more
effective packet-based technology. Multi-carrier adaptive bandwidth control (ABC)
represents the next step in the evolution, boosting the efficiency, cost effectiveness, and
resilience of wireless links while simultaneously helping operators achieve better quality
of service.

Figure 1: Demand for mobile data accelerates.

Circuit switching and multiplexing

In circuit-switching technologies, a circuit is set up at the beginning of a connection and
is maintained for its duration. Network resources at the sending and receiving end are
reserved and dedicated; the source, information payload, capacity, path and destination
are pre-determined. Over the circuit, the information that the sending and receiving
stations will transmit is always at the pre-determined rate with no capability for change
providing no flexibility in the face of fluctuating transmission conditions.

Circuit switching makes sense for traditional voice traffic where people make a
connection, talk back and forth, and then close the connection when they are finished.
For the purpose of transmitting data traffic, however, this is not an efficient method
because the approach ties up network resources even when there is nothing to transmit;
people stay online with the Internet, for example, even though they may not be
accessing data.

Multiplexing increases the efficiency of circuit switching. In multiplexing, multiple

communication streams are combined into one physical connection. Having a single
circuit carry more than one stream more efficient use of network resources—if one
stream is not transmitting at a given moment, perhaps other ones are.

TDM is the most widely used method of multiplexing for the transmission of digital
signals in circuit-based networks. It is extensively deployed in legacy short- and long-
haul wireless links.

In TDM, a transmission burst is divided into some pre-determined number of slots

whereby each stream is allowed to insert its information into the appropriate slot. For
example, consider two transmission streams—file downloads and voice conversations.
To multiplex them over a single physical transmission circuit, we first create two fixed-
length slots in each burst. Stream 1’s information (file download) will be placed into the
first slot and Stream 2’s information (digitized voice) will be placed into the second slot.
The ensuing transmission burst will send the information of both slots over the same
circuit. At the receiving end, the information in the first slot will be separated from the
information in the second slot and each will be sent onto the proper recipient.

Without multiplexing, two circuits would have to be dedicated for these two streams. If a
stream had nothing to send in a given burst, the bandwidth of that circuit would be idle.
With multiplexing, we can send both streams over the same circuit. If one of the streams
has nothing to send while the other does, one of the slots would be wasted, but we would
still be making use of the circuit to transmit the information of the other stream. This is
highly simplified, of course. In actual multiplexing transmission schemes, eight or more
streams can share slots so that bursts seldom go completely wasted.

Although multiplexing improves the overall efficiency, circuit-switching still suffers

from inefficiency when one or more streams have nothing to include in their timeslots
which remain empty for many transmission bursts (see figure 2). Overall, the circuit is
being used, but timeslots are frequently wasted. If this happens often, the operator is
not making good use of this critical resource.
 Click image to enlarge

Figure 2: TDM multiplexing example with three transmission streams over

one circuit.
Packet-switching technology remedies TDM’s empty-timeslot inefficiency
problem and adds capacity. With packet-switching, large amounts of
information from multiple sources can be converted into smaller packets to be
placed onto the same transmission stream. In contrast to TDM, packet-
switching does not require fixed timeslots so any number of connections can
use the same channel in any order at any time.

Click image to enlarge

Figure 3: Packet-switching carries multiple transmission streams

over a single circuit to maximize efficiency and eliminate wasted
slots.

We can think of packet-switching as a kind of conveyor belt in a warehouse.

Just as physical products can be selected from the warehouse and placed on a
conveyor belt every time a customer makes an order (e.g., “Send this file,” “I
want to receive my emails,” etc.), any data packet that is ready can be placed in
the microwave transmission link and transmitted in the next burst. Just as
each physical product carries order information so that it can be placed in the
shopping cart of the correct customer, each data packet contains information
such as the destination address, and sequence number so that it can be mixed
with any other packet, transmitted in the next available burst, and then re-
constructed at the receiving end and sent to the proper recipient (see figure 3).
Packets can enter the stream in any order; as long as a sender has something
to send, the information payload can be packetized and sent out as soon as
there is available bandwidth to carry it—a place on the conveyor belt. Packets
from different end-to-end connections can all share the same wireless link,
making the most effective use of the bandwidth.

Resilient connections
Wireless networks can deteriorate or fail. Weather conditions can interfere
with, or even terminate, communications for periods of time. In order to
provide safeguards against failure, network operators employ backup
schemes, for example dividing the capacity of a physical wireless link into two
separate carriers where one carrier is on stand-by to back up the other
automatically in case of failure. In this way, the network operator can keep the
link operational virtually all of the time, but at the cost of 50% of the total
capacity. Noticing that carriers rarely fail, operators can adopt more efficient
backup schemes such as 7+1, in which the capacity of the wireless link is
divided into eight carriers. Seven of the carriers are multiplexed circuits used
to carry traffic, while the remaining carrier acts as a backup in case of failure
of any one of the others. In this way, only one-eighth of the total capacity of
the wireless link is sacrificed to backup. If two carriers fail simultaneously,
however, there will be no backup available for one of them.

By their nature, packet-switched links are more resilient than circuit-switched

links. For example, in a TDM network, if weather impacts a carrier even to a
small degree, the carrier will fail completely and will have to rely on an
available backup carrier to continue. In the more resilient packet-switched
network, however, inclement weather might reduce the capacity of a carrier,
but the transmission can step down automatically to a slower speed, boosting
signal strength in order to maintain transmission leaving high-priority traffic
unaffected.

Weather conditions are not the only differentiator between TDM and packet-
based links. In TDM, all transmissions follow in sequence—a large file is sent
in order. Packet technology has a better way: The file is broken up into packets
in which each packet can follow a different network path and even arrive out
of order. Equipment on the receiving end contains logic for re-constituting the
packets in proper order to re-create the file as it was originally sent. In a case
in which many carriers transmit over one physical wireless link, failure of one
carrier does not stop packet transmission that can proceed on any of the other
available carriers. In fact, packet technology is so flexible that, just like in our
warehouse example, packets from different transmission streams can be
placed on any available carrier in any order, maximizing the utilization of the
capacity of the wireless link at any given moment.
As more and more wireless links are upgraded from TDM to packet
technology, attention is focusing on how to further boost the capacity of
packet-switched links. Moreover, network operators are keen on guaranteeing
the quality of services they provide to their users and subscribers. Multi-
carrier ABC technology further refines packet switching, providing operators
with a way to utilize nearly 100% of available capacity.

Multi-carrier ABC technology optimizes the way traffic is distributed between

multiple carriers over a single wireless link. In ABC, packets are further
decomposed into bytes and each byte can be placed on any of the available
carriers for transmission over the wireless link. At the receiving end of the
link, ABC-aware equipment receives the bytes and re-constitutes the original
packets.

ABC technology is always aware of the speed and congestion of each carrier at
all times and distributes the bytes in the most optimal way for transmission
given the current conditions of each carrier, for example congestion, current
throughput rate, etc.

Click image to enlarge

Figure 4: Multi-carrier ABC traffic distribution using two carriers

over a single wireless link.

With ABC, all carriers can be used for transmission at all times; there is no
need for a dedicated backup carrier. If a carrier fails, it is simply bypassed and
bytes are placed on the remaining carriers in the most optimal way given
current conditions. If a failed carrier comes back into operation, it is
immediately re-included in the ABC byte-distribution optimization scheme. If
a carrier deteriorates due to weather conditions, ABC adjusts by sending fewer
bytes over that carrier according to the degree of deterioration. With multi-
carrier ABC, the wireless link’s capacity is optimized at all times and in all
situations.

ABC for quality of service

In addition to maximizing capacity, multi-carrier ABC provides another
significant benefit—it allows operators to increase quality-of-service levels.
Let’s look at a situation in which there are two carriers over one physical
wireless link and where the operator supports two types of applications, each
with a different class of service: streaming video (high) and email (low). ABC
can give priority to the streaming video service by placing its bytes more
frequently onto both carriers than the e-mail service. If there is deterioration
in one of the carriers, ABC immediately adjusts accordingly, still prioritizing
the video bytes over the e-mail bytes. If there is improvement in the
transmission rate of one of the carriers, ABC immediately adjusts to that
situation. In all cases, the transmission of the higher class-of-service
streaming video is prioritized over EL-mail. In all cases, the capacity of the
entire wireless link is maximized even as the traffic is allocated by priority.

Multi-carrier ABC makes the most efficient use of the total capacity of a
wireless link taking into account the operator’s quality of service
goals. Operators who deploy ABC over wireless links enjoy a higher level of
network resiliency. They maximize the use of precious network resources by
maximizing capacity while providing the best available service to their users.

About the author

Eirik Nesse is VP Product Strategy at Ceragon. He is responsible

for the global strategy for Ceragon’s microwave product portfolio and
associated products. Formerly, he was the Chief Technical Architect at Nera
Networks where he worked in various positions and has more than 27 years of
industry experience. Mr. Nesse holds a BSc degree in Electronic Engineering
from University of Stavanger. Mr Nesse resides in Bergen, Norway.