A New Infrastructure for the IoX

August 4, 2016

From the Tech Corner

A Primer on How Small Cells Will Factor Big in the IoX

By Ernest Worthman

Executive Editor
AGL Small Cell Magazine

Worthman

The IoX is going to change, radically, a number of paradigms. Top among them exactly how we are going to route those Yottabytes of data that will flow between objects of the Internet of Anything/Everything (IoX). Especially since 70 percent of that data will not be on the traditional wireless or wired pipeline.

To date, lots of attention has been paid to bringing intelligent objects on line to connect everything to everything else. However, little attention has been paid to deploying a ubiquitous umbrella of interconnect technology. If the IoX is truly going to interconnect everything, there is no margin for data “black holes” such as exist within today’s cellular infrastructure. If the IoX is going to function in real time, then the interconnect must be ubiquitous.

The traditional wireless macro infrastructure, even with emerging technologies such as Long-term evolution/Advanced) LTE/LTE-A, and other bandwidth optimization technologies, does not have the deployments or the spectrum to handle the emergence of data as the new primary traffic.

The Solution

Enter the small cell. Small cells, are not new, and not the end-all and be-all of the IoX, but they promise to add a respectable offering for that march to pervasive connectivity.The best know is the femtocell that has been in your home, as your private wireless network, for some time now. But this technology is about to go big time. Small cell technology is on the verge of becoming the wireless “grout” that will do what macro cells, and other mobile networks can’t – filling in the voids in the wireless infrastructure, and, more importantly, handle the impending data tsunami. The small cell infrastructure will be the single most enabling platform to bring the IoX on line.

Small Cell Flyover

Small cells, originally, were defined as small cellular base stations. That definition has evolved over time with the emergence of Wi-Fi networks, and the term now encompasses a somewhat broader scope than just cellular. Essentially, all small cells serve the same purpose. As one goes up the food chain, each platform has enhanced capabilities, broader coverage, and more functionality.

In the beginning, small cells were, exclusively, deployed by mobile network operators (MNOs) to fill in RF voids, as best as possible, where placing macrocells was not practical or cost-effective. Now, small cells are have moved to the consumer and commercial arena and, with the ubiquitous proliferation of Wi-Fi and they are used for a multitude of scenarios.

There is a lot of information that can be part of a small cell discussion, but space limits what is practical to include here, so this article will keep the discussion to a high level and address the main features and issues of small cells and their integration into the IoX.

Small cells come in four basic models, femto, pico, micro and metro. Today, they can be licensed, or unlicensed. Essentially, the definition of each type of small cell is related to its coverage area, power output, and application. Following is a short description. Figure 1 is a generic graphic of the small cell tree. Keep in mind that each of these categories has a number of variables that can reconfigure within the scope of the equipment to fine tune its applicability.

Figure 1. The small cell tree. Courtesy Query Home

Femtocells

Femtocells are largely residential, used indoors, and are most commonly used for home Wi-Fi networks.

Femtocells have the lowest power output – 100 mW or less, cover an area up to 50 m and support less than 10 users. These are the cells that manage most of the home IoX environments. Residential femtocells are consumer controlled – all of the interconnect, installation, and setup is able to be done by the consumer.

Of late, there has emerged the enterprise femtocell. It is a hopped-up version of the residential femtocell where more than residential is required, but the network is still generally self-managed (vs. MNO managed, although MNOs can manage them as well). It offers variable bandwidth options, higher data rates, can handle more users, and can be both licensed and unlicensed.

Picocells

Picocells are slightly higher in power – up to 250 mW, can support up to about 100 users, and have a range of around 200 m. Picocells are usually network operator managed and are usually deployed in larger venues – stadiums, malls, college and business campuses, airports, etc.

Micro and Metrocells

These types of small cells are really more of a mini-macro cell and mostly used to add capacity to an already existing macro site. They operate in licensed spectrum and are, typically, used to cover an outdoor urban area such as mall or city center, large underground parking garages, multiple building or college campuses, etc. They can also be deployed in rural areas. Power can be up to 10 W, and they can support hundreds of users.

All small cells are backhauled to the global wireless infrastructure. Backhaul technologies include Ethernet, microwave, and, yes, copper. Satellite links can be used but is not common, primarily because of cost and signal propagation delays.

It is this small cell infrastructure that will enable the IoX and the yottabytes of data that will be flowing around in it, especially at the edge. There will be a new menu of enabling technologies. These small cells will be the most critical hardware platform of the IoX.

Future Wireless Networking Technologies

To support these small cells, and the integration of all wireless technologies, IoX and otherwise will require a new paradigm in network management. We will see future communications networks morph into what will be next-generation heterogeneous networks (HetNets). These will also be intelligent, self-organizing networks (SONs) that will function in real-time and be frequency agile – responding to loading and traffic demands on the fly. They will include virtualization technologies, such as software-defined networks (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), and will lay out the infrastructure that the IoX will ride upon.

This will be a big job for these components, considering they will have to manage from macro cells to femtocells, integrating cellular, satellite, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, ZigBee, IPv6 support, 6LoWPAN, Z-Wave, ANT+, next-generation Ethernet, and much more.

Single-nanometer gate technologies on the horizon. Fledgling technologies such as energy harvesting, Bluetooth Smart, RF modulation schemes, and other low-energy platforms, can be integrated on small form factors that will allow small cell to be put just about anywhere, unobtrusively.

These are visions of the future. Much of this is still in various stages of dvelopment But the technology is sound and it will happen – as will the IoX.

The Components

Drilling down a bit, let’s take a look at some of these next-generation wireless platforms. With the plethora of technologies that are going to be part of the IoX, integrating small cells to fill in the gaps will require a monumental cooperative effort from a number of segments; device manufacturers, wireless infrastructure providers, hardware and software vendors and countless others. With up to 200 billion intelligent things interconnected, doing things over is not an option so there is a lot on the line.

There is an initial case which states that much of the IoX objects will need 24/7/365 real-time connectivity. Things such as vehicle-to-infrastructure/vehicle (V2I/V), health-monitoring wearables, and some elements of security (police), defense, etc. The power and telecom and satellite infrastructures will need to be on the IoX full-time as well. This always-online case is the primary driver to insure that all locales are covered, and this is why the next-generation technologies discussed earlier will be a must. Without them, the IoX will not be much more than a bit more sophisticated M2M environment.

HetNets – the Great Enabler

Figure 2. An example of a HetNet. Credit; David Johnson, Karel Matthee, Dare Sokoya, Lawrence Mboweni, Ajay Makan, and Henk Kotze (Wireless Africa, Meraka Institute, South Africa) – Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network: A do-it-yourself guide to planning and building a Freifunk based mesh network

On the horizon is what are called HetNets. These next-generation networks will be the layer that brings the wireless infrastructure under a single network umbrella. HetNets will interconnect the small cell infrastructure, the macro infrastructure, as well as unlicensed technologies such as Wi-Fi so the IoX can enjoy perpetual, unrestricted internetworking. Figure 2 is an example of a HetNet, and how it connects to the global wireless infrastructure.

As can be seen from the graphic, there are multiple types of access nodes. Wide-area HetNets will contain all the elements of a wireless network, across all deployment scenarios (Indoor/outdoor environments, office buildings, homes, and underground areas). They support the multifaceted interoperability among macrocells, small cell, Wi-Fi network elements (hotspots, carrier Wi-Fi), in a mosaic of coverage, that offers handoff capability among the network elements.

HetNet Technologies

HetNets will integrate a number of new technology platforms, different from what is currently on the table. They will support much of what the IoX will require. They will include:

Intelligent SONs – Intelligent self-organizing networks will be the heart of the HetNet. These networks have the ability to analyze, in real time, the operating conditions of the surrounding radio environments, and autonomously plan and reconfigure the various radio parameters such as frequency, scrambling codes, and transmitter power levels, for example. This means thast networks will be frequency agile, allocating resources where required, and when.

A SON will be capable of sensing changes in the radio environment as well, so when new nodes are introduced, or removed, the SON can automatically respond to these changes by adjusting the rest of the access points (APs) and nodes operating conditions for optimal QoS.

HetNets are a complex network that integrates a number of next-generation technologies such as SDN and NFV, which are discussed next.

NFV and SDN – Virtualization technologies are the next platform for radio networks. The short description of SDN is that, basically it decouples the control from the hardware and brings the control to a virtualized data center. That means that the typical inflexible and hardwired networks, with no dynamic resource allocation capability, can now be remotely, and dynamically be reconfigured to allocate their resources, and optimize the network.

Figure 3. Traditional vs. virtualized networks. Courtesy, CommScope

SDNs are designed as an architecture that abstracts the hardware infrastructure, and virtualizes it as a cybernetic entity. Figure 3 is a graphic that shows rational network and its virtualized cousin.

SDN networks are programmable platforms, capable of achieving efficient resource utilization. Another benefit is they can be scaled, dynamically, to support the demands of the skyrocketing mobile data environment. The nice thing about his is that the virtualized entity can be located just about anywhere, adding a level of freedom and cost effectiveness.

NFV can be looked at as a parallel technology to SDN. It is an initiative of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Industry Specification Group. Essentially it is the framework that defines how to virtualize network functions previously performed by proprietary dedicated hardware. This is expected to reduce the cost of network devices such as firewalls and security appliances, routers, switches, etc., via a common, commodity platform that hosts these environments. Benefits of NFV include:

Greater scalability, both upwards and downwards, and to evolve services.
New opportunities, at lower risk, for trials and to deploy new and innovative services
Enablement of the virtual appliance market and software entrants
Reduced time-to-market for the deployment of new network services
Reduced operator CAPEX and OPEX via reduced equipment
Additional ROI from new services

NFV is a highly complementary to Software Defined Networking (SDN). These topics are mutually beneficial but not interdependent or mutually exclusive. Network Functions can be virtualized and deployed independent of an SDN being deployed, and vice-versa. However, the two platforms are highly complementary and implementing both more than just doubles the benefits of each independently.

Missive

The world is readying itself for the onslaught of massive amounts of data that will have to be effectively managed, or data Armageddon will occur. The most pressing challenge is how to route this data, and convert a legacy infrastructure into a dynamic and agile platform in a brave new virtualized world.

There is a lot of activity across a number of industries, but it all depends upon a cohesive and globally interconnected wireless infrastructure. Small cells, along with technologies such as SONs, SDNs, NFV, and the advancements in the hardware, software segments that will integrate them, will provide the next-generation infrastructure required to make the IoX all that it can be.