ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 Innovations for Digital Inclusion

Reliability and Scalability Analysis of Low Cost Long Distance IP-Based Wireless Networks

D. Trinchero, R. Stefanelli, A. Galardini iXem Labs – Electronic Department Politecnico di Torino [email protected]

Mar del Plata, Argentina,Labs 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 Labs iXem research activities • wireless networks design and analysis • wireless sensor networks design • microwave sensors design • electromagnetic propagation analysis • antenna design • microwave components design • electromagnetic theory • electromagnetic compatibility • electromagnetic interference reduction • solutions for digital inclusion

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 2 Long distance (low cost) wireless links => MKM

Some authors are presenting this technology as an affordable and practicable solution for the construction of telecommunication infrastructures in remote and/or harsh locations

Some other authors are strongly against it

Are we allowed to think something in the middle?

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 3 1. ASSEMBLE a real-case experiment 2. DEFINE guidelines and constrains for network design 3. IDENTIFY the most suitable (but also reaistic) hardware and system architecture 4. CONSTRUCT transmitters prototypes 5. TEST solutions to enhance transmission capabilities 6. STUDY physical and mac layer limits 7. EVALUATE long term hardware living capacity 8. TEST hardware strength after exposure to hard environmental and meteorological conditions

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 4 Ip 1: the link is bi-directional Ip 2: the link makes use of unlicensed frequencies Ip 3: regulatory EIRP limitation Ip 4: hardware very cheap

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 5 1. Large bandwidth use microwaves 2. EIRP limitation choose radios with high sensitivity 3. Unlicensed freq enhance antenna directivity 4. Bidirectional link multiplex uplink and downlink on the same antenna 5. Bandwidth multiplex radios on the improvement same antenna

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 6 50

45

40

35

30

25

-65 6 Mb/s 20 -70 9 Mb/s -75 12 Mb/s 15 -80 18 Mb/s -85

Antenna gain [dBi] 24 Mb/s 10

Received Power [dBm] Power Received -90 36 Mb/s -95 5 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54 48 Mb/s Max Data Rate [Mb/s] 54 Mb/s 0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009Distance [km] ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 7 First objective: VERY LOW COST hardware Solution: Use of commercial OFDM-based wireless chipsets combined with a robust MAC layer How: using open source wireless physical drivers and low-cost PCs or SBCs to control the radio

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 8 Platform: Commercial PCs LINUX based Chipset: commercial Atheros chipsets originally born for 802.11x applications Drivers: either commercial or taken from the open source MadWiFi projects Frequency Band: Hiperlan (European 5 GHz unlicensed) Antennas: standard high gain antennas (up to 35 dBi) Communication protocol: either commercial or derived from 802.11 distributions, with some modifications to support p2p communications Frequency use: hybrid TDD/FDD scheme RF components: properly designed Output: an experimental network to test the identified solution

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 9 mainboard

chipset board

power supply board

RF channel

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 10 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 11 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 12

Crescentino

Fontanetto

Brusasco Cerrina

Cavagnolo Sgarbinato

Mombello

Murisengo

Politecnico di Torino

0 km 10 km 20 km

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 13 67 133 km Mar del0 Plata,km Argentina,67 31 Aug133 –km 1 Sep 2009 km ITU-T Kaleidoscope km2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 14 0 km 80 km 160 km

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 15 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 16 802.11 TDD radio antenna

downlink radio single FDD antenna uplink radio

downlink radio 1 downlink radio 2 multiple FDD antenna uplink radio 1 uplink radio 2

TDD radio 1 TDD radio 2 multiple radio antenna TDD radio 3 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 TDD radio 4 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 17 1. SCALABLE configuration 2. ADAPTIVE design (*)

A

BC

(*) TASCONE R; SAVI P; TRINCHERO D.; ORTA R, Scattering matrix approach for the design of microwave filters, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, pp. 423-430, 2000, Vol. 48, ISSN: 0018-9480

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 18 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 19 Single radio Two radios Four radios

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 20 1. lightning: one transmitter destruction at Capanna Margherita (in the same occasion also the satellite connection was affected in the same way); 2. ice falls: solar panels damaged at Capanna Margherita (in the same occasion also the satellite power supply was affected in the same way); 3. overvoltage damages: two times (MB and ATX power supply wrecked, no problems for radios), due to failures of the solar panels regulator; 4. link down-time: around 0% for links under 100 km, up to 4% increasing the distance to 300 km; the link towards Capanna Margherita, in presence of strong snowstorms, was experimenting extraordinary attenuation;

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 21 5. hardware wear: no appreciable problems for radio cards, new ATX motherboards, automotive ATX power supply; only one SBC failure over twenty boards, after 9 months of usage; one failure over ten recycled motherboards, after 6 months of usage; two failures over ten recycled standard ATX power supply; 6. strong winds: no problems, even if some hops (Capanna Margherita) were exposed to winds up to 200 km/h; 7. extreme temperatures: destruction of two batteries below -30° Celsius (after we started isolating them)

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 22 1. MKM networks can be reliable as a first step in the implementation of communication infrastructures in developing regions. 2. MKM networks can be easily installed, they do not need high expertise, can be efficient for basic service provisioning, they can be simply scaled up. 3. We must keep in mind that transmission capacity and long term duration are not comparable with more developed, transmission systems. 4. Thanks to their low costs, MKM networks can be implemented for the construction of simple backhaul networks, for essential services like telemedicine and distance learning applications, or to start the digital inclusion process. Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 23 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 24 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 25 Labs

iXem Mission Where you can’t imagine to place an antenna, we (try to) DO

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 26 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 27 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 28 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 29 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 30 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 31 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 32 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 33 Long distance (low cost) wireless links Some authors are presenting this technology as an affordable and practicable solution for the construction of telecommunication infrastructures in remote and/or harsh locations

MKM link: a point to point bidirectional radio connection ranging from 50 km to 300 km, normally working on unlicensed frequency bands MKM network: a wireless network based on a whole of master stations interconnected by means of MKM links

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 34 ~ - 2 dBm

Tx

~ - 25 dBm Rx

~ - 80 dBm

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 35 Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2009 ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 – Innovations for Digital Inclusion © iXem Labs 2009 - p. 36