The 60Ghz Wireless Network Infrastructure

The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure

F e b r u a r y 2011

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...... 3

Abbreviations ...... 4

Market Challenges in Networking Technologies ...... 5

Solution: The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure ...... 6

60GHz Standardization ...... 10

Safety concerns of 60GHz wireless devices ...... 12

Conclusion...... 13

Reference ...... 14

Authors Info ...... 14

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Abstract The widespread availability and use of high definition multimedia content has created a need for faster wireless connectivity that currently available commercial standards have not been able to deliver. The consumers have more digital infotainment choices than ever before, but at the expense of ever increasing network bandwidth and data transfer demands. FCC has made available 7 GHz (57 – 64GHz) of unlicensed bandwidth in the 60GHz band providing potential for data rates of several Gigabits/s. The unique propagation characteristics of the 60GHz band is ideally suited for deployment of gigabit wireless systems to provide secure, short range wireless links with high bandwidth and multi gigabit data rates. The small wavelengths at 60GHz enable the design of sophisticated interfaces with very small form factors and the semiconductor technology has also advanced to enable the design of semiconductor packages that embed the antenna directly within it. The 60GHz band offers an unlicensed high bandwidth, high interference immunity, high security and high frequency re-use. The 60GHz infrastructure could significantly change the way the electronic devices communicate to each other. It paves the road to a future wireless ecosystem offering high performance devices that can work together seamlessly to connect people in the digital age. Research and methodical comprehensive investigation is in progress concerning the usability of the 60GHz band as well as the elaboration of efficient system and implementation concepts in various domains like telemedicine, industry automation, aircraft cabin systems and intra vehicular communication systems. In this technical paper the market challenges in the wireless infrastructure, the 60GHz wireless band and its properties, the benefits of the 60GHz band, the various standardization efforts and the safety concerns for devices operating in the 60GHz band are discussed.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Abbreviations

Sl. No. Acronyms Full form (Page No.)

1 HD (5) High Definition

2 QoS (5) Quality-of-Service

3 mmWave (6) Milli Meter Wave

4 FCC (6) Federal Communications Commission

5 P2P (6) Point-to-Point

6 WPAN (6) Wireless Personal Area Networks

7 UWB (6) Ultra Wide Band

8 FSO (9) Free Space Optical

9 HFR (9) Hybrid FSO Radio

10 ECMA (10) European Computer Manufacturers Association

11 ETRI (10) Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute

12 PAL (10) Protocol Abstraction Layer

13 LoS (10) Line of Sight

14 NLoS (10) Non Line of Sight

15 WVAN (10) Wireless Video Area Network

16 A/V (10) Audio/ Video

17 PHY (10) Physical Layer

18 MAC (10) Medium Access Control

19 WiGig (11) Wireless Gigabit

20 Wi-Fi (11) Wireless Fidelity

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Market Challenges in Networking Technologies Advancements in the networking technologies have changed the life of people in their private residential space. With the advent of HD multimedia services and broadband communications into the living space, future networks are expected to support high speed device- to-device connectivity with QoS provisioning. The widespread availability and use of high definition multimedia content has created a need for faster wireless connectivity that currently available commercial standards have not been able to deliver. The consumers have more digital infotainment choices than ever before, but at the expense of ever increasing network bandwidth and data transfer demands. There is no prize for guessing that it has to be wireless communication which creates maximal freedom. Nevertheless, it is doubtful that the current networking technologies can sufficiently lead to the expected future of HD multimedia. The prime concern being that the maximum data rate and QoS that the network is expected to deliver have already being pushed to the limits, which leads to users experience far from satisfying. The figure below depicts the wireless technologies available, the applications and the new opportunity space in the wireless gigabit transfers.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Solution: The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure The potential candidate to address the issues of short distance, secure and high bandwidth communication are the mmWaves. mmWaves can be classified as electromagnetic spectrum that spans between 30GHz to 300GHz, which corresponds to wavelengths from 10mm to 1mm. In this paper, the deliberations are specifically on 60GHz radio (unless otherwise specified, the terms 60GHz and mmWave can be used interchangeably), which has emerged as one of the most promising candidates for multigigabit wireless communication systems. There have been several research initiatives taken to study and facilitate the commercialization of the 60GHz technology. In 2001, FCC allocated 7GHz in the 57–64 GHz band for unlicensed use. This along with the advances in the wireless communication technologies has once again rekindled the interest to explore this band for the P2P communication, which was once perceived to be expensive. The immediately seen opportunities in this particular region of spectrum include next-generation WPANs, WLANs and fixed wireless. The mmWave technology can provide a global wireless ecosystem of interoperable, high performance devices that work together seamlessly to connect people in the digital age. It could bring together a huge range of computing, entertainment and communication devices. It can be used to seamlessly transmit uncompressed HD videos to provide a good user experience for infotainment and gaming solutions consumers. Signals in this band don't travel very far. The atmospheric oxygen readily absorbs 60GHz signals and attenuates (15dB/km) them within a short distance of their source. mmWaves are attenuated by obstacles like glass and Wall which adds further restriction to the usage on the contrary it means that it can be used for high bandwidth short distance secure communication. The below table shows the comparison of wireless HD video technologies:

Frequency Range Theoretical max Theoretical max data rate range

60GHz 57-66 GHz 6 Gbps In room

802.11n 2.4, 5 GHz 300 Mbps 70 metres

UWB 3.1 – 10.6 GHZ 480 Mbps 20 metres

WirelessHD 57-64 GHz 4Gbps 10 metres

WHDI 5.1-5.8 GHz 3 Gbps 30 metres

The further sections are organized to discuss the characteristics, standardization and safety aspects of mmWaves.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Propagation characteristics of 60GHz spectrum Atmospheric Absorption The 60-GHz mmWave region of the electromagnetic spectrum is characterized by high levels of atmospheric radio frequency energy absorption. This implies that transmitted energy is quickly absorbed by oxygen molecules in the atmosphere over long distances. The atmospheric absorption for mmWave frequencies is shown in below figure. High levels of atmospheric absorption resulting in range limitations poses additional challenges for long-haul wireless applications. However, for short-distance transmission and high-security transmission paths the mmWave technologies and 60GHz mmWave systems in particular are an ideal solution.

Frequency Reuse Another consequence of Oxygen absorption is that radiation from one particular 60GHz radio link or source is quickly reduced to a level that will not interfere with other 60GHz links operating in the same geographic vicinity. This reduction enables more 60GHz links to operate in the same geographic area than links with longer ranges. This characteristic also makes it possible to deploy numerous radio terminals that operate on the same frequency in very dense configurations, virtually eliminating the probability of interference.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Wavelength and Antenna Size The small wavelength at 60GHz, enables the design of very tiny elements that could not even be considered to fit on a chip at lower frequencies. The mmWave systems must use high gain and high focus antennas to overcome the adverse effects of atmospheric absorption. As radio frequency increases, signal wavelength becomes shorter, making it possible for smaller antennas to produce the required gain. These can be put together to add more value like spatial power combing, beam steering and beam forming. The antenna size necessary for an mmWave terminal with 40-dBi gain and a 1.0° beam is one-tenth the size of a 6GHz microwave antenna with the same capability. Thus, at 60GHz, a very compact, low-cost antenna can achieve a highly focused beam.

Interference Immunity Minimum surrounding air space is occupied by the emissions from an mmWave system with a high-gain and narrow beam antenna, as shown in Figure. A signal transmitted with a narrow beam is less likely to interfere with unintended receivers. On the other hand, a high-gain/narrow-beam antenna will only receive energy from the same direction in which it is transmitting, thus reducing the probability of receiving an unwanted signal and increasing the interference immunity.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Rain Attenuation The most problematic condition for outdoor 60GHz systems is heavy rain. mmWaves attenuate heavily when trying to travel through rain drops as the sizes are comparable. This poses a restriction on the outdoor usage. However, in indoor WLAN applications this is not a problem and in outdoor fixed wireless systems there are ways to substitute for rain outage. This can be done by using a HFR system in which mmWave transmitter is used in conjunction with FSO laser beam system, which essentially unaffected by rain.

Key Benefits of 60GHz Infrastructure The 60GHz band is an excellent choice for high-speed Internet, data, video streaming and voice communications offering the following key benefits:  Unlicensed operation – no need to spend significant time and money to obtain a license from FCC  Highly secure operation – resulting from short transmission distances due to oxygen absorption and narrow antenna beam width  Virtually interference-free operation – resulting from short transmission distances due to oxygen absorption, narrow antenna beam width, and limited use of 60GHz spectrum  High level of frequency re-use enabled – communication needs of multiple customers within a small geographic region can be satisfied  Fiber optic data transmission speeds possible – 7GHz of continuous bandwidth available compared to <0.3 GHz at the other unlicensed bands  The small wavelength at 60GHz, allows the design of very tiny elements that could not even be considered to fit on a chip at lower frequencies. These can be put together to add more value like spatial power combing, beam steering and beam forming

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

60GHz Standardization The following sections gives an overview of the major standardization activities related to high rate transmission and communications in the 60GHz band.

ECMA 387 ECMA International published the ECMA 387 - high rate 60GHz PHY, MAC and PALs specification in December 2008. ECMA International is a non-profit industry association that develops standards in the areas of communications technology and consumer electronics. Georgia Electronic Design Centre at Georgia Tech, ETRI and Philips are the research institutes and companies who have jointly developed this standard. ECMA-387 has been developed to support multi-gigabit WPAN applications such as wireless docking stations and wireless transport of HD multimedia content. In order to support data rates of up to 6.4 Gbps over 10m ranges in LoS and NLoS environments, adaptive high-gain antenna arrays have been experimented and recommended.

WirelessHD WirelessHD is supported by Intel, LG Electronics, Panasonic, NEC, Samsung Electronics, SiBeam, Sony and Toshiba. The WirelessHD specification enables consumer devices to create a WVAN with the following characteristics:  Stream uncompressed audio and video at up to 1080p resolution, 24 bit color at 60Hz refresh rates  Deliver compressed A/V streams and data  Advanced A/V and device control protocol  Unlicensed operation at 60GHz with a typical range of at least 10 m for highest resolution HD A/V  Smart antenna technology to enable NLoS operation  Data privacy for user generated content

The 60GHz systems require a Line of Sight operation between the transmitter and receiver, but WirelessHD specification has removed this dependency by implementing beam forming techniques to increase the effective radiated power of the signal being transmitted or received. The specification has provisions for digital content encryption and network management. Currently WirelessHD specification 1.0 is available for adoption.

IEEE 802.15.3c Standard An alternative Task Group (TG3c) has been formed to develop an alternative PHY standard for 60GHz channel that would enable wireless communications with over 2 Gbps data rate under the IEEE 802.15.3 High Rate Task Group for WPAN. Along with an alternative PHY standard, a MAC layer standard for higher frequency networks are also being developed for the IEEE 802.15.3c. Currently the task group has completed the standard that provides very high data rates in excess of 2Gbps for simultaneous time dependent applications like HDTV video streaming. Currently the task group is in hibernation.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Wireless Gigabit Alliance – WiGig PHY and MAC Specification Only recently, leading companies such as Intel, AMD, Microsoft, Nokia, Dell, Panasonic, Cisco, Atheros and Marvel have joined together in the WiGig Alliance. The WiGig MAC and PHY Specification enables data rates up to 7 Gbps. WiGig is approximately 10 times faster than the speed of the fastest Wi-Fi networks based on IEEE 802.11n. The 60GHz frequency band operation provides much more spectrum available than the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands used by existing Wi-Fi products. The consortium has officially released the WiGig standard 1.0 in December 2009. The WiGig version 1.0 specification includes the following key elements:  Supports data transmission rates up to 7 Gbps – more than 10x faster than the highest 802.11n rate  Supplements and extends the 802.11 MAC layer and is backward compatible with the IEEE 802.11 standard  Physical layer enables both the low power and the high performance WiGig devices, guaranteeing interoperability and communication at gigabit rates  Protocol adaptation layers are being developed to support specific system interfaces including data buses for personal computer peripherals and display interfaces for high definition television, monitors and projectors  Support for beamforming, enabling robust communication at distances beyond 10 meters  Widely used advanced security and power management for WiGig devices WiGig Alliance and Wi-Fi Alliance established a cooperation agreement in May 2010 to share technology specifications for the development of a next generation Wi-Fi Alliance certification program. This agreement further encourages the development of products supporting 60GHz technology to expand the existing Wi-Fi capabilities. The standardization efforts have rekindled the interests and have attracted the attention of the industry and agencies to facilitate in commercialization of the 60GHz technology. 60GHz technology is poised to become in the fairly near future a promising entertainment connectivity solution for the consumer electronic market place.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Safety concerns of 60GHz wireless devices Safety has been one of the primary concerns while using any radio frequency devices. Several experiments and study have been conducted on the exposure of the mmWave radiation and the following are the key findings:  mmWave systems have low power levels, millimeter-wave systems do not penetrate the human body  High frequency emissions such as 60GHz are absorbed by moisture in the human body and thus cannot penetrate beyond the outer layers of skin  Exposure to 60GHz is similar to exposure to sunlight but at 1/10,000 of the energy

The FCC has adopted the exposure limits as:  For the general public, accepted exposure levels in the 1.5- 100 GHz band is 1 mW/cm2 averaged over 30 minutes.  The occupational/controlled exposure in the same band is 5 mW/cm2 averaged over 6 minutes.

Some heating effect is generated by all of these waves. Though experiments have proved that the mmWaves have insufficient energy available to produce any type of damage to human tissues, it is probable that higher power densities, such as those densities very near high-voltage power lines or high-power (megawatt) broadcast transmitters, could have long-term health effects. The power densities are largely governed by the nature of the application. FCC guidelines have to be strictly adhered to avoid any health hazards.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Conclusion The 60GHz band is an excellent choice for wireless applications requiring gigabit-plus data rates especially considering the unlicensed operation, large bandwidth and high allowable transmit power. The 7GHz unlicensed bandwidth coupled with higher allowable transmit power, secure operation and small form factor have made 60GHz a very promising candidate for multigigabit applications. Intense efforts are being made by industrial alliances and regulatory bodies to expedite the commercialization of the mmWave technology. Amongst the entire currently available wireless infrastructure, 60GHz network infrastructure brings the world closer to the promise of gigabit and multi-gigabit wireless speeds required for bandwidth intensive applications. As the spectrum is unlicensed and there are no regulatory issues that would prevent worldwide approvals, the cost and ease of bringing mmWave systems to market is minimized. There has always been an ever growing demand for wireless access to information and entertainment. Although there have been advancements in the mobile cellular networks and wireless local area networks, these systems cannot compete with the wired systems and their several Gbps bandwidth capability. However, the 60GHz systems with their gigabit-plus data rates, large and unlicensed spectrum, pave the road to a next generation wireless infrastructure.

/The 60GHz Wireless Network Infrastructure | February 2011

Reference  “Performance Characteristics of 60-GHz Communication Systems”, October 2002, [Online] Available: http://www.terabeam.com/solutions/whitepapers/index.php  “ECMA 387: High rate 60GHz PHY, MAC and PALs”, December 2010, [Online] Available: http://www.ecma- international.org/publicaitions/files/ECMA-ST/  “WirelessHD Specification Overview version 1.0 A”, August 2009, [Online] Available: http//www.wirelesshd.org/wp- content/uploads/2009/12/  “IEEE 802.15.3c Task Group”, [Online] Available: http://www.ieee802.org/15/pub/TG3c.html  “WiGig White Paper: Defining the Future of Multi-Gigabit Wireless Communications,” July 2010, [Online] Available: http://wirelessgigabitalliance.org/specifications/  “60GHz Safety”, May 2007, [Online] Available: http://www.sibeam.com/whtpapers/  Absence of Ocular Effects after Either Single or Repeated Exposure to 10 mW/cm2 from a 60GHz CW Source, Henry A. Kues, et. al., Bioelectromagnetics, Vol. 20, 1999, pp. 463-473.

Authors Info

Kumaralingam R is a postgraduate from IIT Bombay. He has an experience of about 9 years in the IT industry and is working as Solution Evangelist with Indian IT giant HCL Technologies, Chennai (India).

Rahul G is a graduate from Shastra University. He has an experience of about 4 years in the IT industry and is working as Solution Evangelist with Indian IT giant HCL Technologies, Chennai (India).

Hello, I’m from HCL’s Engineering and R&D Services. We enable technology led organizations to go to market with innovative products & solutions. We partner with our customers in building world class products & creating the associated solution delivery ecosystem to help build market leadership. Right now, 14500+ of us are developing engineering products, solutions and platforms across Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Industrial Manufacturing, Medical Devices, Networking & Telecom, Office Automation, Semiconductor, Servers & Storage for our customers. For more details contact [email protected] Follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/hclers and our blog http://ers.hclblogs.com/ Visit our website http://www.hcltech.com/engineering-services/

About HCL About HCL Technologies HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since its inception into the global landscape after its IPO in 1999, HCL focuses on „transformational outsourcing‟, underlined by innovation and value creation, and offers integrated portfolio of services including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and BPO. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 26 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of „Employee First‟ which empowers our 72,267 transformers to create a real value for the customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 3.1 billion (Rs. 14,101 crores), as on 31st December 2010 (on LTM basis). For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com

About HCL Enterprise HCL is a $5.5 billion leading global technology and IT enterprise comprising two companies listed in India - HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of India's original IT garage start-ups. A pioneer of modern computing, HCL is a global transformational enterprise today. Its range of offerings includes product engineering, custom & package applications, BPO, IT infrastructure services, IT hardware, systems integration, and distribution of information and communications technology (ICT) products across a wide range of focused industry verticals. The HCL team consists of over 77,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who operate from 29 countries including over 500 points of presence in India. HCL has partnerships with several leading Global 1000 firms, including leading IT and technology firms. For more information, please visit www.hcl.com