Abstract

WiBro (Mobile WiMAX) is a broadband wireless internet service supporting for fixed, portable and mobile users, but enhancement of service quality in indoor environment is still necessary. WiBro femtocell is developed to expand cell coverage, increase system capacity and offer various multimedia service with high throughput in indoor environment. Three types of femtocell are designed according to the class of application environments, such as home, SOHO and enterprise. The functionalities of radio access station and access control router are integrated in Home and SOHO femtocell. Inter-operational test with mobile terminal and performance evaluation are carried out and research results on related technical issues such as synchronization and auto-configuration are also described. Keywords- WiBro Femtocell; WiBro; Mobile WiMAX; Auto-Configuration INTRODUCTION WiBro (Mobile WiMAX) is the worlds first commercial broadband wireless internet service based on IEEE802.16e-2005 specification[1] and has been provided in Seoul and its proximity, Korea by KT Corp (hereafter referred to as KT). For about 1 year since KT launched the WiBro service, more than 200,000 KT WIBROTM subscribers have experienced high speed wireless internet access. The cell optimization process to provide high data rate multimedia service is of vital importance because customers satisfaction has a great influence on the success of newly-born communication service. Moreover, the survey result that roughly 80% of total wireless communication service traffic is generated in indoor area informs that improvement of in-building coverage and increase the capacity for user traffic are significant. However, the penetration loss due to thick concrete wall is so severe (About 22 dB transmission loss for reinforced concrete with 35 cm thickness and about 9 dB for that with 12 cm thickness)[2] that indoor environments are apt to be shadow regions with only outdoor WiBro Radio Access Station (RAS) and repeaters. KT infra laboratory has developed WiBro femtocell as one of the solutions since 2006 Also recently, many wireless communications service providers pay special attention to femtocell as a key solution of Fixed Mobile Substitution (FMS) strategy. Femtocell is a lowcost, low-power miniaturized and integrated base station using general broadband access network (xDSL, FTTH etc) as backhaul. Femtocell is expected not only to improve inbuilding coverage but to reduce a charge by utilizing Femtozone and to play the role of gateway of home network service as well. The benefits expected from the introduction of WiBro femtocells are as follows: (1) Decrease of traffic load of existing WiBro backbone network (2) Reduction of Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) (3) No need of modified or dual-mode user terminals (4) Application of various types of femtocells according to the class of service environments The overview of system architecture, configurations, and brief field test results of WiBro femtocell are introduced in this article. In addition, related technical issues and future plan are presented as well. WIBRO FEMTOCELL WiBro femtocell has a simple architecture unlike 3G femtocell because WiBro service is allIP based service. In the literature[3], a flat architecture, namely collapsed RAN is suggested for a simple 3G network with some advantages. But various architecture profiles are already

defined in specification for WiBro Service[4], hence various types of WiBro femtocell can be developed according to the class of application environments. Figure 1 shows three types of WiBro femtocell developed by KT infra laboratory WiBro femtocell for home is comprised of two parts. One is channel card which carries out PHY/MAC operations and networking access via broadband backhaul. The other is radio part which has direct interface with channel card and performs up/down conversion and transmitting/receiving RF signals. WiBro femtocell for SOHO includes UTP interface part between channel card part and radio part, therefore it is comprised of two separate modules such as Master Unit (MU) and Slave Unit (SU). In order to increase coverage and support more subscribers simultaneously, MU has two UTP branches and each branch has up to 3 cascaded SUs. Also Power over Ethernet (PoE) is applied to this item for an efficient deployment of SU[5]. WiBro femtocell for enterprise building is built to cover

(a) ASN Profile B type WiBro femtocell C type WiBro femtocell (For Home and for SOHO) Enterprise Building)

(b) ASN Profile (For

Figure 1. The various types of WiBro femtocell

whole building area. The output power is up to 3 W at RF port and RF antenna is distributed in building using RF cables. It interworks with pico-Access Control Router (ACR), therefore the systems support handoff between WiBro femtocells. The components of each WiBro femtocell are shown in figure 2 ~ figure 6 and the main features and functionalities are listed in Table I. Figure

Figure 2. The channel card part of WiBro femtocell radio part of WiBro femtocell for home for home and SOHO

Figure 3. The

Figure 4. The UTP interface part of WiBro femtocell for SOHO of WiBro femtocell SU for SOHO

Figure 5. The radio part

Figure 6. The interval view of WiBro femtocell for enterprise building

TABLE I. MAIN FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITIES OF WIBRO Features / Functionalities Standard compliant FA / Sector Carrier Frequency Channel Bandwidth Channel Coding Scheduling Handover Network Interface Modulation Scheme Adaptive Modulation and Coding Rx Diversity PERFORMANCE EVALUATION The performance evaluation results of WiBro femtocells areas follows:First, the Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) is measured in order to verify the relative constellation error (RCE) fidelity[6]. The RCE are 34.79dB (16QAM) and 34.43dB (64QAM), respectively and these meet the WiMAX Forum RCT requirements (RCE < 24.0dB for 16QAM 3/4 CC, RCE <30dB for 16QAM 3/4 CC). Secondly, the inter-operational test (IOT) with mobile terminals and simultaneous access of multiple mobile terminals are carried out. Various types of mobile terminals are connected with WiBro femtocell successfully and 20 ~ 50 mobile terminals accomplish network entry simultaneously. Lastly, downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) throughput test with file transfer protocol (FTP) service is conducted. DL throughput of Home/SOHO femtocell is up to 8.6 Mbps in 16QAM, 3/4 CTC and UL throughput of it is up to 1.3 Mbps in QPSK, 1/2 CTC. Also DL and UL throughput of enterprise femtocell is up to 15 Mbps (64QAM, 5/6 CTC) and 4.2 Mbps (16QAM, 3/4 CTC), respectively. Figure 7 shows the overall throughput variation for Home/SOHO femtocell with multiple mobile terminals. RELATED TECHNICAL ISSUES There still remain some related technical issues in order to commercialize the WiBro femtocell successfully. The technical issues and research results are treated in this paragraph. Synchronization Synchronization among all femtocells is a matter of great importance because WiBro service adopts Time Division Duplex (TDD) scheme. The required time difference between WiBro femtocell clock and GPS clock is 20 sec Outdoor RAS acquires synchronization by using Global Position System (GPS) signal but it is not easy to apply same technique to WiBro femtocell because of cabling problem. Therefore some other solutions have been researched. Implementation IEEE 802.16e (Wave I) 1 FA / 1 Sector 2.3 GHz 8.75 MHz Convolution Coding (CC), Convolutional Turbo Coding (CTC) Round Robin Available only in WiBro femtocell for enterprise building Fast Ethernet QPSK/16QAM/64QAM (DL) QPSK/16QAM (UL) Adaptive Modulation and Coding Available Maximal Ratio Combine

Using IEEE 1588 protocol[7] seems to be one of the most potent methods for WiBro femtocell due to the accuracy in Ethernet network. In IEEE 1588, master unit sends both reference clock and compensation time over the physical delay to all slave units via multicasting protocol but the performance is not verified in general broadband network. Therefore, the possibility of adaptation in the general broadband network is investigated by measurements. First, only two L2 switches are set between master unit and slave unit and 70% of allowable transmission traffic is loaded. The accuracy of IEEE 1588 scheme can be verified in this test. Figure 8 shows the clock difference between master unit and slave unit and the statistics are as follows: mean is 1.18 sec, standard deviation is 2.48 sec, and maximum value is 6.9 sec. Therefore this meets the required accuracy of reference clock in WiBro femtocell system. Secondly, measurements are carried out in the commercial use broadband network such as xDSL and FTTH. There exist various equipments such as L3 switch, IP-DSLAM (DSL Access Multiplier), modem, etc. in the network and customers use internet service irregularly. Both the master unit and the slave unit are locked to GPS and the physical delays in DL (master-to slave) and UL (slave-to-master) directions are measured. Figure 9 and figure 10 show that the physical delay in DL and UL direction are not reciprocal. Consequently it is difficult to extract the compensation time over physical delay and the application to general broadband network without improvement seems to be impossible. Using outdoor RAS signal is an alternative solution. In this case, however, WiBro femtocell signal is a strong selfinterference signal in receiving outdoor RAS signal so that synchronization collapse can be occurred. Therefore the technique such as lowering the power of the preamble signal of WiBro femtocell for every 80 frames is suggested and will be developed. Auto-Configuration Even if the feasibility of the co-channel deployment of femtocells is suggested in the literature[8], the interference between WiBro femtocells or WiBro femtocell and outdoor RAS is also a critical issue. Also WiBro femtocell equipment must be managed by KT because WIBROTM service is supplied in the licensed-band and minimum throughput of indoor commercialized user must be also guaranteed. Therefore the auto configuration technique is suggested as a solution and the procedure is described as follows[9]: 1. Install and register the WiBro femtocell. - Femtocell reads KT element management system (EMS) address and sends a trap message. - EMS gets femtocell information and generates node, if femtocell is registered. 2. Scan the signals of existing BSs. - Femtocell scans signals of outdoor RAS and neighboring femtocells. - Femtocell chooses frequency allocation (FA), and initial RF power and neighboring list and sets unused preamble index and sends the information to EMS 3. Set initial parameters. - EMS determines the feasibility of information from femtocell and sends necessary initial parameters. - Femtocell gets the registered user list and turns on RF. 4. Control transmitting power of femtocell. - Existing femtocell (femtocell 1) communicates with connected mobile terminal and monitors DL

channel status, continuously. - Femtocell 1 reports DL channel status to EMS while newly deployed femtocell (femtocell 2) sets its initial parameters. - EMS orders femtocell 2 to down the transmitting power if DL channel status of femtocell 1 gets worse. SUMMARY Femtocell is a key solution of FMS strategy and has many advantages such as expansion of cell coverage, increase in capacity and enhancement of service quality in indoor environments. KT infra laboratory has developed three types of WiBro femtocell, evaluated the performance and improved the system. Home/SOHO femtocell are designed to integrate RAS and ACR functionalities and enterprise femtocell is comprised of inbuilding access point (AP) and pico-ACR to support handover between femtocell. PoE is adopted in SOHO femtocell to simplify the SU deployment. The DL and UL throughput of enterprise femtocell are up to 15 Mbps and 4.2 Mbps, respectively. In addition, the research results on related technical issues to be solved such as synchronization and autoconfiguration are treated. Also there still remain additional features to be implemented in the near future to enhance the WiBro femtocell quality such as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique and handover with existing outdoor WiBro network.

The Journey of G from 1 to 5 th Generation 1st Generation (1G): 1G of technology was analog (voice-only) i.e., 1G wireless phones exercised analog technology. These devices were weighty and exposure was unreliable, however they effectively presented the inherent easiness of mobile communications 2nd Generation (2G): The 2G of technology is digital in the United States, mostly devices & services are digital. Digital cellular services are vastly deployed world-wide. They presented a significant development in the quality of voice (since analog information is much subject to distortions as that of digital information) and enhanced capacity as well, as voice calls in a more efficient way can be multiplexed. It provides the different services like some degree of web-access facility, digital voice calling and short message service (SMS). The GSM, TDMA and CDMA are the few cell phone standards of 2G. 3rd Generation (3G): The 3G (Smith et al., 2000) of wireless technology is committed to provide reasonably speedy wireless communication to support more useful services such as data, video and multimedia as well as voice. The wire-less mobile communication technology in its present form is often known as 2.5 G (Gozalvez et al., 2001) (called EDGE technology) but simply existing right networks of 3G in the United States are EVDO & UMTS (with HSPDA) offered by (Sprint/Verizon) and Cingular carriers, respectively. The 3G offers next to future advances into the business/private wire-less technology, particularly in a field of mobile communications and some expected capabilities and features of 3G systems are: Enhanced features for multimedia communications (i.e., digital data & voice, video& remote controls system) Supporting to utilize onto all advanced modes (i.e., electronic-mail, fax, paging, cellulartelephones, web-surfing, video-conferencing etc) Extensive bandwidth & high-speed capability (upwards of 2 Mbps) Providing flexibility for Routing(repeaters, satellites, LANs etc) 4th Generation (4G): The 4G (Woerner, 2001) of wireless technology is still underway and stands to be the upcoming wireless devices standard. The key difference between 4G and 3G technologies is the improved data transfer rates and security, like it is for 3G over 2.5G or 2G. The 4G is looked forward to offer more enhanced versions of the same advancements promised by 3G (e.g, improvedmultimedia,video-streaming, global-access and worldwideportability through all kinds of devices).Normally, a generation is defined by the result of technology grows over a time-frame of tento fifteen year, hence, 4G would turn to whatever is deployed in the 2010 period onward, supposing 3G exploitation covers the 2000-2010 period.Somewhat, 4G would provide customers with on demand first-class video and audio by utilizing OFDM (Robertson, 1999) (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)

technique and would able to better allocate network resources to multiple clients by making use of multiple channels simultaneously. Unlike the 3G networks which are a mixture of packet-switching and circuit-switching networks, 4G (Hui et al., 2003) will be based on packet switching only and might actually connects the whole world and be operable from any place above or on the surface of the globe. Generation Definitio Throughp Technology Time period Features (1G,2G,3G,4G, n ut/ 5G) Speed 1G Analog 14.4 Kbps AMPS,NMT,TA 1970 1980 During 1G Wireless (peak) CS phones are used forvoice only. 2G Digital 9.6/14.4 TDMA,CDMA 1990 to 2000 2G capabilities are Narrow Kbps achieved by band allowingmultiple users circuit on a single channel via data multiplexing.During 2G Cellular phones are used for data also along with voice. 2.5G Packet 171.2 GPRS 2001-2004 In 2.5G Data Kbps(peak) theinternetbecomes 20-40 popular and data Kbps becomes more relevant.2.5GMultimed ia servicesand streaming starts to show growth.Phones start supportingweb browsingthough limited and very few phones have that. 3G Digital 3.1 Mbps CDMA 2000 2004-2005 3G has Multimedia Broadba (peak) (1xRTT, services supportalong nd 500-700 EVDO) with streaming are Packet Kbps UMTS, EDGE more popular.In Data 3G, Universal access andportability a cross different device types are made possible. (Telephones, PDAs, etc.) 3.5G Packet 14.4 Mbps HSPA 2006 2010 3.5G supportshigher Data (peak) throughput and 1-3 Mbps speeds to support higher data needs of the consumers. 4G Digital 100-300 WiMax Now (Read Speedsfor 4G are Broadba Mbps LTE more further increased to

nd (peak) Wi-Fi Packet 3-5 Mbps All IP 100 Mbps Very (Wi-Fi) high throughp ut

5G

Not Yet Probably gigabits

Not Yet

onTransitioni keep up with data ng to 4G) access demand used by various services.High definition streamingis now supported in 4G. New phones with HD capabilities surface. It gets pretty cool.In 4G, Portability is increased further.World-wide roaming is not a distant dream. Soon Currently there is no (probably 5G technology 2020) deployed. When this becomes available it will provide very high speeds to the consumers.It would also provide efficient use of available bandwidth as has been seen through development of each new technology.

What is Bluetooth, WiFi and WiMAX? Bluetooth, WiFi and WiMAX are wireless technologies which allow devices to inter-connect and communicate with each other. Radio waves are electomagnetic waves and have different frequencies. These technologies are radio frequencies. Similar to the analogue radio, or FM radio. Bluetooth works on 2.45GHz frequency. WiFi works in two frequency bands 2.4GHz and 5GHz. WiMAX works in two frequency bands, 2 - 11GHz and 10 - 66GHz. See chart below for a comparison of these technologies.

Bluetooth Standard Frequency (GHz) Speed (Mbps) Range 802.15 2.45 0.72 10m

WiFi (a) 802.11a 5 54 50m

WiFi (b) 802.11b 2.4 11 100m

WiFi (g) 802.11g 2.4 54 100m

WiMAX 802.16 2 - 66 80 50km

Advantages Disadvantages

Low Cost Range

Speed Cost

Low Cost Speed

Speed Cost, Range

Speed, Range Cost