Technological Magazine Cum Journal For Telecom & Networks Issue 2, Edition Q2 2018

Xgnlab
Technological Magazine cum Journal for Telecom & Networks

Issue 2, Edition Q2 2018
2018 Q2 xgnlab page 1

Xgnlab
Technological Magazine cum Journal for Telecom & Networks
Issue 2, Edition Q2 2018
http://www.wirelessglobalcongress.com/

Editor Desk
Our Editor
Saurabh Verma
Saurabh has vast industry experience in telecom and networking domain. He started his career
with Govt of india’s premier R&D center and worked across various MNCs in product
development and service delivery. His area of expertise lies in business creation and advance
telecom solutions in next generation networks, 4G & 5G.
2018 Q2 xgnlab page 2+1

Editor Desk
“A magazine in this new era is a cache of information”, with this belief we start here.
It give us a sense of immense pleasure and pride to release the next edition of our much
awaited magazine on next generation networks for telecom, media and communication. As we
know we are entering into the era of everywhere connectivity with most of the thing around us
going to get connected. In this era, where many of things in our day to day life would be
technology enabled and influence our way of living, we need to equip ourselves with the latest
information and a bit of significant knowledge on technological aspects.
Keeping such view in mind we thought to release a magazine about the next generation
advancement in technology, specifically in area of telecommunication, networking, mobile,
wireless, communication, and media. The magazine will cover about the emerging ecosystem,
expert views, latest news, technology discussion, technical insight, big stories and much more
interesting and valuable articles.
We expect this magazine to benefit at maximum to professionals, students, researchers and

industry peoples and also to common people, who want to make themselves aware of
technology around them.
We would be bringing this magazine once in a quarter as of now, covering most of the
upcoming technologies those going to settle down in upcoming years, mostly like Internet of
things (IOT), Machine to Machine (M2M), High speed broadband, 5G, WiFi, Cloud Computing,
Blockchain etc.
Our focus will be on the value and significance of the contents here, we would be providing
every edition as a pack of significant topics, which would be giving required information, not only
for awareness but to be used for their thinking, decision making and knowledge creation.
In this version we are coming with WBA stuff as well, and would be in collaboration with
them in future too. It’s a great accomplishment for us to get their support.
With all these in mind and hoping a good reading experience, we would also be expecting your
feedback to us at s.verma@xgnlab.com
All the best and many thanks, enjoy reading.
Saurabh verma
Editor Desk.
Xgnlab
contact@xgnlab.com
www.xgnlab.com

Editor Desk
Dear Readers
It’s an immense pleasure to put forward the concept of tracking technological pace and industry
outcomes in form of a technological magazine. This will bring to you the information worth to
track for a significant span of time, and technology that is trending and generating the
ecosystem to cope with.
Although in this era of information and internet, mostly the information can be obtained with a
click or touch on your smart screens, but there is a need for providing relevant information and
technological updates in a manner worth for understanding and taken forward.
The magazine will keep the traction at par and provide the things in way of technological
research and market research.
We will cover the technical aspect for understanding in simple and informative form and also
provide the insight through tech discussions and whitepapers.
We would be happy to find your interest here and would require your encouragement and
patronage. We are open here for advertising and sponsorship.
You can write to us on mail at contact@xgnlab.com
Pooja Verma
Conceptualized & forwarded
pooja@xgnlab.com
www.xgnlab.com

WBA: Introduction & Disclaimer
ABOUT THE WIRELESS BROADBAND ALLIANCE

Founded in 2003, the mission of the Wireless Broadband
Alliance (WBA) is to resolve business issues and enable
collaborative opportunities for service providers, enterprises
and cities, enabling them to enhance the customer
experience on Wi-Fi and significant adjacent technologies.
Building on our heritage of NGH and carrier Wi-Fi, the WBA
will continue to drive and support the adoption of Next
Generation Wi-Fi services across the entire public Wi- Fi ecosystem, having a focus on four major
programmes: Carrier Wi-Fi Services, Next Generation Wireless & 5G, IoT, and Connected Cities. Today,
membership includes major fixed operators such as BT, Comcast and Charter Communication; seven of
the top 10 mobile operator groups (by revenue) and leading technology companies such as Cisco,
Microsoft, Huawei Technologies, Google and Intel. WBA member operators collectively serve more than 2
billion subscribers and operate more than 30 million hotspots globally.
The WBA Board includes AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Intel, KT Corporation,
Liberty Global, NTT DOCOMO and Orange. For a complete list of current WBA members, please click
here.
Follow Wireless Broadband Alliance at:
www.twitter.com/wballiance
http://www.facebook.com/WirelessBroadbandAlliance
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/50482


WBA: Introduction & Disclaimer
UNDERTAKINGS AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

This Document and all the information contained in this Document is provided on an ‘as is’ basis
without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied
warranties of merchantability, fitness for particular purpose, or non-infringement.
In addition, the WBA (and all other organisations who may have contributed to this document) makes no
representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the
information. The information may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. All liabilities of
the WBA (and all other organisations who may have contributed to this document) howsoever arising for
any such inaccuracies, errors, incompleteness, suitability, merchantability, fitness and non-infringement
are expressly excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. None of the contributors make any
representation or offer to license any of their intellectual property rights to the other, or to any third party.
Nothing in this information or communication shall be relied on by any recipient.
The WBA also disclaims any responsibility for identifying the existence of or for evaluating the applicability
of any claimed copyrights, patents, patent applications, or other intellectual property rights, and will take
no position on the validity or scope of any such rights. The WBA takes no position regarding the validity or
scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or
use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such
rights.
Neither the WBA nor any of the other organisations who may have contributed to this document will be
liable for loss or damage arising out of or in connection with the use of this information. This is a
comprehensive limitation of liability that applies to all damages of any kind, including (without limitation)
compensatory, direct, indirect or consequential damages, loss of data, income or profit, loss of or damage
to property and claims of third-parties.
Report Title: Network Slicing - Understanding Wi-Fi Capabilities Issue Date: March 2018 Version: 1.0
Wireless Broadband Alliance Confidential & Proprietary. Copyright © 2018 Wireless Broadband Alliance

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WRIX for IoT
Interoperability & Dynamic Roaming

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATION
AAA Authentication, Authorization and Accounting
APN Access Point Name
AUSF Authentication Server Function
AVP Attribute Value Pair
BDR Bulk Data Report
CBRS Citizens Broadband Radio Service
DNS Domain Name System
DTLS Datagram Transport Security Layer
EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol

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EUI Extended Unique Identifier
GSMA GSM Association
HSP Home Service Provider
ICP Interoperability Compliancy Program
IdP Identity Provider
IoT Internet of Things
IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity
LP-WAN Low Power Wide Area Network
MME Mobility Management Entity
NAI Network Access Identifier
NAPTR Naming Authority Pointer Record
NAT Network Address Translation
NGH Next Generation Hotspot
NHN Neutral Host Network
OCSP Online Certificate Status Protocol
OSU On-line Sign Up
PKI Public Key Infrastructure
PLMN Public Land Mobile Network
PSK Pre-Shared Key
SFD Summary Financial Data
SSID Service Set Identifier
TAP Transferred Accounts Procedure
TLS Transport Layer Security
UDR Usage Data Records
VSA Vendor Specific Attribute
VoLTE Voice over LTE
VNP Visited Network Provider
WBA Wireless Broadband Alliance
WGC Wireless Global Congress
WRIX Wireless Roaming Intermediary eXchange
WWD World Wi-Fi DayTM

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Executive Summary
Wireless Broadband Alliance could assist the entire IoT market, regardless of technology, in the
evolution of IoT Device roaming, leveraging today’s Wi-Fi Roaming capabilities.
WRIX (Wireless Roaming Intermediary eXchange), which is the WBA’s specification to facilitate
Wi-Fi Roaming. Also to increase its capabilities, longevity and industry value by evolving to
support IoT roaming use cases.
This paper capture the commonality of design, terms and functions of roaming regardless of
technology. Commonality include concepts such as a “home services provider” that owns the
device or user and the “visited network provider” that provides network access to that roaming
device or user. Other examples include functions and services such as interoperability,
signaling, data clearing and financial settlement. This is concluded with the outline of IoT
Roaming use cases .
One of the greatest values of this paper is the discovery of many opportunities to enhance the
functionality for existing technologies, including WRIX, in areas such as authentication, security
and automation. Examples include the use or enhancement of WRIX to support RADSEC. 1
Introduction IoT Roaming

Where an IoT devices connects to a
network other than the “home” network of Types of Roaming
the device to increase connectivity and
reach. IoT Roaming creates several major Scenarios
challenges including:
IoT can see the emergence of new business
• How to build a scalable solution to support models. According to the business models
a potentially massive number of devices being developed, roaming can function on a
roaming on non-home networks? permanent or a transitory basis, e.g., the
• How to overcome interoperability three scenarios described below.
challenges that can occur between • Scenario 1: The connected device is
technologies? travelling periodically (e.g. a car used for a
• How to put in place a secure and scalable leisure trip or a tracked asset within a
authentication, authorization and accounting medical facility being transferred between
framework? locations).
• Is there a way to perform rating, clearing • Scenario 2: The connected device is used
and settlement between the “home” network most of the time on the basis of permanent
and the “visited” network? roaming, but the object is moving either
within one country or across borders (e.g. a

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car which is sold abroad).
• Scenario 3: The connected device (e.g. Expansiveness of IoT
smart meter, sensors) is used on the basis
of “permanent roaming” but is not travelling
Roaming Use Cases
at all, often with a long period of usage. A distinguishing factor of the IoT
Furthermore, it is questionable whether in environment is the diversity of industries,
this case the connected device can be functional areas and propositions. IOTOne
called a mobile device at all, since it is not (www.iotone.com) lists over 800 IoT case
used in a mobile fashion. However, it studies, across 24 industries, 12 functional
certainly is roaming, as it is connected to a areas and delivering 14 core propositions,
visited network which is not responsible for as illustrated in Table below.
provisioning the service.
Table -IOTONE Industries, Functional
Moreover, the roaming scenarios will also Areas and Enabled Capabilities
be impacted by the network connectivity
requirements necessary to support a
particular IoT use case. Earlier analysis of
IoT Vertical Value Chains by WBA has
highlighted the significant divergences in
network connectivity requirements . Using
data averaged over a deployment of 100K
networked devices within an industrial IoT
environment], some IoT devices used up to
1 GByte/device/month, i.e., an order of
magnitude that is broadly equivalent to
smartphone consumption, whereas other
devices used as little as 25 kbytes over an
entire month. The IoT use cases that result
in these very small and/or infrequent
connectivity requirements have been a
focus of new LPWAN systems. For
example, the plans offered by SIGFOX on
their IoT network look to support varying
numbers of messages, with ranges from 49
kBytes per device per month down to 700

Bytes per device per month. These ultra-low
consumption figures can be contrasted to 23
some other examples of roaming tariffing
Wireless Broadband Alliance Confidential &
that allow small amounts of usage, typically
associated with initial DNS traffic, that is not Asset Tracking and Monitoring
reconciled against connected usage. Traditionally, asset tracking technologies
have used GPS, BLE or RFID technologies
that broadcast position and are used for

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physical asset tracking as well as tracking of 5km, or alternatively pay for a more precise
“human assets” wearing badges. The use location accuracy, or 1km or 500m.
cases can be characterized by whether Examples of IoT Asset Tracking and
there needs to be a real-time feed or Monitoring use cases Include:
alternative use cases that don’t require
consistent real-time updates or detailed Wi-Fi based Asset Tracking
monitoring. The traditional connectivity
The cost of Wi-Fi tags is decreasing and
option for wide-area real-time tracking has
enable asset tracking solutions. Internet of
been to use cellular. However, this is not
things (IoT) smart logistics and asset
without its limitations, e.g., in terms of power
monitoring company, Armada
draw and rural coverage.
(http://www.armada.net/), develops a supply
Conventionally, non-real time asset tracking chain visibility platform and places its
has used RFID where low-cost passive tags “internet of things” tiles, or 9-volt battery
are tracked when interrogated by a reader, sized tracking devices, into shipments. This
requiring fixed reader infrastructure to be enables distributors to look into the location
deployed, or alternatively employing of their assets. More interestingly, Armada
individuals to carry a mobile reader past the has announced a partnership with iPass.
tags. Now whenever one of its “tiles” comes into
Alternative options are now emerging that range of a hotspot, it will be able to roam
leverage low-power, wide-area network onto the Wi-Fi network and send its
(LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and information to Armada’s supply chain
Sigfox. As an example, Semtech has platform.
recently developed a LoRa-based
“Nano-tag” reference design, a disposable, Bluetooth Beacon Based Asset
ultrathin and low-cost tag that can be Tracking
integrated into disposable systems or US retailer Target is adding an improved
attached to assets to communicate a indoor mapping component to its mobile
specific trigger of an event. The app, designed to help shoppers find their
LoRa-based nano-tag will be available in way through stores and locate the products
both flexible tape and paper substrates, and they need. They are referring to the feature
can be deployed across numerous Internet as a “GPS for your shopping cart.” Instead
of Things (IoT) verticals that utilize the event of simply showing a static map, or noting
data to enable smarter decision making. In the aisle number where a product can be
these cases, monitoring is event-based and found, the new Target application will
real-time monitoring is not required. actually show your own location on the map,
Additionally, alternative short range as indicated by a blinking dot.
technologies like RF and BLE can be used.
Target has been updating all its stores with
Similarly, in March 2017, SIGFOX new, energy-efficient LED lighting. It chose
announced its “Spot’It” tag that includes to purchase fixtures that have Bluetooth
geolocation capability. The user can opt for beacons built-in. These beacons are what
a low-cost geo-location service that locates allow Target’s app to locate shoppers in the
a tag with an accuracy of approximately

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stores, and then guide them to products, as wanting to increase visibility of various
needed. Target will also be using the assets, improve transport cycle times and
beacon technology to highlight which of its reduce lost items. Operating across multiple
“Cartwheel” deals are near your current countries in Europe as well as having USA
location. and China operations, Airbus needed a low
cost solution for locating things both indoors
LoRa based Asset Tracking and outdoors. The tracking devices needed
Because of their very low power to have a 3 year battery life when sending
requirements and low cost, Low Power 20 messages/day and outdoor location
Wide Area technology is being proposed for accuracy requirements of 20m. Airbus
supporting a wide range of asset tracking turned to Sigfox to provide the connectivity
services. One such proposal is the Smart for its asset tracking system, allowing Airbus
Skiing service developed by CEA to follow up on thousands of recyclable
(http://www.cea.fr/). In one scenario, a packages in real time as they transit through
European skier uses a skiing travel bag with various warehouses and international
an integrated LoRa sensor. When visiting departments.
the Winter Olympics in 2018, the European Note, in contrast to Wi-Fi’s global bands,
skier travels with their skis in order to LoRa and SIGFOX are deployed in different
experience the Olympic slopes. The ski bands across different geographies.
travel bag includes sensors to measure However, roaming requirements have
external conditions, whereas the skis have traditionally required the unlicensed band to
an integrated location sensor. This be harmonized over multiple countries. At
information is displayed using an application its recent Sigfox IoT World Expo, the
on his smartphone. The roaming service company announced a new service called
between Europe and Korea enables to Sigfox Monarch that allows modules to
switch from a telecommunication operator to communicate more easily with local
another, seamlessly for the skier. networks as they move around the world.

Identity, Roaming and
Enterprise Use Cases
EAP/WPA2 has been widely deployed
within the enterprise environment for
supporting traditional use cases of providing
wireless connectivity to computers, tablets
and smartphones. The RADIUS
authentication server will typically integrate
with an external local identity store. For

example, the RADIUS server may leverage
Microsoft Active Directory to authenticate an
Sigfox based Asset Tracking
enterprise user, or it could leverage an
Airbus faced a global logistics challenge, LDAP bind operation to locate an enterprise

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user in the database and recover Enterprise IoT environment.
credentials to enable the user to be
authenticated.
Enterprise 5G Roaming
Use Case
New industrial use cases for IoT within a 5G
environment are being discussed. These
include scenarios whereby the credentials
used are managed by a non-MNO entity, in
the industrial automation case,
corresponding to the factory owner. These
are called “Non-3GPP subscription
Compared to this traditional environment, identifiers”.
where enterprise IT needs to scale to 100s However, the 3GPP study into next
of users and low single number of devices generation security aspects is clear that
per employee and where the 3GPP roaming is only based on 3GPP
identity/credentials are all managed within subscription identifiers. Even though an
the local IT environment, the emergence of identifier of the type
IoT will likely see the enterprise "sensor12345@factory.example.com" can
environment characterized by 100,000 of be used within a 5G industrial automation
devices that may use many different environment, because 3GPP roaming is not
credential types and be supported by a wide based on NAI, the non-3GPP subscription
range of identity providers. identifier cannot be used in roaming
scenarios.
However, there may be scenarios where
such a capability is desirable. One example
use case is the localization of assets within
an enterprise environment that, whilst
primarily may be used to provide support for
on-site logistics, may also cover scenarios
where assets, such as forklifts, auto guided
In one sense, this means that the new devices vehicles and vessels, move outside of the
can be considered as “roaming” into the enterprise site environment. Such a
Enterprise environment, with the need to support scenario then motivates the support for a
EAP authentication using a Home Identity “roaming” use supporting 5G access by the
Provider that is outside the enterprise’s domain. non-3GPP subscription identifier outside of
Hence, these new enterprise IoT use cases may
the factory environment.
trigger the adoption of Next Generation Hotspot
techniques used today to support conventional
roaming within a Passpoint-based Service
Provider environment, and re-apply/adapt those
to address emerging requirements within the

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in smart buildings to increase energy
efficiencies, making their venue more
amenable to visitors, the overall
requirements to support roaming based
monetization of access may be diminished.
In particular, Mobile Experts have compared
al & Proprietary. Copyright © 2018 Wireless the economic value of indoor
Providing courtesy access using Neutral coverage/connectivity for the Mobile
Host Networks Network Operator and contrasted that with
The current enterprise environment enables the value provided to the enterprise . Figure
enterprise employees to automatically illustrates the imbalance of derived value,
authenticate to enterprise Wi-Fi networks indicating the significant disparity with the
using EAP. However, the above description enterprise often deriving significant
highlights the enterprise environment of economic benefit that relies on wireless
tomorrow will be far more heterogeneous. coverage, a situation that is surely set to be
Not only enterprise employees, but exacerbated by the pervasive adoption of
partners, contractors, visitors and public wireless IoT devices within the enterprise.
may be offered connectivity to the
enterprise network acting as a neutral host
network. The massive numbers of IoT
devices within the enterprise environment
will be provisioned with a wide range of
credentials, managed by a wide number of
identity providers. This neutral host
enterprise network may offer connectivity to
these different devices using different

technology. Some IoT devices may be
Report Title: IoT Interoperability, Dynamic
connected using Ethernet based networks,
Roaming Issue Date: May 2018 Version: 1.0
others type of devices may connect using
Wi-Fi based technology, still other may use This situation means that, whereas an
3GPP derived technology, e.g., MulteFire Identity Provider for an IoT Thing will need
Alliance defined architectures configured in to be involved with the authentication of the
Neutral Host Network configuration. IoT Thing within the enterprise environment,
because connectivity may be being
provided as a courtesy and the deployment
Monetizing courtesy access
monetized by alternative means, there will
The enterprise use cases can be unlikely be requirements associated with
characterized as providing connectivity in billing for enterprise IoT connectivity.
order to support some alternative value
proposition. Because the Enterprise
business is monetizing the IoT deployment
by alternative means, e.g., enhancing
worker productivity, delivering connectivity

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re- applied to the enterprise IoT
Use of Enterprise Acceptable environment.
Use Policies and Liability 31
Disclaimers Wireless Broadband Alliance Confidential &
Proprietary. Copyright © 2018 Wireless
Today’s solution for supporting on-boarding Broadband Alliance
of non-enterprise devices is to use
web-redirect to a guest portal. Whilst
delivering a poor on-boarding experience,
the web redirect does enable the enterprise Baseline WBA
Technical
to ensure that users have accepted the
terms of service together with any policy
and liability disclaimer before receiving
Internet access. Framework to
Address Roaming
Intro to generic roaming
Functions
As described in section 3.1, a Wi-Fi
Roaming Service is the Wi-Fi Network
Access Service provided by the visited
network provider (VNP) to a Customer using
the VNP's Wi-Fi Network(s) and the home
Report Title: IoT Interoperability, Dynamic service provider’s (HSP's) customer
Roaming Issue Date: May 2018 Version: 1.0 relationship to access the Internet. The
In contrast to this fragmented view of roaming process is normally performed
enterprise specific terms of service and between two operators when at least one of
acceptable use policies, WBA’s Next them operates a network and the second
Generation Hotspot systems are built on a has users who are willing to use the Wi-Fi
foundation of Terms of Service that have services of the first operator. This process
been agreed to by a subscriber with their can be divided into two major activities:
Home Service Provider, obviating any need 1. The technical interconnection between
for agreements to be made between the networks either directly or using an
user and the Visited Network Provider. intermediary
It is evident that this inherent capability of hub, where all real time activities such as
WBA’s roaming architecture can be a key authentication and accounting are
differentiator, and may trigger further performed
analysis of whether WBA’s roaming
concepts and Passpoint provisioning can be 2. The activities that are related to the

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commercial background aspects of roaming, owners, retail brands and specific vertical
such as market service providers) and new
billing, charging and tariffs. value-added services being deployed (Wi-Fi
Calling, Location Based Services). NGH
For Wi-Fi roaming services, the VNP and expansion to incorporate IoT services as a
HSP must have interoperability mechanisms feature under the WRIX-N framework would
between them. For Next Generation Hotspot allow operators the value-added benefit of
service, the visited network provides the enablement of their customers IoT devices.
connectivity to the client devices, but signals
authentication of the roaming client devices Carrier grade Wi-Fi platforms, Next
to the home network AAA servers, typically Generation Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi roaming and
via a RADIUS client being implemented on Passpoint have enabled the Wi-Fi
the Access Controller. ecosystem to develop new services for
consumers and enterprises and to develop
Operators may have different approaches new monetization strategies and business
when developing a roaming strategy. It is models (e.g. Wi-Fi First operators,
relevant to point out that there are two main advertising, location based services).
scenarios available for operators to
interconnect their networks, either through a The WBA has been a leader in the
direct connection or by using a third party to promotion of Wi-Fi Roaming and has
facilitate that interconnection. For this last harnessed this opportunity to create new
scenario, there are alternative deployment services and products, encouraging
models, ranging from both operators using additional roaming usage and revenues. A
the same hub or just one operator using a managed Wi-Fi Roaming service can
hub provider. greatly improve the overall user experience
with regard to:
Much work in the roaming space has been
applied to help Wi-Fi operators standardize • Simplifying the connection to a Wi-Fi
the approach to ensure the best roaming hotspot
experience for WBA wireless network users, • Seamless roaming between Wi-Fi hotspots
and to promote the rapid set up of roaming • Better technical performance of a Wi-Fi
agreements between operators using the hotspot
WBA’s standardized financial and technical
approaches based on WRIX. • Secure authentication and connection to a
Wi-Fi hotspot
• Privacy for the end-user
The WRIX Framework
• Access to a much larger commercial Wi-Fi
As the dominant unlicensed wireless network across different geographies and
technology, Wi-Fi adoption has experienced venue types
phenomenal growth in recent years. Not just
The WBA has developed a technical
a huge growth in number of operator
framework to address the requirements for
deployed hotspots being deployed by
roaming between network partners. This
several operators, but also new players
framework constitutes the best practices to
emerging in the ecosystem (cities, venue

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simplify the interactions between partners.
Overview of WRIX Interfaces
The extension of the WRIX frameworks to
include the special requirements of the IoT The following figure shows the main entities
devices and consequently, the increase of in this WRIX model:
User Data Records (UDR) will be addressed A separate WRIX may be considered for
and taken into consideration in this every kind of interaction, then:
document. The best practices for UDR
• WRIX-n – Is an organization that operates
handling cover possible optimization of
and manages the network for the VNP
WRIX procedures that can be adapted to
address the large amounts of potential • WRIX-i – Is an organization that performs
records stemming from the massive and manages the interconnection between
amounts of low cost IoT sensors. This a VNP and HSP.
document will discuss alternative • WRIX-L – is the organization that
approaches and recommendations in order facilitates the exchange of hotspot location
to ensure that the WBA stakeholders are information between roaming partners.
best positioned to support the broadest
• WRIX-d – is the organization that provides
range of IoT deployments.
the exchange of session information needed
One of the main aims of WRIX is the to support wholesale billing validation,
interoperability of wireless networks. The reconciliation and settlement (Data
best practices are described in the following Clearing) between the VNP and HSP.
documents maintained by the WBA:
• WRIX-f – the organization that manages
• WBA WRIX Umbrella Document the exchange of invoices, payments, and
• WBA WRIX for Network (WRIX-n) foreign exchange between the VNP and
HSP.
• WBA WRIX for Radius Interconnection
(WRIX-i) According to this model, WRIX
entity/role/functionality/module
• WBA WRIX for Clearing (Data and
(implemented either in-sourced or
Financial Clearing) (WRIX – d/f)
outsourced) is always considered as the
• WBA Location Feed Format & File end points for the specific interface
Exchange Standard (WRIX-L) implementing the corresponding kind of
These documents are intended to help interaction, while VNP entity represents just
operators avoid some of the network the network provider role and HSP
configuration pitfalls and to standardize the represents the role for retail service to the
approach between operators to ensure the end customer/user.
best roaming experience for users, and to The following diagrams depict the role and
promote the rapid set up of roaming function of the various areas:Wireless Broadband
agreements between operators using WRIX Functionality with interconnect via a
standardized financial and technical Transit/Hub and settlement via Data and
approaches based on the WRIX framework. Financial Clearing House

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Functional Activities by WRIX

Module
Here below is a summary / high level view
of the WRIX modules Functional Scope:
Summary of WRIX module functionality

WRIX Functionality with Direct Interconnect
and Direct Settlement

WRIX-i (VNP):
• On-line proxy routing for RADIUS

messages, sent to the correspondent

WRIX-i (HSP)
WRIX Functionality with Direct Interconnect
and Settlement via Data and/or Financial • Collect raw RADIUS accounting records
Clearing House generated by the proxy routing
• Mediate raw RADIUS accounting records
for wholesale billing
• Send those records to the WRIX-d (VNP)
WRIX-i (HSP):
• Proxy routing mediation for RADIUS
messages.
• Receive raw RADIUS accounting records
generated by the proxy routing
• Optionally mediate raw RADIUS
accounting records for reconciliation of
wholesale billing and send those records to
the WRIX-d (HSP)

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WRIX-L (VNP) WRIX-f (HSP):
• Provides a location file • Receive Financial Data sent by the
• Distributes to roaming partners WRIX-d (VNP)
WRIX-L (HSP) • Reconcile the financial settlement together

with the WRIX-f(VNP)
• Receives location file
• Receive invoices sent by each WRIX-f
• Uses the location file in connection client (VNP) of the respective HSP ́s roaming
software distributed to subscribers partners
WRIX-d (VNP): • Jointly administers financial settlement
• Receive the mediated records for with the WRIX-f (VNP)
wholesale billing from the WRIX-i (VNP). • Provide support for dispute resolution
• Rate the received mediated records for
wholesale billing using the IOT as specified WRIX Security
in the bilateral roaming agreement;
The WRIX architecture is based on static
• Send the rated wholesale records to the security associations between peers. Figure
appropriate WRIX-d (HSP) illustrates a WRIX deployment supporting
• Extract and send the Financial Data to the the deployment of Next Generation Hotspot.
WRIX-f (VNP) The WRIX-N based Visited Network
Provider (VNP) routes RADIUS messages
WRIX-d (HSP):
based on pre-defined REALM routing
• Receive rated wholesale billing records policies that identify the next RADIUS
from the WRIX-d (VNP); server. Security of RADIUS uses pre-shared
• Validate those records and potentially secrets that are statically configured and
trigger reconciliation mechanism. agreed as part of the VNP/HUB agreement.
This agreement is also used to agree the
• Perform data reconciliation
pre-shared keys involved in deriving the
WRIX-f (VNP): IPSec security association for further
• Receive Financial Data sent by the protecting the WRIX signaling.
WRIX-d (VNP) The same bi-lateral agreements can be
• Send Financial Data to the WRIX-f (HSP) used to protect the security of signaling
between WRIX-I hub providers and between
• Reconcile the financial settlement together WRIX-I hub providers and the Home
with the WRIX-f (HSP) Network Provider.
• Calculate and create invoices for each
HSP

• Send invoices to the WRIX-f (HSP)
Statically defined WRIX Security/RADIUS
• Jointly administers financial settlement Hierarchy
with the WRIX-f (HSP)
• Provide support for dispute resolution.

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Router implements the Port Authenticating
Entity. Also, moving forward the 5G Core
Network has defined a new Authentication
Server Function (AUSF) to enable support

of the EAP authentication framework within
the 5G system. However, whereas the WBA
Enhanced
may be motivated to encourage all IoT
ecosystems to adopt EAP and benefit from
its advantages, there will always be
functionality that examples of IoT systems that define the use
of other non-EAP authentication
may be used to frameworks. On example of such is the
LoRa Alliance that has defined its own PSK
support additional based join procedure, highlighted that the

IoT roaming system will also need to
IoT roaming support other non-EAP authentication

methods.
requirements IPv6
WBA’s earlier analysis of IPv6 identified a
Flexible Framework for number of gaps, and in particular, related to
IoT Authentication roaming, calling out the need for roaming
interconnections to support IPv6 related
The use of EAP as a flexible authentication AVPs and VSAs. The Internet of Things and
framework by Wi-Fi networks has facilitated the rapid increase in number of devices
their support of a wide variety of use cases connected to the network can only
with different authentication mechanisms, accelerate the need to address the
ranging from enterprise access, through to scalability limitations of conventional IPv4
carrier Wi-Fi. Moving to IoT, the same deployments, specifically as it relates to IoT
reasoning has led researchers to advocate device addressing.
the use of EAP within an IoT environment,
The adoption of IPv6 by IoT deployments
claiming another key advantage of EAP is
will likely trigger the removing of the
that it operates at the data link layer and
conventional Network Address Translation
introduces lower communication overhead
(NAT) functionality that has been typically
in comparison to different authentication
used in Carrier Wi-Fi deployments; where
mechanisms.
Carrier Wi-Fi devices are allocated
As an example of the adoption of EAP by an addresses from the private IPv4 address
IoT ecosystem, the Wi-SUN alliance has space. The use of NATs obviated any
defined the use of EAPOL over 802.15.4 requirements for WBA’s roaming
systems, where the FAN node implements infrastructure to support the signaling of the
the Supplicant role and the FAN Border user’s IP address in WRIX signaling

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exchanges. Specifically, the signaling of the services.
framed-IP attribute in RADIUS exchanges
Split Billing
has not been defined.
In terms of split billing, in the cellular
With the increasing adoption of IPv6 for
environment this can be achieved by using
device addressing and the associated
multiple Access Point Names (APNs).
removal of NAT functionality, it will be
CLP-08 describes alternative approaches,
increasingly the case that IoT devices and
including splits based on IP destination
carrier Wi-Fi users will be allocated globally
address, URL, and interactions with external
routable IPv6 addresses. In such cases, the
policy servers.
home network provider may be able to
derive benefit from knowing the IPv6 Batch Billing
address allocated to their subscriber’s Existing support for wholesale contracts
equipment and so WBA’s Roaming typically utilize batch billing, where a single
Sustainment Group should consider bill is produced for a large number of
introducing the Framed-IPv6-Address devices.
attribute into WRIX signaling exchanges.
Aggregated Usage Reporting
AuRs are new record types able to be
Re-Use of WRIX d/f by exchanged using Transferred Account
non-RADIUS based IoT Procedures. Compared with existing
business requirements that only permit
systems usage in any 24-hour period to be included
in a record, these records include start and
Operators of IoT systems that are not based
end dates for the reported usage, as well as
on RADIUS and/or EAP, e.g., LoRa
unit type plus charged units and the
Alliance, may decide to leverage existing
aggregated usage charge. Aggregation
WBA defined WRIX system for data clearing
types supported include IMSI-level
and settlement for supporting IoT roaming.
aggregation, APN-level aggregation and
Rating-group-level aggregation.
Billing and Charging Bulk Data Reporting
impacts on IoT roaming Within the cellular community, there has
been recent discussion regarding roaming
New scenarios that may arise in IoT
and the evolution towards wholesale billing.
environments.
In particular volumes of CDRs are rising
• Split billing, driven primarily by the rapidly, whilst their incremental value is
automotive sector. falling. Bulk Data Roaming is one approach
• Demand billing, driven by utilities or smart being positioned as an alternative for
city sensing markets. supporting IoT roaming.
• Batch billing, applying predominantly to BDR leverages the fact that that usually in
enterprise IoT / M2M services cellular roaming, traffic is tunneled back to a
home P- GW/GGSN that is able to generate
• Data pooling, applying to consumer

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CDRs to feed a retail billing system. This Service Provider to generate retail billing for
allows BDRs to be used to signal the Wi-Fi usage. Using SFDs there is one
aggregated records, e.g., daily totals. Initial record generated per roaming partner per
indication from GSMA indicate that a shift to defined period.
bulk wholesale model will reduce data Compared with GSMA TAP records that are
processing by 200-300% for the case of IoT encoded using ASN.1, WRIX records are
roaming. encoded using XML. It is claimed that the
The Bulk Data Report contains: verbosity of XML increases RAM usage,
• Mandatory fields for the reconciliation as bandwidth requirements, and operating
well as for wholesale calculation and invoice costs and therefore the scaling
production, including visited network, served requirements of the Internet of Things may
party MCC/MNC, date at which session are motivate WBA to investigate alternative
aggregated, number of distinct sessions are record encoding techniques.
aggregated, number of distinct IMSIs within With capabilities to optimize data record
the session date, aggregated usage per handling already defined in WRIX, the final
session aspect covered by GSMA’s analysis is split
• Optional fields supporting threshold charge billing. One of the example use cases for
models, either per day or per day and per split-billing is that of the connected car,
IMSI where a single IMSI is used to support
communications for car telematics as well
• Optional records of grouped types when as user infotainment. Because the
the bulk usage is grouped by third end-to-end RADIUS signaling used in WRIX
“dimension” parameters which are to generate billing is not able to differentiate
considered in the wholesale charge models between Wi-Fi usage for different
or requested for the purpose of applications, then there are clear challenges
reconciliation, such as APN, QCI, or RAT in being able to use WBA’s currently defined
type roaming architecture to support such use
cases. Approaches to enable such split
retail billing to be supported would seem to
Possible necessitate the additional tunneling of user
plane traffic between the Visited Network
Enhancements to Provider and the Home Service Provider,
enabling the HSP to differentiate between
WRIX the traffic destined to different services, e.g.,
based on destination IP address. Such an
Compared with GSMA’s recently defined approach would obviate the need for the
AURs and BDRs, WRIX already supports visited network provider to be aware of such
exchange of summarized reports with its differentiation.
exchange of Summary Financial Data (SFD) Because of such limitations, WBA’s
records, see Table 6-1. This capability Business Working Group may wish to
leverages the fact that end-to-end RADIUS monitor the market adoption of split retail
signaling is still available for the Home billing as it relates to IoT deployments and

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to understand whether WBA needs to in more detail in the following section.
trigger the definition of enhanced Automated peer discovery avoids the
capabilities to support such within a carrier manual configuration of RADIUS clients and
Wi-Fi roaming environment. servers and the configuration of shared
secrets that require additional administrative
Automating WRIX effort to manage.
The defined discovery mechanism is very
Security similar to the approach used by the
Diameter protocol, where DNS is used to
Automated Peer Discovery match the NAI realm to a Naming Authority
As described in section 5, the current WRIX Pointer (NAPTR) record.
architecture is based on RADIUS with its Adding automated peer discovery
particular requirement for security based on capabilities to the current RADIUS based
pre-shared keys which are uniquely tied WRIX-I framework may enhance the
with the IP address of the RADIUS server. longevity of those systems, as dynamic peer
This has restricted the use of dynamic discovery has been claimed to be one of the
discovery by the AAA client of the next-hop key advantages motivating the adoption of
AAA server. Diameter based AAA roaming.
This scan be contrasted with the wide scale Whereas Dynamic Peer Discovery for
adoption of DNS to enable dynamic RADIUS does permit the RADIUS client to
discovery of peer entities, e.g., identify and directly connect to the RADIUS
• The inter-PLMN DNS is used to support home server, RFC 7585 describes the
user plane portions of cellular roaming benefits that roaming brokers/clearing
where DNS is used to resolve an APN into a houses can still provide in a dynamic
gateway address. environment, including:
• DNS is used for discovering the "next hop" • Where the roaming hub acts as a gateway

Diameter agent. for multiple back ends
• The dynamic discovering of the MME • Where the roaming hub is used to
using DNS resolution of the TAI-FQDN. normalize RADIUS messages
• The LoRa Network Server discovers the • Where a server has not been enhanced
address of the LoRa Join Server using with dynamic peer discovery/RADSEC
DNS. capabilities
DNS based discovery of RADIUS servers • Where a home server does not want to
has been specified by IETF in RFC 7585 receive request from un-configured peers
and is associated with the use of RADSEC.
In particular, as the peer has been Automated security
dynamically discovered, new procedures The shared secret based RADIUS security
are required to enable the client to verify can add significantly to the burden of
that the discovered peer is authoritative for administering a RADIUS system.
the NAI realm. These issues are addressed

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Furthermore, the use of MD5 to provide certificate revocation:
per-packet authentication and integrity • OSCP (RFC 6960)
checks has known weaknesses. Moving
forward, the use of these pre-configured • OCSP stapling (RFC 6066)
shared secrets is incompatible with the • Status request extensions v2 (RFC 6961)
adoption of scaling techniques based on
dynamic peer discovery. Different Scenarios for
These limitations can be addressed by the Deploying Automated WRIX
use of secured communications between
Security
RADIUS peers, using either TLS or DTLS.
This approach obsoletes the use of IP The enhanced capability delivered by the
addresses and shared MD5 secrets to combination of RADSEC and DNSROAM
identify other peers, enabling the use of can be deployed in different scenarios.
alternative trust models, e.g., based on Deployment Option #1: RADSEC to
X.509 certificates. secure WRIX interfaces.
Where the server has been dynamically One option is to enhance WRIX definitions
discovered, the certificate can be used to to enable RADSEC to replace current
verify that the peer is authoritative for the RADIUS security. In particular, its
NAI realm. RFC 7585 describes a scenario deployment may be focused on protecting
where one or more specific root Certificate HUB-to-HUB signaling links, where the
Authorities can be defined as issuing scaling challenges are less likely to be
certificates for the specific purpose of evident (e.g., because of the limited number
establishing RADIUS trust and the use of a of inter-HUB provider links that need
new X.509 certificate property protecting).
“SubjectAltName:otherName:NAIRealm”
Introduction of RADSEC to secure
that can be included in the certificate and
interfaces between WRIX-I HUB
when present contains the NAI realm(s) for
providers
which the server is authoritative.
Adding RADSEC capabilities to the current
WRIX-I framework will likely enhance the
longevity of those systems, as Diameter’s
security support has been claimed to be one
Deployment Option #2: RADSEC and
of the key advantages motivating the
DNS ROAM used to secure WRIX
adoption of Diameter based AAA roaming.
interfaces.
Automated Revocation An evolution of Option #1 is to additionally
deploy DNSROAM capability to now support
The use of certificates to automate security dynamically automated security between
comes with the additional administrative the WRIX-I based HUB providers.
task of how to deal with revoked certificates.
This is not a new issue. Indeed, the Instead of relying on static realm based
Passpoint deployment guidelines cover routing, DNS can be used to dynamically

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discover a RADIUS peer with the HUB’s and WRIX-I hub
certificate indicating that it is authoritative
for a particular realm.
Using a combination of RADSEC and
DNSROAM to automate the security
between WRIX-I HUB providers.

IoT Application Security

The scale of the IoT applications
exacerbates the necessity to manage

exponentially more identities than traditional
Deployment Option #3: Automating Wi-Fi-based systems do. Moreover, the
security of the WRIX-I hub-to-HNP migration to cloud architectures means that
interface. these IoT applications will likely be
With some anticipating IoT deployments will increasingly hosted within third party cloud
see a dramatic increase in the number of provider environments. However, these
identity providers, the same core capability externally hosted applications still require
can be used to automate the security credential management. Instead of simply
between WRIX-I hub providers and home duplicating identity management capability
network providers/identity providers. in each application, an approach that is
increasingly being used is so use identity
Automating the security between WRIX-I
federation to solve the above challenge.
hub and HNP
Within the Internet’s browser based
environment, SAML has emerged as the
dominant standard for enabling the secure
exchange of authentication and
authorization information between security
domains.

Federated identity translates the user’s
Deployment Option #4: Automating
local identity into a SAMLassertion
security of the VNP-to-WRIX-I hub
interface.
The same core capability can be used to
automate the security between
VNP-to-WRIX-I hub providers, for example
to facilitate the rapid increase in access
networks that may in the future want to offer
WRIX based courtesy access to users.
Leveraging SAML to enable these use
Automating the security between VNP cases provides the following benefits :

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• User passwords never cross the password credentials within a
firewall, since user authentication occurs SASL/GSS-API application
inside of the firewall and multiple web environment, RFC 7055 specifies a
application passwords are no longer GSS-API mechanism for supporting
required. EAP based authentication. This means
• Web applications with no passwords that the previous restriction limiting the
are virtually impossible to hack, as the used of EAP for network access
user must authenticate against an authentication has been removed,
enterprise-class IdM first, which can permiting the use of EAP in (IoT)
include strong authentication application authentication.
mechanisms. IETF’s Application Bridging for
Federated Access Beyond web
• “SP-initiated” SAML SSO provides
architecture
access to web apps for users outside of
the firewall. If an outside user requests
access to a web application, the SP can
automatically redirect the user to an
authentication portal located at the IdP.
After authenticating, the user is granted
access to the application, while their
login and password remains locked
safely inside the firewall.
Automated Settlement
Investigations are on-going into using new
• Centralized federation provides a
technology to address clearing and
single point of web application access,
settlement, driven primarily by the banking
control and auditing, which has security, sector. As identified by Santander IoT is one
risk and compliance benefits. of the drivers for the streamling of the
Compared with the browser-centric contractual process, advocating the use of
SAML based single-sign-on, the Simple digital platforms that govern and verify
smart contracts.
Authentication and Security Layer
(SASL) and the Generic Security In particular, the use of distributed ledger
Service Application Program Interface (also referred to as blockchain) technology
(GSS-API) are application frameworks is receiving much attention in the financial
technology (FinTech) sector to revolutionize
to generalize authentication. In
transaction clearing. Within the Fintech
particular, RFC 6595 specifies a SASL
environment, the near-instantaneous
mechanism and a GSS-API mechanism clearing and settlement achievable with
for SAML 2.0 that allows the integration distributed ledgers is targeted at increasing
of existing SAML Identity Providers with accuracy of trade data and to reduce
applications using SASL and GSS-API. settlement risk. Distributed ledgers can be
In contrast to re-using username and open, even enabling anonymous entities to

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participate and so clearly scaling to support
Monitoring Split Billing Adoption
the dynamic discovery and operations
described previously. Alternatively, they can WBA’s Business Working Group may wish
be closed, requiring all entities to be to monitor the market adoption of split retail
identified and be participants in a Summary billing as it relates to IoT deployments and
of gaps identified and recommendations to understand whether WBA needs to
trigger the definition of enhanced
Framed-IPv6-Attribute and capabilities to support such within a carrier
Framed-IPv6-Prefix support Wi-Fi roaming environment
With the increasing adoption of IPv6 for
Adoption of RADSEC between WRIX
device addressing and the associated
Hub providers
removal of NAT functionality, it will be
increasingly the case that IoT devices and WBA should enhance its WRIX definitions
carrier Wi-Fi users will be allocated globally to enable RADSEC to be supported. WBA
routable IPv6 addresses. should work with Certificate Authorities to
understand the requirements necessary for
WBA should introduce the
supporting RADSEC between hub
Framed-IPv6-Address and
providers. Any proposal should cover off
Framed-IPv6-Prefix attributes into WRIX
comparisons between current IPSec and
signaling exchanges.
proposed RADSEC approach.
Generalized UDR for IoT Data
Adoption of DNSROAM for
Clearing
automating HUB-to-HSP Connectivity
WRIX d/f systems are currently defined to
The wide scale adoption of IoT may be
support Wi-Fi based use cases, using fields
characterized by devices using many
derived from RADIUS based authentication.
different credential types and be supported
WBA, in co-operation with LoRa Alliance, by a wide range of identity providers being
should consider enhancing current WRIX required to be supported. In order to
definitions to allow other IoT use cases to accommodate such a scenario, WBA should
be supported. Topics to be addressed analyze any HUB-to-HSP scaling limitations
include how to signal LoRa specific associated with current realm routing
information, including NETID, JoinEUI and functionality.
DevEUI, as well as session definition,
According to the output of such analysis,
chargeable user identity and record
WBA may consider enhancing its WRIX
handling.
definitions to enable enhanced scalability
WRIX Record Encoding via dynamic discovery of HSPs.
WBA should consider the possible Note: This functionality can be defined to
decreases in WRIX record handling costs coexist with existing WRIX functionality, for
(and corresponding increases in scalability example, only relying on DNSROAM where
for IoT handling) associated with a new no static realm route already exists.
record encoding techniques. Adoption of DNSROAM for automating

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VNP-to-HUB Connectivity
WRIX enhancements for MulteFire
The proliferation of IoT devices connecting Alliance Support
to Wi-Fi networks can impact the definition
of a Visited Network Provider. If IoT devices The MulteFire Alliance has adapted the
effectively roam onto Enterprise networks, 3GPP defined approaches for Trusted and
there will be a dramatic impact on the Un-Trusted Wi-Fi integration for enabling
scaling requirements for VNPs. In order to Neutral Host Network deployments of
accommodate such a scenario, WBA should MulteFire technology.
analyze any VNP-to-HUP scaling limitations WBA should consider enhancing its WRIX
associated with current realm routing specifications and systems to enable
functionality. authentication via the MulteFire Alliance
According to the output of such analysis, defined Neutral Host MME, e.g., to cover
WBA may consider enhancing its WRIX deployment in 5GHz and/or CBRS-based
definitions to enable enhanced scalability for 3.5 GHz band.
increased numbers of VNP/Enterprise
5G Non-3GPP Subscription
networks.
Identifiers
IoT Application Security Although 3GPP documents indicate that
WBA should continue monitoring the roaming scenarios are precluded for 5G’s
adoption of EAP/GSS-API and the possible non-3GPP subscription identifiers, WBA and
re-use of WRIX and GSS-API for securing GSMA capabilities already permit roaming
IoT Applications. based on non-IMSI identifiers.
WBA should, in co-operation with GSMA,
IoT Ease of Use consider how to facilitate roaming for
Whereas roaming agreement based devices with 5G non- 3GPP subscription
approaches ensure that terms and identifiers.
conditions are agreed a priori and thus do
not impact the user experience, the current Impact of automated clearing and
fragmented approach to acceptable use settlement
policies and liability disclaimers for isolated WBA should continue monitoring evolutions
Wi-Fi hotspots, where individual networks in the automation of clearing and settlement
define their own policies necessitating and understand the implications of such on
acceptance of those by a browser based its existing WRIX based roaming systems.
interaction, severely impact user experience
and will prohibit headless IoT devices from
accessing the network.
WBA should consider, as part of its WRIX
evolution strategy, how to facilitate the
adoption of roaming by providers of isolated
Wi-Fi hotspots.

Technology Insight
Transformation of Core Network in 5G
These eco system requirements are

A Broader Outlook coming up with new approaches,
generating new challenges and
enigmas. To cater these eco system
Humongous flood of smart devices
requirements the concept of
and next generation applications
heterogeneous network at access and
and also the reach of networking to
unified core network could be
small piece of appliances, the
evaluated. Where there will be
demand of the data traffic is being
convergence at the access for
increased multifold on service
heterogeneous radios and unified
networks. Networks are no longer
core for the unification of policy,
remained and will remain an entity
provisioning and mobility.
of just to provide connectivity but
also to understand the whole
As devices are already there or
ecosystem and have to evolve at
coming up with all the new interfaces
every level.
along with 2G/3G or LTE and WiFi

Technology Insight
with hotspot2.0 -- Passpoint etc. Also enabler. In such endeavour the

the upcoming 5G NR in near future. control plane would fall to cloud and
data plane would be on SDN.
These technologies are being utilized
to provide heterogeneous network Coming to more specifics on network
connectivity and to be managed to architecture, Access stratum and
cater the various race and cast of non-access stratum (core) paradigm
traffic that the devices generate, is going to hold with such
depending on the services and enhancements. As access stratum
connectivity. would be more about access
selection and capability associations
This will not only provide the capacity etc. whereas core would be more on
enhancement but also efficiency of service delivery, policy, mobility and
individual access network network connectivity.
connectivity. It will result in total
convergence at radio access and on mobility front also shift will
there would be selection mechanism happen from hierarchical mobility to
to decide the network at access for network mobility and hierarchical
specific service and related traffic mobility will stand with the best
forwarding to and from core network limited reach at access stratum. That
which is providing public network means to say that IETF protocols may
connectivity. dominates in the whole mobility
aspects of the systems.
The complexities which will arise on
such network evolution would be for While looking at the upcoming thrust
the demand for flexibility, elasticity, and compulsion for evolution in
unification, ubiquitous and network architecture, a solution
seamlessness. The feasibility of approach for the same could be
addressing such requirements lies in contemplated. This is briefly defined
the paradigm shift of complete as convergence at access stratum,
separation of control and data plane and non-access stratum with unified
and in such endeavour cloud and SDN core where an ‘Access Controller
are going to provide encouraging Agent’ will help to select the access

Technology Insight
network and also will construct the Agent is a variant of MME as most of
core by finding the required the MME functionality will move to
association of cloud and SDN. The cloud it would be there with global
figure below depicts the emerging attributes and domain specific scope
mechanism. to land to right cloud and enter into
right SDN realm or domain. The
networks of agents would provide
the unification of policy and
provisioning and mobility.
This paradigm shift which I refer to as

“homogenous connectivity of
heterogeneous networks” could be
envisioned to transform the next
generation network architecture to
The separation of control plane and
suit the emerging ecosystem.
data plane in next generation mobile
core network architecture has
already happened to some extent in
EPS or SAE. Thanks to All IP paradigm 3GPP
in mobile networks to make this
happening. Coming of cloud and SDN Service Based Architecture
is going to corroborate this paradigm
Compared to previous generations
shift to further extent.
the 3GPP 5G system architecture is
As depicted in the Figure the access service based. That means wherever
will be approaching to unified core
suitable the architecture elements
through globally unique network
service access identifier (NSAPI), are defined as network functions that
which will be helping to find the right offer their services via interfaces of a
Access controller agent to find common framework to any network
association between cloud for control
functions that are permitted to make
plane and SDN realm for data plane.

Technology Insight
use of these provided services. interconnection across various

Network repository functions (NRF) network functions.
allow every network function to
The figure below shows one of the
discover the services offered by other
service based architecture figures,
network functions. This architecture
which is for a roaming scenario with
model, which further adopts
local breakout, i.e. the roaming UE
principles like modularity, reusability
interfaces the Data Network (DN) in
and self-containment of network
the visited network (VPLMN) and the
functions, is chosen to enable
home network (HPLMN) enables it
deployments to take advantage of
with subscription information (UDM),
the latest virtualization and software
subscriber authentication (AUSF) and
technologies. The related service
UE specific policies (PCF). Network
based architecture figures depict
slice selection (NSSF), network access
those service based principles by
control and mobility management
showing the network functions,
(AMF), data service management
primarily Core Network functions,
(SMF) and application functions (AF)
with a single interconnect to the rest
are provided by the VPLMN. The user
of the system. Reference point based
plane (UPF) is managed following a
architecture figures are also provided
model of control and user plane
by the stage 2 specifications, which
separation similar to what was
represent more specifically the
already introduced in the latest 3GPP
interactions between network
4G release. Security proxies (SEPP)
functions for providing system level
protect the interactions between
functionality and to show inter-PLMN
PLMNs.

Technology Insight
associations from one AMF and

re-binding with another AMF enables
separating such data storage also for
the AMF. Earlier system architectures
had more persistent UE specific
In the local breakout scenarios a UE transport associations, which made it
receives the services of a PLMN more complex to change the UE's
typically completely from the serving serving node that compares to an
operator's administrative domain. AMF. The new functionality
Home-routed data services are the simplifies changing the AMF instance
alternative for roaming scenarios, that serves a UE. It also supports
which have also network functions increasing AMF resilience and load
from the home operator's balancing as every AMF from a set of
administrative domain involved and AMFs deployed for the same network
the UE interfaces the DN in the slice can handle procedures of any UE
HPLMN. served by the set of AMFs.
Service based principles apply Common Core Network

between the control plane network
The generalised design of the
functions of the Core Network.
functionalities and a forward
Further, the 5G system architecture
compatible Access Network – Core
allows network functions to store
Network interface enable the 5G
their contexts in Data Storage
common Core Network to operate
Functions (DSF). Functionality for
with different Access Networks. In
releasing the UE specific Access
3GPP Release 15 these are the 3GPP
Network – Core Network transport

Technology Insight
defined NG-RAN and the 3GPP Application Support with

defined untrusted WLAN access. Unified Policy Control
Studies on other access systems that The basis of the application support
may be used in future releases are the data services, which offer
started already. The 5G system considerably more flexibility for
architecture allows for serving both customization compared to earlier
Access Networks by the same AMF generations. A main part of this is the
and thereby also for seamless new QoS model of the 3GPP 5G
mobility between those 3GPP and system architecture, shown in the
non-3GPP accesses. The separated figure below, that that enables
authentication function together with differentiated data services to
a unified authentication framework support diverse application
allow to customize the user requirements while using radio
authentication according to the resources efficiently. Further, it is
needs of the different usage designed to support different Access
scenarios, e.g. different per network Networks, including fixed accesses
slice. Most of the other 5G system where QoS without extra signaling
architecture functionality introduced may be desirable. Standardized
by this article is common for different packet marking informs QoS
Access Networks. Some functionality enforcement functions what QoS to
provides variants that are more provide without any QoS signaling.
suitable for specific Access Networks, While the option with QoS signaling
like certain QoS functionality offers more flexibility and QoS
described later. granularity. Furthermore, symmetric
QoS differentiation over downlink

Technology Insight
and uplink is supported with minimal modes allow for relocating the IP
control plane signaling by the newly anchor. There are two options,
introduced Reflective QoS. make-before-break (SSC mode 3) and
break-before-make (SSC mode 2). The
architecture enables applications to
influence selection of suitable data
service characteristics and SSC mode.
A large part of the functionality

providing data connectivity is for
supporting flexible deployment of
application functions in the network
topology as needed for edge As 5G network deployments are
computing, which is supported, for expected to serve huge amounts of
example, via three different Session mobile data traffic, an efficient user
and Service Continuity (SSC) modes plane path management is essential.
or via the functionality of Uplink The system architecture defines in
Classifiers and Branching Points. addition to the SSC modes the

functionality of Uplink Classifiers and
The SSC modes include the more
Branching Points to allow for
traditional mode (SSC 1), where the
breaking out and injecting traffic
IP anchor remains stable to provide
selectively to and from application
continual support of applications and
functions on the user plane path
maintenance of the path towards the
before the IP anchor. Also, as
UE as its location is updated. The new

Technology Insight
permitted by policies, application events that may be relevant for

functions may coordinate with the applications.
network by providing information
relevant for optimizing the traffic
route or may subscribe to 5G system

Perspective
Seamless & Secure WiFi.

By Tiago Rodrigues, General Manager of the Wireless Broadband Alliance
(WBA)
WBA showcase WiFi Passpoints hotspots

network at MWC 2018. A demonstration for
seamless and secure WiFi.
This year at Mobile World Congress Barcelona and City of Barcelona
(MWC) Barcelona a group of developed a pilot on Wi-Fi Roaming
companies, many of them members across a series of hotspots in
of the Wireless Broadband Alliance Barcelona using Passpoint technology
(WBA) together with GSMA, Fira and WRIX standards to deliver a

Perspective
seamless and secure roaming service and train stations) and outdoor
between different networks and coverage in City center. In all these
service providers. locations Passpoint technology was
activated and a specific SSID was set
Project Goals up for the project to deliver to the
end users a cellular like experience
The goal of this project was to
over the Wi-Fi networks, full
accelerate market understanding and
automatic connection to the Wi-Fi
adoption of Passpoint technology,
hotspots – without any manual
network interoperability and Wi-Fi
intervention from the end users.
roaming services based on WRIX
standards, creating what WBA Who was involved?
defines as Next Generation Hotspot
(NGH). This type of project falls in to Cisco Systems played the role of
the Testing and Trials programs from major technology provider and was
WBA to accelerate business supported by Boingo Wireless,
opportunities and technology Unitronics, CellNex and Think Smarter
adoption – something WBA has been for all the configurations and testing.
doing since 2008. All the hotspots where
interconnected using the concept of a
Over 2200 hotspots were made live; central roaming Hub facilitated by
from Fira Gan Via and Fira Montjuic Boingo Wireless, BSG Wireless and
where GSMA MWC is hosted, over Accuris-Networks.
300 APs across Barcelona, in some of
the key tourist locations, like the Additionally WBA invited service
Ramblas, Plaza Catalunya, Passeig de providers with commercial
Gràcia, train stations among many NGH/Passpoint services to join the
other sites in the City and in El Prat project and provide roaming to their
Airport. customers during the duration of
MWC Barcelona. Mobile operators,
Overall the plan was to setup a wide cable operators, ISPs, pure WiFi
coverage of a Wi-Fi/Passpoint/NGH providers and users from enterprises
network across MWC Fira Exhibition that already have Passpoint deployed
Center, transportation hubs (airport

Perspective
in their offices; all these companies removed any on-boarding obstacles

came together and used all these making a truly seamless experience
hotspots across Barcelona for their to all users, just like cellular.
benefit of their customers as if they
were at their home network or office. 4. Generated anonymized analytics
from the multiple hotspots to provide
WBA and GSMA working together information to all venue owners
participating on the project. Think
This is not the first time the WBA has Smart developed real time analytics,
promoted a NGH/Passpoint network including flows and volumes of
during major events like MWC devices connected by location and
Barcelona but this time four major flows of movement of those devices
improvements were achieved: across and within the multiples
hotspots.
1. Increased coverage beyond the
Fira Exhibition Center. The project Our thanks to all those who
included private (enterprise Wi-Fi by participated.
Fira Barcelona), Municipal Wi-Fi (by
City of Barcelona) and Airport Wi-Fi Over 25 companies participated in
(by AENA, state own company to this project and WBA had the honor
manage the Spanish airports) to coordinate this initiative over the
last 4 months and work with some of
2. Mobilize enterprises users from the best industry professionals and
companies that have already Wi-Fi experts. Tremendous amount
deployed Passpoint at their offices of data have come out of this
and headquarters, several companies initiative but we will leave it to
got involved either directly or project participants to provide their
through iPASS services. case studies and reports, so stay
tuned.
3. Only involved operators / carriers
with Passpoint/NGH services Project participants: GSMA, WBA,
commercially available, like AT&T, Cisco, Boingo Wireless, City of
Charter Communications, Softbank or Barcelona, Fira Barcelona,
Boingo Wireless. This decision Unitronics, Cellnex, Think Smarter,

Perspective
BSG Wireless, Accuris Networks, municipal sectors alongside of all

AT&T, T-Mobile US, Sprint, Mobily, types of operators/carriers and
Telecom26, Softbank, Shaw enterprise users – Wi-Fi is seamless,
Communications, Spectrum (Charter interoperable, secure and widely
Communications), ER Telecom, iPass available – an entire ecosystem
and several enterprises with their coming together and WBA and its
employees. member are making this vision a
reality.
Over 50 people were involved on the
project and we thank you all for Looking forward for MWC 2019 and
making this happen, but I would like to take this initiative to the next level
to point out my gratitude to Jordi with more coverage, more services
Cirera and Toni Carol Vilanova (from and more end users – interested in
the City of Barcelona), Alex Williams these type of initiatives? Do you have
and Jon France (from GSMA), Carlos ideas to make it more valuable? You
Sanchez and Xavier Michavila Asensio are welcome and let’s make WiFi
(from Fira Barcelona), Mir Alami and seamless, secure and interoperable
Matt MacPherson (from Cisco), Derek across the entire ecosystem.
Peterson and Kishore Raja (from
Bongo Wireless), Antoni Montis Watch The Video
(Unitronics), Blaz Vavpetic (from
iPASS), Pedro Salvatella (Cellnex) and With Passpoint, Barcelona got smart
Brendan O'Brien (from Think and gave us a glimpse into the future
Smarter). of Connected Cities. See how the
technology was put to the test at
Making the vision a reality
#MWC18 in this video that features
This initiative represents somehow insight from WBA Board Members
my vision for Public Wi-Fi with Derek Peterson (Boingo Wireless) and
multiple venue owners working Matt MacPherson (Cisco),
together from private, public and
Video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnhRp2jXsA4

Perspective

Perspective
Gigabit LTE Experts View

As we said earlier that Gigabit LTE is providing access to new unlicensed
going to be a stepping stone for 5G frequencies. With this milestone,
readiness of the networks. What MTS has surpassed its previous
could be a better example than the 700Mbps speed record, enabling the
recent news from Russia where MTS service provider to take the next step
upgraded its network with LAA in turning its mobile infrastructure
capabilities using Ericsson into gigabit-capable.
equipment’s and test the gigabit LTE
speed on commercial deployments The deployment took place in a large
with commercial UEs. trade center on May 17 following a
series of tests conducted on a live
LAA is an important technology in the MTS network using a commercial
LTE network evolution to 5G, smartphone. The gigabit-per-second

Perspective
speeds were achieved using Ericsson buzz about gigabit LTE, with this
Radio System software, including Question in mind we approached our
256-QAM and 4CC Carrier Experts (Mr Oscar Bexell) and
Aggregation of 10 streams with 4x4 discussed at large and some
MIMO on a 20MHz licensed carrier significant take away we gleaned are
coupled with 3x20MHz LAA. like this…
Gigabit LTE is again a marketing buzz,
In addition, a range of Ericsson Radio with the objective of achieving gigabit
System products including the per second speed on LTE networks
LAA-powered Radio 2205, Baseband using more spectrum Carrier
5216, and B3 1800MHz band aggregation and MIMO techniques.
configured Radio 2212 were used in So far the speed is tested have
the rollout. Mobile devices powered reached somewhat near to gigabits in
by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ highly optimized conditions like
Gigabit LTE modems with LAA 264QAM etc.
support, including Snapdragon 835
and 845 Mobile Platforms. Gigabit LTE is not about the peak data
rates but more significantly the
While talking the Gigabit LTE, the first capacity enhancement of network, as
picture emerges about a gigabit three aggregated carriers perform
speed on each UE terminals, or at better than if you run each carrier by
least a speed of gigabit per second itself.
peek rates. Although, as in above
case, operators are able to achieve it With commercial availability, there
with the technology called ‘Carrier will be UE terminals available in the
Aggregation’, in specific form called market and their support will be
LAA, and MIMO with optimized driven by terminal sales figures and
coding and modulation schemes. user experience. If Apple and Google
believe CA and MIMO will make their
But it also shows the whole scenario users happier and buy more phones
to be highly optimized to achieve they will go for it. Same with LAA and
such data rates, which in practicality new CBRS radios.
not always feasible, so what is the big

Perspective
But things to be noted also that none building is very seldom more than
really needs more than a few Mbps 1Gbps. It's very often far less. So
on a phone. Upper layers in the again, peak rates won't be the driver.
application stack aren't even Short latency, QoS, ability for a phone
designed for handling those peaks. to seamlessly move between various
Buffer sizes, screens etc. don't cope radio network layers (for 100%
with 1Gbps. So the speed is of not mobility), private networks with
much focus here for an end user access to local content which could
(plus, your normal data cap would be require Gbps speeds, higher order
used in half a minute). antenna systems etc. are all features
we will see in those 4G/5G networks.
Future networks will be built from
inside buildings. The WAN to such a

Whitepaper
Network Slicing

Understanding Wi-Fi Capabilities

Source: WBA 5G Workgroup
Author(s): WBA Members
Issue date: March 2018
Document status: 1.0


Whitepaper
PARTICIPANT LIST
COMPANY NAME ROLE
Orange, Nigel Bird, Project Leader
Cisco, Mark Grayson, Chief Editor & Project Co-Leader
Intel, Necati Canpolat, Project Co-Leader
Broadcom, Florin Baboescu, Project Co-Leader
BT, Steve Dyett, Editorial team member
BT, Simon Ringland, Editorial team member

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ACRONYM / ABBREVIATION
DEFINITION
AN Access Network
APN Access Point Name
ATF Air Time Fairness
BSSID Basic Service Set Identifier
CN Core Network
CSMF Communication Service Management Function
EPC Evolved Packet Core
FST Fast Session Transfer
MVNO Mobile Virtual Network Operator
NF Network Function
NSI Network Slice Instance
NSMF Network Slice Management Function
PDN Packet Date Network

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QoS Quality of Service
SDN Software Defined Network
TN Transport Network
TWAG Trusted WLAN Access Gateway
UE User Equipment
URLLC Ultra-Reliable Low Latency
VAP Virtual Access Point
VSDB Virtual Simultaneous Dual Band
WBA Wireless Broadband Alliance
WLCP Wireless LAN Control Plane Protocol
Executive Summary
Slicing is seen as foundational to 5G networks and is perceived by some as being
unique to 3GPP. However, many of the concepts behind slicing have already
been implemented by the Wi-Fi community, delivering solutions that enable
multiple use cases to be simultaneously supported on a common Wi-Fi
infrastructure. This document describes how a combination of standardized
capabilities, coupled with widespread support of vendor-specific capabilities,
are being used to implement all of 3GPP’s slicing functionality and enable Wi-Fi
networks to be “sliced”. After analyzing the various slicing requirements, it is
concluded that Wi-Fi systems can support the majority of slicing use cases.

foundational capability of 5G
1. Introduction to networks to simultaneously support

the various different 5G use cases on
Slicing a common 5G architecture. These use
cases may have vastly different
Network slicing is seen as a
service needs, with 3GPP’s TS 22.261

Whitepaper
[1] describing the variety of the functionality of a complete
functionalities that can be tailored network, including radio access
per slice, (e.g., priority, charging, network functions and core network
policy control, security, and mobility), functions. Moreover, with 3GPP’s 5G
differences in performance Core Network being positioned as
requirements (e.g., latency, mobility, access agnostic and able to support
availability, reliability and data rates), both 5G New Radio based radio
or the ability to serve only specific access as well as 802.11 based “non
users (e.g., Public Safety users, 3GPP” access, it will become
corporate customers, roamers, or increasingly important to understand
hosting an MVNO). the ability of 802.11-based networks
Being able to support a variety of to support slicing concepts.
different use cases on a common This short document looks into those
Wi-Fi infrastructure is widespread. requirements defined by 3GPP in its
For example, many enterprises definition of network slicing and
simultaneously support enterprise compares those with capabilities that
users and guest on a converged are able to be supported using Wi-Fi
architecture. Additionally, Wi-Fi architectures.
service providers have delivered
residential offerings, where logical
separation of services within the 2. 3GPP Slicing
hardware is augmented by network Network Slicing is fundamentally an
and service intelligence. This enables end-to-end partitioning of the
public carrier Wi-Fi and private home network resources and network
services, that exhibit vastly different functions so that selected
security, mobility, charging and policy applications/services/connections
behaviors, to be supported on the may run in isolation from each other
same Wi-Fi infrastructure for a specific business purpose.
However, it is evident that 3GPP’s 1
definition of network slicing doesn’t Wireless Broadband Alliance Confidential &

merely impact the radio, rather as Broadband Alliance
described in TS 22.261, it represents

Whitepaper
network definition are:
2.1 3GPP Slicing 1. The ability to configure the
Definition information which associates a UE to
3GPP defines slicing procedures for a network slice.
the core network, directives for the 2. The ability of an operator to assign
access network and suggestions for a UE to a network slice, to move a UE
the transport network [2]. from one network slice to another,
A network slice instance (NSI) is and to remove a UE from a network
complete in the sense that it includes slice, e.g., based on subscription.
all functionalities and resources 3. The ability to isolate traffic
necessary to support certain set of between different network slices in
communication services thus serving the same network. Traffic and
certain business purpose. The NSI services in one network slice shall
contains Network Functions (NFs) have no impact on traffic and services
(e.g. belonging to AN and CN). in other network slices in the same
For the part of the Transport Network network.
(TN) supporting connectivity between 4. The system shall enable the
the NFs, the 3GPP management network operator to define a
system provides link requirements minimum and maximum available
(e.g. topology, QoS attributes) to the capacity for a network slice.
management system that handles the 5. The ability of an operator to define
part of the TN supporting connectivity prioritization between slices, in case
between the NFs. network resources become
over-subscribed.
6. The ability to enable a UE to be
2.2 Access Network simultaneously assigned to and
Related 3GPP Slicing access services from more than one
Requirements network slice of one operator.
3GPP TS 22.261 lists the top-level

slicing requirements. The
requirements pertinent to access

Whitepaper
requirements into the slice
2.3 Management related requirements through the Network
Slicing Requirements Slice Management Function (NSMF)
to define the Network Slice Template
3GPP TS 22.261 additionally lists
(NST) and orchestration of the
slicing requirements related to slice
Network Slice Instance (NSI).
management:
• The Network Slice Template
1. The 5G system shall allow the
describes the NSI with required
operator to create, modify, and
instance specific policies and
delete a network slice.
configurations
• The Network Slice Instance contains
operator to define and update the set
Network Functions (NF) constituting
of services and capabilities supported
Access Network (AN), Core Network
in a network slice.
(CN) and Transport Network (TN).
3GPP defines the Network Slice
operator to configure the information
Instance lifecycle as an independent
which associates a service to a
process which includes preparation,
network slice.
instantiation, run-time and
4. Creation, modification, and decommissioning:
deletion of a network slice shall have Figure 2-1: 3GPP Network Slicing Management
no or minimal impact on traffic and
services in other network slices in the
same network. In order to meet
these requirements, 3GPP defines a
framework and requirements for
management and operation of
network slicing as illustrated in Figure

2-1.
3GPP TR 28.801 defines the
Communication Service Management
Function (CSMF) that is responsible
for translating the service

Whitepaper
into a particular VLAN. The use of
3. Slicing dynamic VLAN assignment enables

the slice selection to be based on
Requirements and network policy, rather than handset
configuration.
Wi-Fi Architecture Such capabilities are widely used
This section compares the above key within the Wi-Fi industry and are
slicing requirements with capabilities used within enterprise deployments,
currently available in Wi-Fi based e.g., enabling to associate guest Wi-Fi
networks. Where functionality users with a particular VLAN that is
leverages vendor proprietary distinct and isolated from the
functionality, examples of such are corporate VLAN used to support
provided to illustrate how such enterprise employees. Carrier Wi-Fi
functions are broadly available across deployments leverage the same
the Wi-Fi ecosystem. capabilities, supporting partitioning
of resources and hence enabling
3.1 Ability to associate a simultaneous support of private and
public devices.
Wi-Fi device to a
3GPP also defines Network Slice
network slice
Selection Assistance Information that
In Wi-Fi networks, the isolation is provided by a UE to help determine
associated with slicing requirements which slice to associate a UE with. In
can be realized using different Wi-Fi networks, this slice selection
techniques. In controller-based assistance functionality can be
deployments, VLANs can be realized using multiple BSSID
dynamically allocated by the network functionality. With such a
to packet flows associated with configuration, a Wi-Fi device will use
different groups of users, as its selected SSID to “indicate slice
illustrated in Figure 3-1. RFC 3580 [3] selection assistance information” to
specifies how the tunnel attributes the Wi-Fi network. Importantly, the
defined in RFC 2868 can be used to selected SSID used
allocate the authenticated Wi-Fi user
by the device together with the AP’s

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MAC address can be signaled to other and the WAN tunnel. This ensures
network functions in the RFC 3580 isolation between the carrier Wi-Fi
specified RADIUS signaling messages. traffic and the home traffic that is
This enables the network to take into being bridged onto the home
account the assistance/SSID network.
information when determining which Figure 3-2: Slice support using multiple BSSIDs
slice/VLAN to allocate to a particular
user.
Figure 3-1: Slice support using single BSSID

4
Wireless Broadband Alliance Confidential &
Broadband Alliance

In those use cases where slicing

selection is entirely controlled by the
3.2 Ability to move a
user, the multiple BSSID functionality Wi-Fi device from one
can also be used to realize slicing. For network slice to another,
example, in residential deployments, and to remove a UE from
home gateways typically enable
independent configuration of
a network slice
parameters on a per BSSID basis, Being able to move a Wi-Fi device
including security type, bridge mode, from one network slice to another is
network address translation, together a scenario which is already used
with WAN tunneling capabilities. This within carrier Wi-Fi deployments.
enables BSSID selection to be used to Significantly, the definition of
support a “home network slice” and a Hotspot2.0 leverages such
“carrier Wi-Fi slice” on a single home capabilities, allowing the user to first
gateway. Packets associated with the receive service from a “provisioning
“carrier Wi-Fi slice” will be switched slice” where they are able to access
directly between the Wi-Fi interface on-line signup services and then be

Whitepaper
moved to a “production slice” where environment, such techniques can be
users leverage their newly used to move a Wi-Fi device from one
provisioned credentials to access VLAN to another, or can be used in a
Carrier Wi-Fi services. carrier Wi-Fi environment to move a
Enterprise Wi-Fi deployments Wi-Fi device from a default APN on
leverage the same capabilities for one Trusted WLAN Access Gateway
delivering enhanced security services (TWAG) to another.
that deal with endpoint posture. Note, 802.11v (since incorporated in
Enterprises may define endpoint 802.11-2012) introduced the ability
requirements, e.g., in terms of for the Wi-Fi network to trigger a BSS
anti-virus/anti- spyware enablement. transition. Although this functionality
Endpoints which are determined to could conceivably be used to assist in
be non-compliant will be associated moving devices between slices, the
with a “remediation service slice” device response to the network
that enables them to access posture triggering a transition event between
remediation services. Once the BSSIDs is often vendor dependent.
device has complied with the
appropriate policy, the network can 3.3 Ability to isolate
then move the Wi-Fi device to the traffic between different
“compliant service slice”.
network slices in the
Being able to move a particular Wi-Fi
client from one “network slice” to same network
another and to remove a Wi-Fi client As described in section 3.1, the
from the network is achieved using combination of multiple BSSIDs over
RFC 5176 [4] specified dynamic the 802.11 interface, coupled with
authorization mechanisms. network based VLAN allocation, can
Importantly, if this is to avoid be used to provide the traffic
client-side impacts, it will require that isolation between different network
the BSSID is common between the slices over a common Wi-Fi
two slices, further motivating the use architecture, or even isolation
of dynamic VLAN assignment for slice between traffic from different Wi-Fi
allocation. In an enterprise devices in the same slice.

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uplink or downlink.
3.4 Ability to define • Cisco: Air Time Fairness (ATF)
resources for a network functionality enables operators to
slice allocate resources between different
groups of users, including being able
This capability is typically realized in
to allocate different resources on a
the access network using vendor
per-SSID basis. Note, ATF only
proprietary capabilities. For example,
operates in the downlink direction. If
in 3GPP the exact details of the RAN
up-link resource allocation is
scheduling algorithms are not
required, this is supported by
defined, enabling RAN vendors to
defining upstream and downstream
differentiate their offerings. The
bandwidth limits for different SSIDs,
same approach is used by the Wi-Fi
or even for different groups of users
community, with resource allocation
using a single SSID.
being implemented using vendor
proprietary capabilities. Examples of • HPE-Aruba: Airtime allocation can
such are described below, be configured on a per SSID basis that
highlighting the widespread controls the aggregate amount of
availability of such functionality airtime that all clients on the SSID can
across the Wi-Fi ecosystem. use to send/receive data.
• Arris-Ruckus: The WLAN • Huawei: Virtual Access Points

Prioritization feature enables a (VAPs) use a combination of WMM,
priority (high/low) to be configured security and traffic profiles together
per SSID, to enable traffic with a VLAN ID to define a virtual
corresponding to “one slice” to be service. This functionality can be used
prioritized over traffic of “another to segment users and traffic with the
slice”. In addition, rate limiting ability to configure traffic policing on
controls fair access to the network. a per-VAP basis. The traffic profile
When enabled, the network traffic can be used to limit the rate of
throughput of each network device upstream and downstream traffic for
(i.e., client) is limited to the rate a single user or all users of the VAP.
specified in the traffic policy, and that Whereas current generation of Wi-Fi
policy can be applied on either the equipment enables strict controls to

Whitepaper
be applied to down-link traffic, it is in IEEE 802.11-2016 standard, will
currently difficult to control the deliver additional capabilities to
resources applied to up-link traffic, as define more granular resource for a
devices will be autonomously network slice, specifically in a
contending for up-link access, multi-band environment. FST enables
competing for resources until they steering of entire mobile devices to
succeed. In particular, strict control different bands near instantaneously
cannot be enforced and also separation of traffic streams
at the station (device) level, but can such as video, and data (and hence
be enforced at the AP level, where network slices) to multiple
traffic in excess of the allocated bands/channels within the same AP,
upstream BW is removed. enabling the optimization of
Importantly, 802.11ax the next frequency resources allocated to
generation of Wi-Fi, enables the particular slices.
network to schedule (multi-user)
up-link transmissions, and will 3.5 Ability to define
therefore enable enhanced 802.11 prioritization between
resource partitioning between
slices, in case network
different users and/or slices.
resources become
Note, unlike when operating in
exclusively licensed spectrum, over-subscribed
allocating minimum resources to a This capability is related to the
Wi-Fi slice will need to accommodate vendor proprietary Wi-Fi capabilities
the limitations associated with described in section 3.4.
operating in un-licensed spectrum • Arris-Ruckus: Rate limiting currently
and the requirement to contend for defined on a per client basis.
access with potentially overlapping
• Cisco: Air Time Fairness (ATF)
third party Wi-Fi systems, or other
functionality is defined to operate on
users of the unlicensed spectrum.
a percentage of overall resources and
Moving forward, Fast Session therefore scales with available 802.11
Transfer (FST), originally defined in bandwidth. Using a percentage
IEEE 802.11ad and since incorporated definition then avoids the

Whitepaper
requirement to deal with the contexts can be viewed as a
over-subscription described by 3GPP. precursor to functionality defined to
• HPE-Aruba: WLAN Airtime SSID support simultaneous connectivity to
configuration is configured by multiple slices.
specifying a percentage of airtime Already in Release 12, 3GPP has
able to be used to serve the defined an approach to enable
aggregate clients allocated to a trusted WLANs to access EPC based
particular SSID. Using a percentage services that are based on PDN
definition then avoids the connectivity concepts that include
requirement to deal with the APNs. The WLCP protocol specified in
over-subscription described by 3GPP. 3GPP TS 24.244 [5] enables the
• Huawei: The cumulative rate limit signaling of such information,
values corresponding to the traffic together with distinct destination
profiles associated with the different MAC addresses that are used by a
VAPs will typically be configured to Wi-Fi device to identify multiple flows
avoid over-subscription. over an 802.11 based access network.
6 However, the above description of

Wireless Broadband Alliance Confidential & current Wi-Fi capabilities highlights
Proprietary. Copyright © 2018 Wireless the challenges associated with
Broadband Alliance
re-using multiple BSSIDs and VLAN
allocation to support all network
3.6 Ability to enable a
slicing use cases. In particular, the
Wi-Fi device to be inability of the native 802.11 layer to
simultaneously enable a Wi-Fi device to simultaneous
connected to more than associate to multiple BSSIDs looks to
be a deficiency compared with 3GPP
one network slice network slicing requirements.
Unlike 3GPP that has traditionally Note, one example of a use case
defined the capability of a UE to have which is described as requiring such
different contexts/Access Point capability is a connected car scenario
Names, conventional Wi-Fi has no that needs to deliver high throughput
such concepts. These separate for in-car infotainment, whilst

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simultaneously supporting ultra cases the client device will comprise
reliable and low latency (URLLC) for of multiple logical stations. For
assisted/autonomous driving [6]. example, Broadcom’s Virtual
However, whilst there is a subset of Simultaneous Dual Band (VSDB)
use cases that functionality enables a single client
may benefit from a device being able device to simultaneously provide
to simultaneously connect to multiple connectivity to peer-to-peer services
network slices, it is equally evident as well as access point provided
that perhaps the majority of slicing services.
use cases do not require such
functionality. Indeed, some 3.7 Slicing of Wi-Fi Core
enterprise security administrators Networks and Transport
may perceive the simultaneous slice
Networks
support as being a security risk, in
much the same way as split-tunneling 3GPP defines slicing procedures for
VPNs are seen as a security risk. the core network, directives for the
access network and suggestions for
Note, Wi-Fi allows for two phases
the transport network. The previous
when joining a network: an
sub-sections have described
authentication phase, where the
important capability that enables the
device requests the network to
Wi-Fi access network to be sliced.
validate the device ability to connect,
and an association phase, where the Importantly, the typical use of VLANs
device actively enables data to isolate different network slices can
forwarding through the target also be used with switch
network. A client can authenticate to configurations to define bandwidth
more than one network, thus being policers that operate on the
ready to communicate with more aggregated per-slice traffic. This
than one BSSID, but can associate to enables transport resources to be
only one BSSID. allocated to particular Wi-Fi slices.
Note, some device implementations Furthermore, if the Carrier Wi-Fi

do support simultaneous association architecture is deployed using 3GPP’s
to multiple networks, and in these Trusted WLAN architecture, the same

Whitepaper
capabilities used to partition the transport and, where EPC
3GPP Core Network can be applied to components are re-used, 3GPP core
deliver sliced services for Wi-Fi users. network components. However,
7 support for network slicing in the
Wireless Broadband Alliance Confidential & cellular network is driving a need to
Broadband Alliance deliver cross domain orchestration
across access, core and transport
3.8 Management and domains and it should be expected
that a similar need for cross domain
Orchestration of Sliced
orchestration will become apparent
Wi-Fi Networks in Carrier Wi-Fi networks.
While Wi-Fi equipment typically The transition to Software Defined
supports management reporting on a Networks (SDN) that enable
per SSID basis, including the ability to increased network programmability,
report the resource usage on a is expected to lead to an associated
per-WLAN basis, the additional use of evolution of the management plane,
AAA based VLAN assignment to with the introduction of domain
dynamically associate devices to controllers. These domain controllers
network slices creates new will typically expose an abstracted
requirements for management service model northbound, enabling a
reporting from a slicing perspective. cross-domain service orchestrator to
Being able to report key performance program the end-to-end network.
indicators on the basis of a
With Wi-Fi and networking vendors
combination of selected WLAN and
increasingly adopting SDN concepts,
allocated VLAN should enable Wi-Fi
it should be apparent that support for
management systems to support
model based northbound APIs will
reporting on a per slice basis.
enable the management and
As with cellular networks, the current orchestration of end-to-end sliced
generation of carrier Wi-Fi networks Wi-Fi networks.
are often managed on a per domain
basis, with separate management
systems being used to address Wi-Fi,

Whitepaper
generation of Wi-Fi, will see further
4 Summary enhancements in the ability to

partition resources between users
Network slicing is seen as a and/or slices within Wi-Fi networks.
foundational 5G capability. With It is noted that the baselining
WBA’s 2018 projects including network slicing on multiple BSSID and
analysis of “unlicensed integration dynamic VLAN allocation functionality
with 5G networks”, it is obvious for supported in current Wi-Fi networks
WBA to examine the ability of Wi-Fi does restrict the ability to support
systems to support slicing concepts. the requirement that a device can be
This whitepaper has shown how 5 out simultaneously attached to multiple
of the 6 key network slicing slices.
requirements associated with the However, with the majority of use
access network can be addressed cases requiring devices to be
using commercial Wi-Fi capabilities. associated with a single slice, or with
Baselining network slicing on SSID sequential slices, it is evident that
selection coupled with dynamic VLAN Carrier Wi-Fi operators can embrace
assignment enables Wi-Fi network to the slicing concepts being defined by
dynamically associate devices to 3GPP and leverage already existing
network slices, isolate traffic between capabilities to deliver sliced Wi-Fi
slices and partition 802.11 resources networks.
allocated separate slices.
From a management plane
perspective, it is highlighted that the
above approach drives new
requirements from a KPI reporting
perspective, necessitating
information be aggregated based on
a combination of selected WLAN and
allocated VLAN.
Importantly, it is anticipated that the
introduction of 802.11ax, the next

Sustaining News
Telecom technologies especially since

the start of 4G and now in 5G. India is
looking to come in pace with the help
and collaboration from south korea.
Korea has also done early trail of 5G

technology in its recent hosted
PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.
South Korea has led the world for
many years in development of
advanced telecom technologies. The
country was ranked second in
information communications
technology index for 2017 by the
International Telecommunication
Union, while India was at the 134th
position.
India is planning to tie
up with south korea to According to industry players and
experts, India is likely to see rollout of
set up 5G test bed. 5G services after standards for the
technology are finalised by ITU in
After Visiting MWC 2018 at spain, 2019.
telecom minister of India Mr Manoj
sinha is active to push forward India’s
aspiration to bring the country in top
order for 5G adoption.
Since south korean have been

aggressive and leading the world in

Sustaining News
telecommunications equipment—can
US security concerns provide an avenue for hostile
governments to inject viruses, launch
on chinese equipments, denial-of-service attacks, steal data,
Chinese manufacturer and more. Although the FCC alone
can’t safeguard the integrity of our
like Huawei and ZTE communications supply chain, we
are under the radar. must and will play our part in a
government- and industry-wide effort
While Huawei’s carrier business is
to protect the security of our
passing its rivals in both rural and
networks.”
developed markets around the world,
U.S. carrier business remains a pain
point. Tier 1 carriers, facing politically That position has manifested as a
pressure from national security proposed rule change that could cut
hawks, not only don’t use Huawei off Universal Service Fund (USF)
network gear, but Verizon and AT&T dollars, used to incentivize and
even went so far as to scrap subsidize rural broadband
agreements to resell Huawei deployments, to small and rural
smartphones. carriers that use network
infrastructure gear provided by
Huawei and compatriot infrastructure
Huawei does work with more than 20
vendor ZTE.
Tier 3 U.S. operators, but now that
business line is being scrutinized by
lawmakers. Late last month, FCC The Linux Foundation
Chairman Ajit Pai, confirming an
earlier report, said, “Threats to announces Tungsten
national security posed by certain
communications equipment Fabric
providers are a matter of bipartisan
concern. Hidden ‘back doors’ to our Juniper Networks’ open-source
networks in routers, switches—and
network virtualization platform
virtually any other type of

Sustaining News
OpenContrail has finished migrating The purpose of Tungsten Fabric is to

to the Linux Foundation and build a secure and cloud-grade SDN
stack, which provides a network
rebranded itself as Tungsten Fabric.
fabric that can connect different
environments. Among its
Juniper originally open sourced contributors and community
OpenContrail in 2013 and announced members include Aricent, AT&T, Bell,
it was moving to the Linux Cavium, CertusNet, CloudOps,
Foundation last December. The CodiLime, Intel, Juniper Networks,
company said the platform includes Lenovo, Mellanox, Mirantis,
all the components needed to run a Netronome, Orange, SDN Essentials,
data center, including a TechTrueUp and Yandex.
software-defined networking (SDN)
controller, virtual router, “This move to the LF is a critical step
orchestration API, analytics and a in Tungsten Fabric’s evolution as a
management console. ubiquitous network fabric,” said
Randy Bias, VP of technology and
Similar to OpenContrail, Tungsten strategy Juniper, in a statement.
Fabric provides a single point of “Tungsten Fabric’s positioning as an
control, observability and analytics open source, multi-cloud, multi-stack,
for networking and security. It is network fabric that has been proven
integrated with cloud technology at scale gives it a unique opportunity
stacks, such as Kubernetes, Mesos, to bridge the gap between public,
VMware and OpenStack, and private, VMs, containers and bare
supports public, private cloud, hybrid metal. Tungsten Fabric provides
cloud deployments like AWS and choice and is committed to helping
GCE. It also includes a vRouter that customers achieve their network and
connects container, virtual machine security nirvana while eliminating
(VM) and bare-metal applications, vendor lock-in.”
along with a controller, which
orchestrates network overlays, switch Bias also noted in a blog post that
fabrics and router gateways. Tungsten Fabric is working to become
a part of the LF Networking Fund

Sustaining News
(LFN), which was introduced in “We look forward to continued

January as a way to house the Linux collaboration on the Tungsten Fabric
Foundation’s many open source platform as it completes the move to
projects under a single roof. Among join The Linux Foundation,” said Chris
the founding projects of the LFN Rice, senior vice president, Domain
include FD.io, OpenDaylight, ONAP, 2.0 architecture and design, AT&T.
OPNFV, PNDA and SNAS. “By “We expect this move to foster
collaborating with the other LFN greater innovation, and we support
projects—ONAP, OPNFV, Tungsten Fabric’s commitment to
OpenDaylight, FD.io, DPDK, SNAS and open networking.”
PNDA—our community can more
quickly respond to emerging use T-mobile and Sprint
cases and resolve cross-project
technical issues,” Bias wrote. merger anticipated to be
a big change in US
The new project follows the Linux
Foundation announcing another
market.
project in February, called Akraino, to
develop an open source software
T-mobile and Sprint merger is being
stack capable of supporting
talked about with the asteroid falling
high-availability cloud services for
impact on US economy and
edge computing systems and
consumers, both are boasting each
applications. To kickstart the
others with their capabilities and
initiative, AT&T said it would
capacities those gonna changed the
contribute code to the project made
game and transform the combination
for carrier-scale edge computing
to stand at 3rd largest, following
applications running in VMs and
Verizon and AT&T. They are going to
containers. AT&T, which has long
create the ‘ultimate network’, based
supported Juniper’s OpenContrail,
on 5G, an example of their mega
plans to work with Tungsten Fabric as
plans and also to boost the
well.
confidence and showcase their
strength.

Sustaining News
4.0 and upcoming technological

The deal still awaits regulatory advances as for 5G.
approval and raises plenty of
questions if you pay Sprint or 5G is anyway about scaling up,
T-Mobile for your service. While the whatever it be, technology or its
$26 billion deal still has to face performance, capacity, throughput or
approval from the FCC and Justice data rates.. That scaling up is also for
Department, the telecoms seem to business, operation, investment,
think they might receive a more revenue, comprehensiveness in
sympathetic hearing. approaches etc etc.
That is need of hour, nothing to boast
“This new company would represent here, you can’t move into next level
more than 90 million retail wireless of the game if you are not big
phone customers in the U.S., roughly enough. Ajit Pai, current FCC
one-third of the market”, said chairman, rightly said it’s not about
research firm Recon Analytics. number of player in the game as no
one can justify whether it should be 4
With the two companies combining or 5. The main concern is competitive
their networks, it's possible service environment among them and
on both will improve. In a joint growth and sustainability in the
statement, the companies promise marketplace.
that existing customers, with both
services, will benefit from increased Lets see how this goes up, regulatory
speeds, coverage, and performance. authorities are going to be conducive
but ball is mainly supposed to be
There are many talks of the towns, hanging with department of justice.
and much expectation and
anticipation, in terms of consumer
benefits and economical impacts, but Terragraph - Facebook
any naive guy who is following New Plan along with
industry around the globe, must be
understanding the emerging games , Qualcomm to Test the
that could be for survival of industry

Sustaining News
10 gbps WiFi based interference and doesn't travel very

far — only a few hundred feet at best
backbone networks — before degrading. It needs to be
within line of sight of devices, small
The two tech companies announced
cells and access points.
the joint effort for test of, Facebook's
mesh network technology, Called
The Terragraph system would use
Terragraph. it already has announced
advanced and future generations of
two field trials in Europe. Now Tests
Wi-Fi standards to generate uber-fast
are also expected to begin in
speeds. Qualcomm is producing the
partnership with Qualcomm in the
chips and software to enable outdoor
U.S. next year.
operation and avoid interference.
The technology could deliver

"Our collaboration with Facebook will
significantly higher bandwidth via
bring advanced 11ad and pre-11ay
Wi-Fi — perhaps as fast as 10 gigabits
technologies to market, increasing
per second at peak speeds. If this gets
broadband penetration and enabling
a successful feat it would do wonder
operators to reduce their capital
much like 'fiber in the air'.
expenses for last-mile access," said
Irvind Ghai, a vice president with
"With Terragraph, our goal is to
Qualcomm Atheros.
enable people living in urban areas to
access high-quality connectivity that
There are obvious challenges with the
can help create new opportunities
deployment of such WiFi hotspots
and strengthen communities," said
across the cities and delivering
Yael Maguire, vice president of
millimeter waves technology, but
connectivity with Facebook.
these challenges are there with
The technology is complicated. But it
others smallcell centric technology
taps 60 gigahertz unlicensed airwaves
too, like 5G fixed broadband systems.
— know as millimeter wave — to
bring high speed Internet to big cities.
"There are licensed and unlicensed
Millimeter wave spectrum can deliver
approaches," said Jesse Burke, a
a lot of data fast. But it's prone to
product marketing manager at

Sustaining News
Qualcomm. "The point is our The OnGo certification program is

customers are looking for increasing launching with support from more
capacity. There are various than 10 testing labs and CTIA.
approaches in both the licenses and However, the industry is still waiting
unlicensed bands, and we are for final authorization from the
providing solutions, along with our Federal Communications Commission
customers." of Spectrum Access System
administrators and Environmental
Sensing Capabilities (ESC), both of
CBRS Alliance ‘OnGo’ which support the three-tiered
spectrum sharing approach by
Certification program providing accurate database
likely to hit by end of information about users in the
spectrum and in the case of ESC,
2018 sensing the presence of incumbent
CBRS Alliance’s OnGo certification naval radars along the coast in order
program will ensure that devices can to avoid interference. There is also
successfully navigate the dynamic still ongoing debate in the industry
three-tiered CBRS spectrum sharing about the size and length of term for
framework and are interoperable the Priority Access tier licenses, with
with one another. OnGo’s mobile carriers mostly favoring larger
certification program covers baseline license tracts and longer terms and
CBRS specifications from the Wireless other companies, including GE,
Innovation Forum and FCC rules. Google, wireless internet service
CBRS Alliance has also put quite a bit providers and private industrial users,
of work into ensuring that TDD-LTE asking the FCC to keep licenses’
operations can be supported with geographic areas small.
proper coexistence so that LTE can be
used in the band. FCC has not limited According to WinnForum’s
CBRS use to a specific type of wireless anticipated timeline for CBRS
technology, so multiple technologies development, the group doesn’t
are likely to be used in the band. expect FCC-certified devices and a
SAS with final approval to be

Sustaining News
available for General Access licenses The result is a service called BT Plus
(GAL, which is the unlicensed portion or EE Keep Connected which will be
of the band) until the fourth quarter
used to ensure that you won't be
of 2018 at the earliest.
waiting for ages for a fault fix or new
Test the speed of your line.
individual connection on It will also guarantee your line speeds

Google WiFi - with 100Mbps minimum speed on
Google has added a new feature to the Ultrafast Fibre Plus service, which
its Wi-Fi network technology that lets
will also include a 4G hub as back-up.
users measure how each individual
device is performing on their wireless Maxed out speeds could be as high as
Internet network.
314Mbps.
The new feature will basically run a

It is a 'hybrid' service which will
speed test on each device and
leverage both the BT network and EE
inform the users which devices need
4G cellular offering which aims to
to be kept within a closer router
range for a stronger connection. make calls and data faster and more
reliable.
BT and EE show their

post-merger road map First commercial LAA
with hybrid connections deployment in Russia
for all delivers Gigabit LTE
BT AND EE have announced the first download speeds,
fruits of their merged operations,
with a joint roadmap involving its
paving the way to 5G
three main brands - BT, EE and
Plusnet.

Sustaining News
Ericsson and MTS, the leading Mbps speed record, enabling the
communications service provider in service provider to take the next step
Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth in turning its mobile infrastructure
of Independent States), together with into gigabit-capable.
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a
subsidiary of Qualcomm The deployment took place in a large
Incorporated, have jointly deployed trade center on May 17 following a
Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) series of tests conducted on a live
technology in Ufa City, Russia. MTS network using a commercial
smartphone. The gigabit-per-second
Delivering Gigabit LTE speeds, this is speeds were achieved using Ericsson
the first commercial LAA rollout in Radio System software, including
the region and is part of the 256-QAM and 4CC Carrier
agreement entered by MTS and Aggregation of 10 streams with 4x4
Ericsson in 2017 to upgrade the MTS MIMO on a 20MHz licensed carrier
network with Ericsson Radio System coupled with 3x20MHz LAA. In
and core network solutions and addition, a range of Ericsson Radio
prepare for 5G and IoT. System products including the
LAA-powered Radio 2205, Baseband
LAA is an important technology in the 5216, and B3 1800MHz band
LTE network evolution to 5G, configured Radio 2212 were used in
providing access to new unlicensed the rollout.
frequencies. With this milestone,
MTS has surpassed its previous 700

Sustaining News
NEWS From SCWS
subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated

Qualcomm Introduces (NASDAQ: QCOM), continues its
leadership on the path to 5G by
Industry’s First 5G NR
introducing the industry’s first 5G NR
Solution for Small Cells solution targeted for small cells and
and Remote Radio remote radio head deployments
(FSM100xx). Building on the
Heads market-proven and broadly deployed
Qualcomm® FSM™ Platform for 3G
at The Small Cells World Summit and 4G small cells, this new small cell
2018, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a product will support 5G NR in both

Sustaining News
mmWave and sub-6 GHz outdoor small cell performance

spectrum.This highly flexible solution requirements such as support for
is designed to enable original MIMO implementation and
equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to multi-gigabit throughput, as well as
reuse both software and hardware support indoor requirements such as
designs across sub-6 and mmWave compact form factor and power over
products, supporting high-bandwidth ethernet (PoE) support.
and robust coverage for mobile The FSM100xx also includes a
subscribers around the globb. Small software defined modem, designed
cell densification, which is already to facilitate OEMs to readily upgrade
under way for 4G, is likewise their devices to comply with future
expected to be a critical component 3GPP releases. Additionally, this 5G
of 5G network deployments and NR solution supports various options
FSM100xx readies the industry to for interface splits between central
develop powerful and uniform 5G unit (CU) and remote radio head,
user experiences, taking advantage of providing OEMs and operators with
the full range of 5G spectrum types. the flexibility to use a 5G radio access
The FSM100xx applies Qualcomm network architecture that best fits
Technologies’ expertise in 10nm their needs, such as a virtualized 5G
mobile technologies to facilitate architecture that is designed to
superior power consumption and deliver scalability through the cloud
performance, supporting critical or a more distributed architecture to
outdoor deployments and challenging ease fronthaul requirements.
indoor scenarios. Given the “Qualcomm Technologies is leading
propagation characteristics of 5G the world to 5G by providing this 5G
NR’s higher frequencies (especially NR small cell solution to support 5G
mmWave), solutions are needed to NR in both sub-6Hz and mmWave
support delivery of uniform 5G spectrum,” said Irvind Ghai, vice
experiences, especially indoors where president, product management,
most data is consumed. Benefitting Qualcomm Atheros, Inc., a subsidiary
from our extensive 5G mobile of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
experience and technology, the “With small cells expected to play a
FSM100xx solution scales to address critical role in 5G networks, we are

Sustaining News
happy to announce our highly flexible ● Excellent in commercial

FSM100xx solution capable of Deployment (Rural, Remote,
supporting a wide range of use case Temporary) – Parallel Wireless
and deployment models, and to for Ice Wireless in Northern
support our customers to deliver on Canada
the promise of 5G.” ● HetNet Software and Services –
Announced during today’s Small Cells Management and Automation
World Summit, the FSM100xx – AirHop for HetNet
solution is expected to begin Performance Insight with eSON
sampling in 2019 and Qualcomm ● Deployment of New
Technologies is working with early Architectures Enabling the
access customers. Dense HetNet - Huawei for
Small BTS solution with LTE
backhaul
Small Cell Forum Award ● Commercial Small Cell Design
and Technology (Network and
Winners XHaul) – HPE/Softbank for
Dedicated PCRF for Small Cells
Winners for each category were: ● Outstanding Innovation in
Small Cell Technology or
● Excellence in Commercial
Architecture – Accelleran for
Deployment (Residential) -
Architecture-agnostic small cell
Sprint/Airspan for Magic Box
RAN-vRAN solutions
LTE Relay
● Outstanding Innovation in
Small Cell Business Case –
Deployment (Urban) – CCS for
OpenCell for Multi-operator
City of London small cell
in-building coverage using
backhaul network
Small Cells
● Social Impact - Parallel
Deployment (Enterprise) –
Wireless/Telefonica for
Nokia for Flexi-Zone shopping
Connecting LATAM’s
mall and public building
unconnected
deployment

Sustaining News
● Judges Choice – ITRI for deep ● Individual Contribution – Ravi

innovation helping to advance Sinha, Reliance Jio
small cells as a platform
● Chairman’s Award – Mirela
Doicu, Nokia

infographic
Integrated Service Management

A case for M2M
Here through this presentation a new concept of service

management is being discussed. Under this integrated
approach the service is defined as “service as structure”
where an abstraction of service is created to implement
through SOA approaches. This will help to preintegration
and comprehensively managed services through single
platform.

infographic

infographic

infographic

infographic

infographic

infographic

5G Development
with MATLAB
5G Development with MATLAB
1. Technology and Design
2. New Architectures and Algorithms
3. Accelerating Prototypes and Field Trials
4. System Verification and Testing

1. Technology and Design
What is 5G?
5G (5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems)

is the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond
the current 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) standards. 5G technology
needs to be specified, developed, and deployed by a variety of industry
players including network equipment vendors, network operators,
semiconductor vendors, and device manufacturers. The scope of 5G will
range from mobile phones to next-generation automobiles.
If you are already familiar with 5G, feel free to skip ahead to sections
2–4, which discuss strategies for doing 5G design and development
with MATLAB®: new algorithm design (Section 2), accelerating
prototyping and field trials (Section 3), and system verification
(Section 4).
5G Development with MATLAB 4

What’s driving 5G?
Two major trends are behind the race to 5G: the explosive growth
in demand for wireless broadband that can carry video and other
content-rich services, and the Internet of Things (IoT), where large
numbers of smart devices communicate over the Internet. To achieve
these objectives, 5G will provide extreme broadband speed, ultralow
latency, and ultrareliable web connectivity.
5G networks and devices will require substantially different

architectures, radio access technology, and physical layer algorithms.
Dense networks of small cells will complement macro base stations,
operating at millimeter wave technologies and employing massive
MIMO antenna arrays. And the processing components within network
equipment and user devices will become more integrated
and adaptive.
Innovations like hybrid beamforming are stretching the old ways of

developing wireless systems. These highly integrated technologies
require a corresponding integration of engineering domain expertise
and tools.

5G Terminology and Expected Applications
By providing higher bandwidth capacity than current 4G–supporting eMBB—Enhanced Mobile Broadband
broadband, 5G will enable a higher density of mobile broadband
• For high-capacity and ultrafast mobile communications for phones
users and support ultrareliable device-to-device and massive
and infrastructure, virtual and augmented reality, 3D and ultra-HD
machine-type communications.
video, and haptic feedback
URLLC—Ultrareliable and Low Latency

Key 5G Parameters
• For vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)
communications, autonomous driving
Latency in the air link <1 ms
mMTC—Massive Machine-Type Communications
Latency end-to-end
<10 ms • For consumer and industrial IoT, Industry 4.0 mission-critical
(device to core)
machine-to-machine (MC-M2M)
Connection density 100x vs. current 4G LTE
Area capacity density 1 (Tbit/s)/km2
System spectral efficiency 10 (bit/s)/Hz/cell
Peak throughput
10 Gbit/s
(downlink) per connection
Energy efficiency >90% improvement over LTE

5G Standard: Timeline
The 3GPP standardization group defines the wireless 5G standard, Current research and development focuses on enabling technologies
with help from many participants and contributors around the globe. such as hybrid beamforming, millimeter wave and massive MIMO
Release 15 of the 3GPP standard, expected by March 2018, will systems, 5G channel modeling and waveforms, and rapid field trials of
introduce the 5G standard. Modulation schemes, beamforming 5G design concepts.
techniques, millimeter wave technology, and massive MIMO
architectures are expected to be significantly different from the current
4G technologies.
FIRST RELEASE OF 5G SECOND RELEASE OF 5G

SPECIFICATION: 03/2018 SPECIFICATION: 03/2020
3GPP STANDARDIZATION TIMELINE
5G RESEARCH, PROTOTYPE, AND TRIAL 5G STANDARD 5G PRODUCT 5G DEPLOYMENT
RELEASE 10 RELEASE 11 RELEASE 12 RELEASE 13 RELEASE 14 RELEASE 15 RELEASE 16
LTE ADVANCED (PHASE A) LTE ADVANCED (PHASE B) LTE ADVANCED (PHASE C)
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

A New Physical Layer for 5G
The 5G physical layer will depart from 4G LTE in a number of ways, Sections 2–4 of this ebook discuss 5G design and development
in order to improve spectral efficiency and data rates. One distinctive strategies in detail: new algorithm design (Section 2), fast prototyping
feature is a significant jump in the number of active antennas and (Section 3), and system verification and field trials (Section 4).
antenna arrays, and the related issues of beamforming and millimeter
wave RF signal processing. New modulation and coding schemes,
power and low-noise amplifier designs, and channel models all need
to be developed.
DATA SIGNALS

MATLAB Software for 5G Research
To help researchers and engineers studying and developing the 5G

standard, MathWorks released a 5G library in September 2017.
Built for LTE System Toolbox™, the 5G library provides:
• Channel models, including tapped delay line (TDL) and clustered

delay line (CDL) channel models as specified in 3GPP TR 38.901
• New radio waveforms to improve spectral efficiency by limiting out-

of-band emissions, including: Filtered OFDM (F-OFDM), Windowed
OFDM (W-OFDM), and Cyclic Prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM)
• New coding schemes such as LDPC for data and polar codes for
control information, for error correction and improved data rates
• Link-level simulation reference design, enabling you to measure the

throughput of a 5G link using the provided waveforms and channel
models
You can download the 5G library and application note.

Analyzing 5G new radio waveforms in 5G.

Millimeter Wave Higher-Frequency Operation
Higher data rates (multi-Gbps) drive the need for greater bandwidth High frequencies will provide larger bandwidth availability and
systems, and the available bandwidth in the spectrum up through smaller antenna dimensions for a fixed gain, or higher gain for a given
6 GHz is not sufficient to satisfy these requirements. (For reference, antenna size. However, this increases modem complexity in baseband
current cellular operation is below 3 GHz.) This has moved the target and RF designs. To study the performance, we also need an accurate
operating frequency bands up into the millimeter wave range for the channel model for the new frequencies in 5G.
next generation of wireless communication systems. For example, 5G
equipment developers such as Huawei and Nokia have announced
5G NR trials with AT&T, Verizon, China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, and
others. Those trials will operate in the midband spectrum from 3.3
GHz to 5.0 GHz, as well as the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum
at 28 GHz and 39 GHz, showcasing the unified 3GPP-based 5G NR
(new radio) design across diverse spectrum bands.
PEAK RATE PEAK RATE

1 Gbps 50 Gbps
18 28 38 60 GHz
FREQUENCY BAND
LEGACY BANDS NEW BANDS

Massive MIMO: More Antennas
Another key technology for achieving greater spectral efficiency is

massive MIMO. Massive MIMO, sometimes referred to as large-scale
MIMO, is a form of multiuser MIMO in which the number of antennas
at the base station is much larger than the number of devices per
signaling resource. The large number of base station antennas relative
to user devices results in a channel response that is quasi-orthogonal
and has the potential to yield huge gains in spectral efficiency.
Designers face a challenge when scaling the number of antennas to

hundreds:
• The simulation speed of traditional antenna design tools is slow for

large antenna arrays.
• It is difficult to simulate the antenna coupling.
• Hybrid beamforming is needed to optimize the number of the RF

chains.
A massive MIMO antenna array for a Huawei 5G field trial.
See Section 2 for details on design architectures and algorithms.

Fast Prototyping of 5G Systems
with Hardware Testbeds
Engineers working on 5G designs have realized the value of rapid
design iterations and of placing proof-of-concept prototypes in
field trials quickly. Hardware testbeds employed as flexible and
reconfigurable design platforms have proven to be dependable and
efficient for the rapid design and verification of new concepts, as
well as for their deployment in precommercial field trials. The tools
and workflows that interface to testbeds must support rapid design
iterations and rapid deployment of new algorithms or design changes.
A fast prototyping workflow is discussed in Section 3.

Learn More
Ready for a deeper dive? Explore these resources to learn more about 5G
technology developement and design.
Watch
The Road to 5G: Simulating and Prototyping Wireless Systems (26:07)
Download Code
5G Library
Explore
5G Wireless Technology Development
2. New Architectures and Algorithms
New Design Architectures and Algorithms for 5G
The leap in 5G broadband speeds will be enabled by massive MIMO

communication in the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency range and
by new radio algorithms that achieve more efficient use of spectrum.
New design architectures and algorithms will affect every aspect of
5G systems, from antennas to RF electronics to baseband algorithms. RF Impairments
The performance of these subsystems is so tightly coupled that they Nonlinearity, noise
must be designed and evaluated together.
Waveforms ANTENNA Antennas

LTE, WLAN, custom Array elements, configuration
TRANSMITTER
Digital CHANNEL
Baseband DAC PA
Front End
DIGITAL PHY RF FRONT END
Digital
Baseband ADC LNA
Front End
RECEIVER
Measurements
EVM, BER, ACLR
Channel
Algorithms Noise, interference
Mixed-signal
Modulation, beamforming, synchronization Discrete-time and continuous-time

Massive MIMO Arrays for High-Gain Beamforming
5G mmWave designs require massive MIMO antenna arrays with Having many antenna elements in a small area makes it practical to
hundreds of antenna elements on base stations (eNodeB). Because the achieve a high beamforming gain. The highly directional beams help
area of an antenna array is reduced in proportion to the wavelength, offset the increased path loss at the higher operating frequencies,
an array for mmWave frequencies can be up to 100x smaller than an because the beams steer power in a specific direction.
array for microwave frequencies.
UEs in a group using beams with same elevation angle (left) and a hybrid beamforming array architecture (right).

Behavioral Simulation for Massive MIMO
Typical array designs include parameters such as array geometry, design from system architecture and signal processing algorithms.
element spacing, the lattice structure of the elements, element tapering, MIMO simulation times are also typically 10x longer than 3G
and the effects of mutual coupling. By adjusting the design parameters, and 4G simulations.
you can achieve tapering of the rows and columns of the array to
Behavioral-level simulation of the antenna array system can address
reduce side lobe levels.
these challenges. Simulating at the behavioral level reduces the
Achieving an optimal design thus requires combined models of simulation time. This enables engineers to experiment with different
the antenna arrays and beamforming algorithms to simulate their array architectures and algorithms, simulate the performance of the
interaction and impact on system performance. This puts a strain on array and associated algorithms, and iteratively adjust parameters to
current 3G and 4G design tools, which typically separate antenna mitigate the effect of antenna coupling.
Massive MIMO antenna array design, which requires simulating the interactions between antenna, RF, and digital subsystems.

Optimizing Tradeoffs Between Antenna Gain
and Channel Capacity
As a part of the design process, the larger antenna gains achieved with narrower beams must be balanced with the fact that MIMO systems are
based on scattering environments that also depend on broader beam patterns to maximize channel capacity.
This is one of the key tradeoffs to assess, and it can be done iteratively with behavioral simulation.
The figures below show how you can develop and visualize behavioral simulations with Phased Array System Toolbox™ and Antenna Toolbox™
for MIMO array design tasks.
Configure the Initial Array Experiment Interactively with Design Parameters
Use antenna element models, such as omnidirectionalor cosine Vary the array size, array geometry, element spacing, and tapering.
elements, and rapidly move to more accurate analysis using patterns Visualize the resulting geometry, 2D and 3D directivity, and the grating
computed with electromagnetic (EM) tools or measured in the lab. lobe diagrams.
Visualize the array performance characteristics, such as the radiation
This example shows a beam pattern and grating lobe diagram for
pattern shown below.
66 GHz 64x64 element design, designed with Antenna Toolbox.
8x1 ULA subarray and corresponding radiation pattern. Beam pattern and grating lobe diagram for 66 GHz 64x64 element design.

Designing Antenna Array Elements
Detailed design of antenna elements, with appropriate free space

patterns, can then be added to improve the fidelity of an antenna
array model.
The figure at right illustrates an element pattern generated using a full

wave EM solver in Antenna Toolbox. The toolbox uses the method
of moments (MoM) algorithm to compute port properties such as
impedance, surface properties such as current and charge distribution,
and field properties such as the near-field and far-field radiation
pattern.
You can use Antenna Toolbox to visualize antenna geometry and

analysis results in 2D and 3D. You can also integrate antennas and
array models into wireless systems, and use impedance analysis
to design matching networks. The toolbox also provides radiation
patterns for simulating beamforming algorithms.
The Antenna Designer app, which provides interactive tools for

antenna selection, design, and analysis.

Hybrid Beamforming
While smaller wavelengths enable massive MIMO implementation Hybrid beamforming is a technique to partition beamforming between
within small form factors, signal path and propagation challenges the digital and RF domains to reduce the cost associated with the
associated with mmWave frequencies also increase. To achieve number of RF signal chains. Hybrid beamforming combines multiple
better beamforming control and flexibility, it would be ideal to have array elements into subarray modules, with one T/R module dedicated
independent weighting control over each antenna array element, with to a subarray in the array.
a transmit/receive (T/R) module dedicated to each element. But this is
generally not practical due to cost, space, and power limitations.
DAC RF RF ADC
BASEBAND RF RF BASEBAND
PRECODING ARRAY ARRAY COMBINING
DAC RF RF ADC
Hybrid beamforming architecture.

Hybrid Beamforming continued
A key challenge in hybrid beamforming design is to meet

the required performance parameters while meeting the
RF Subarrays
implementation cost constraints. Simulink® enables unified,
multidomain modeling and simulation of the RF domain and
digital domain components. Circuit envelope simulation in RF
Blockset™ ensures fast simulation of the hybrid system.
Digital Beamformers
In Simulink, you can evaluate the number of elements and
precoding parameter values to ensure system-level performance
is met across a range of steering angles. The digital and RF
beamforming weights can be calculated in MATLAB® and
incorporated into the Simulink model.
The figure shows a section of a multidomain model containing

digital beamforming weights used to shape the signals feeding
the RF subarrays, where phase shifts are applied. The resulting Array Pattern
hybrid weights produce the desired array pattern.
Hybrid beamforming design in MATLAB.
For a detailed discussion, see the white paper Hybrid Beamforming for Massive MIMO Phased Array Systems. The white paper uses a 64x64 element, 66 GHz millimeter wave example and demonstrates antenna array
modeling and partitioning of beamforming between the digital and RF domains.

Modeling and Linearizing
Power Amplifiers
The linearity of power amplifiers (PAs) is the critical specification of power amplifiers are nonlinear and are affected by finite memory, the
every transmitter. Backing off power amplifiers to operate in the highly characterization of power amplifiers strongly depends on the type of
linear region is simply not a viable commercial solution, especially at signal used to drive it. For example, the behavior of the PA depends on
higher frequencies and for larger bandwidths. For this reason, digital the bandwidth of the driving signal, on its spectral occupation, and on
predistortion (DPD) techniques are applied to increase the efficiency its peak-to-average-power (PAPR) ratio.
of the transmitter and at the same time limit spectral regrowth and
Because of this complexity, DPD algorithms are often developed in the
interchannel interference.
lab, using rapid prototyping platforms that enable you to test algorithms
Developing a quality DPD algorithm is challenging, because it together with the actual PA. While this approach is useful to validate
requires a deep understanding of the effects introduced by the power and fine-tune the algorithms, it is harder to apply when the actual PA is
amplifier and adjacent subsystems, such as the antenna. Because not yet available, or to explore the algorithmic DPD design space.
Example of a memory polynomial model of a Power Amplifier identified with MATLAB

using measurement data, and simulated in RF Blockset using Circuit Envelope.
Conceptual representation of amplifier linearization using digital predistortion.

Modeling and Linearizing
Power Amplifiers continued
For these reasons, a model-based approach is recommended to Once the model is identified, it can be used within a system simulation
explore and develop DPD algorithms before lab prototyping and environment together with realistic (and standard-compliant) baseband
testing. However, this is only possible when a good quality model of signals, models for the low-power RF transmitter and observer receiver,
a power amplifier is available. RF Blockset provides models of power the antenna termination expressed with S-parameters, and different
amplifiers at different levels of abstraction, including generalized types of adaptive DPD algorithms. With this approach, designers
memory polynomial models that are a convenient derivation of Volterra can innovate more rapidly and validate new ideas while taking into
series. The behavioral models are identified using power amplifier account dispersive and nonlinear effects that are otherwise hardly
input/output characteristics, coming from circuit-level simulation done reproducible and understood in the lab.
with IC design tools or from actual measurements. Designers can
leverage the provided identification routing or use their own procedure
to compute the series coefficients. In a matter of seconds, users can
experiment using different polynomial orders and memory depth.
Closed-loop transceiver model with power amplifier and adaptive DPD algorithm. The
lab-validated AD9371 models include real-life effects. The Volterra series model of the
power amplifier includes non-linearity and memory effects. The loop simulation includes
low and high-power effects, timing, and frequency selectivity over the signal bandwidth.
The adaptive DPD algorithm improves the device linearity within the signal bandwidth. Plots showing spectrum analysis (bottom right) and received constellation (top left).

New 5G Radio Algorithms
for Greater Spectral Efficiency
The 5G wireless communication standard will provide significantly
higher mobile broadband throughput with its enhanced mobile
broadband (eMBB) mode. While the details are not finalized, several
techniques and features have been set as candidates for 3GPP LTE
Release 15, the first version of the 5G standard.
Among the key elements of the new 5G standard are:
• New waveforms with improved out-of-band emissions (OOBE),

enabling more efficient use of bandwidth resources
• Shorter slot durations, corresponding to increased subcarrier

spacing, for increased signal bandwidth and shorter latency
• New coding schemes such as LDPC for data and polar codes for
control information, for error correction and improved data rates
• Spatial channel models for operation at current (<6 GHz) and

mmWave (>28 GHz) frequencies
Spectrum measurements for LTE and candidate 5G modulation techniques:
These elements have the potential to improve system efficiency, but CP-OFDM with ACLR filtering (100 RBs, used in LTE),
W-OFDM (108 RBs), and F-OFDM (108 RBs).
they can add complexity and delay to your design. How do you know
whether the techniques proposed for 5G will be suitable for your
design? Should you implement them all, or just a subset? Along with RF
Blockset, Antenna Toolbox, and Phased Array System Toolbox, the 5G
library lets you investigate and seek answers to these design trade-off
questions at an early stage.

for Greater Spectral Efficiency continued
5G Library for Physical Layer Design and Simulation
The 5G library is a downloadable add-on for LTE System Toolbox™
that provides executable versions of features defined by the new 5G
standard, including:
• New waveforms for more efficient spectrum use
• Propagation channel models for the 0.5 to 100 GHz frequency range
• Coding schemes, including LDPC for data channels and polar codes
for control channels
• A customizable end-to-end link simulation example with configurable

subcarrier spacing
Spectrum of CP-OFDM, W-OFDM (108RBs), and F-OFDM (108RBs)

with nonlinear power amplifier (PA).

for Greater Spectral Efficiency continued
Using the 5G library, you can measure the impact of different algorithms and design choices on system performance by simulating end-to-end
system performance along with realistic 5G propagation channels.
5G WAVEFORM
PDSCH WAVEFORM GENERATION: CHANNEL MODEL: PERFECT OFDM PERFECT CHANNEL PDSCH DL-SCH
DL - SCH GENERATION OFDM, F-OFDM
GENERATION CDL OR TDL SYNCHRONIZATION DEMODULATION ESTIMATION DECODING DECODING
AND MAPPING OR W-ORDM
LTE Resource Grid 3GPP 38.901 Channel Model Throughput Measurement
5G downlink reference model and simulation. Using an LTE reference and resource grid as a starting point, you can insert 3GPP
5G algorithms and channel model to simulate the end-to-end link performance.

Learn More
Ready for a deeper dive? Explore these resources to learn more about new
architectures and algorithms for 5G systems.
Watch
Winner II Channel Model (5:01)
5G Library (4:54)
Download Code
5G Library
Winner II Channel Model
Explore
5G Wireless Technology Development
Beamforming
RF Systems
Channel Modeling
3. Accelerating Prototypes and Field Trials
Accelerating Prototypes and 5G Field Trials
To evaluate the performance of new 5G algorithms and architectures,

engineers need to develop proof-of-concept prototypes and prepare
Algorithms
the new designs for field trials. Typically, the prototypes are built using
FPGA hardware with embedded processors for some portions of the and
designs. These platforms are commonly known as hardware testbeds, Models
and they enable rapid prototyping and testing of new technologies
and design changes in the field.
It can be difficult for a typical R&D team to implement FPGA-

based radio prototypes and testbeds without outside assistance.
R&D engineers have strong signal processing and communications
algorithm development expertise, but relatively little experience with
hardware implementation. This experience gap is compounded by a
tool and workflow gap. While R&D engineers typically use a high-level
language like MATLAB, hardware engineers use their own design tools
and hardware description languages (HDLs).
Leading companies instead have turned to Model-Based Design with

MATLAB and Simulink to bridge these gaps and enable R&D engineers
to quickly move new 5G algorithms and design changes to their FPGA-
based test platforms.
Rapid prototyping of new algorithms on FPGA-based hardware for 5G field trials.

(Image courtesy of Huawei)

Rapid Prototyping with
Model-Based Design
Many wireless engineers rely on MATLAB to develop and simulate With Model-Based Design, 5G R&D teams can:
physical layer communication algorithms. Model-Based Design with
• Explore algorithms and develop a standard-compliant reference and
MATLAB and Simulink enables wireless engineers to use a common
test bench in MATLAB
model for both simulation and implementation on the FPGA or SoC
(system-on-chip) prototyping platform. They no longer need to maintain • Develop a hardware-accurate model in Simulink using fixed-point
different representations of the same design, and they can use MATLAB algorithm blocks
code as a reference and test bench to verify the hardware design.
• Partition the model into subsystems to target the FPGA fabric
Using Model-Based Design, the R&D and system engineers can and processor on the prototype
develop and debug hardware prototypes of their algorithms without
hardware specialists. They can quickly update prototypes in response • Automatically generate target-independent or target-optimized
to changes in requirements. Instead of handing the hardware team an HDL and C code
abstract algorithm to interpret and implement, they can hand off an • Automate prototyping on SDRs and other FPGA or SoC hardware
efficient, fully verified VHDL® or Verilog® implementation.
• Integrate and test the generated code into the full radio
platform design

Rapid Prototyping with
Model-Based Design continued
This process produces fully verified algorithm implementations, running ALGORITHM DESIGN (MATLAB)
C and HDL code automatically generated from a Simulink model.
Algorithm Golden
Available support packages for commercially available software- Exploration Reference
defined radio (SDR) frameworks further automate integration into a
real-time radio application that transmits and receives signals. Test Bench
To deploy the verified algorithms onto a custom hardware testbed, you

can integrate the generated code with other custom interfaces and IMPLEMENTATION
external IP cores using standard FPGA development tools. DESIGN (SIMULINK)
When changes are required, you can quickly modify the algorithm Architecture VERIFICATION
model, verify it in simulation, regenerate the code (typically within
Timing Fixed-point
minutes), integrate the code in the FPGA development environment,
and synthesize it for FPGA implementation. The generated code is well
structured, readable, and functionally accurate.
HARDWARE PROTOTYPE
(HDL CODER ™ , EMBEDDED CODER ®)
C Code HDL
Processor FPGA
SDR Platform
Using Model-Based Design for rapid prototyping of 5G algorithms.

Case Study: Developing an LTE OFDM Modulator
and Detector
This example illustrates the application of Model-Based Design in the
context of an LTE-compliant OFDM modulator and detector. The design
requires a peak detection algorithm that will decode an LTE-compliant
signal and execute efficiently in hardware.
The process starts with MATLAB and LTE System Toolbox to explore
algorithm options to produce a standard-compliant reference waveform
and test bench.
Visualizing the LTE resource grid, as shown here, helps to verify that
the waveform is constructed properly and conforms to the standard.
The following image shows the steps in transforming an LTE cell search
detection algorithm into HDL code ready for FPGA prototyping or
implementation:
• Behavioral golden reference in MATLAB
• Hardware-accurate model in Simulink
• HDL code automatically generated from the Simulink model LTE resource grid representing a standard-compliant waveform.

Case Study: Developing an LTE OFDM Modulator
and Detector continued
The detector performs frequency estimation and correction, PSS The output of simulations and hardware tests can be compared with
detection, timing adjustment, FFT, and SSS detection to determine the the reference algorithm and visualized in MATLAB, as shown below.
LTE cell identity of a detected cell group. The model was verified using
an LTE-compliant waveform, and it successfully detects cell IDs both in
simulation and over-the-air running on a Xilinx® Zynq® SDR.
MATLAB reference code for LTE cell search (top), and workflow for designing and Verification of the HDL implementation of the OFDM modulation.
generating an HDL implementation of the algorithm (bottom).
To learn more, download an example of building an LTE-compliant OFDM modulator and detector for implementation with HDL Coder™, and use
LTE System Toolbox to verify the HDL implementation model.

HDL Implementation on FPGA and ASIC
Model-Based Design doesn’t stop at prototyping. Wireless engineers The model produces hardware-independent HDL code that can be
are successfully using MATLAB and Simulink with automatic HDL used on any FPGA or ASIC. Optimizations for other architectures can
generation to produce algorithm implementations that meet the be performed by modifying the model, verifying the results in Simulink,
performance, size, and power requirements of production FPGA and and regenerating the HDL code. HDL Coder integrates with SoC and
ASIC designs. The iterative workflow enables rapid development and FPGA design to provide target-optimized implementations. This can
verification of highly efficient hardware implementations of algorithms accelerate the development of SoC and FPGA designs, enabling teams
for multirate filtering, PAPR suppression, digital predistortion, and to complete this work in days or weeks rather than in months.
baseband processing.
SPEC
TYPICAL
SYSTEM/ HARDWARE HAND RTL VERIFICATION
DEVELOPMENT ALGORITHM RTL
ARCHITECTURE CODING
PROCESS
RTL SYNTHESIS
DEVELOPMENT TIME
MODEL
RTL VERIFICATION
MODEL-BASED SYSTEM/ HARDWARE
ALGORITHM ARCHITECTURE RTL
DESIGN GENERATE RTL SYNTHESIS
COLLABORATE
ITERATE
VERIFY
Using Model-Based Design to accelerate algorithm implementation on FGPAs and ASICs.

Who uses this workflow for 5G prototyping?
continued
Huawei: Accelerating 5G Prototyping

“When we do 5G prototyping design and development, we
Kevin Law, director of algorithm architecture and design at Huawei,
automatically generate HDL code from MATLAB for hardware
provides an insider view of a 5G development workflow using
verification. When we evaluate the algorithm in field testing, we can
MATLAB and Simulink to accelerate 5G prototyping.
very effectively see the whole system’s performance and status, and
For details on how Huawei engineers use MATLAB and Simulink in identify any potential issues.”
their 5G R&D, see the user story:
— Kevin Law, Director of Algorithm Architecture and Design, Huawei
5G R&D at Huawei: An Insider Look—Accelerating the move from
theory to engineering practice with MATLAB and Simulink
Ultra-high-speed algorithm simulation and offline verification using Simulink.

Who uses this workflow for 5G prototyping?
continued
Ericsson: Deploying 5G Hardware Testbeds

To complete and deploy a full proof-of-concept on a hardware
testbed, a development group at Ericsson has integrated algorithms
developed with MATLAB and Simulink with other system components
in a standard FPGA development environment. Specifically, they
integrated HDL code automatically generated from Simulink using
HDL Coder with manually coded custom interfaces and IP cores from
FPGA vendors for components such as soft processors, DMA, and
physical interfaces. When changes are required, the engineers make
the change in Simulink, regenerate the code (typically within minutes),
integrate the code in the FPGA development environment, and
synthesize it for FPGA implementation. Ericsson engineers have noted
that the generated code is well structured,
readable, and functionally accurate.
For details on how Ericsson is using hardware testbeds for fast

hardware prototyping and automatic HDL code generation with
MATLAB and Simulink, watch the video Radio Testbed Design Using
HDL Coder (22:44).
“When a new design is required because a new design idea
emerges, using HDL Coder, we were able to demonstrate that the
change was acceptable and have a working demonstration in less
than one week.”
— Tomas Andersson, Ericsson

Learn More
Ready for a deeper dive? Explore these resources to learn more about
accelerating 5G prototypes and field trials.
Qualcomm: Connecting Systems and HDL World – Rapid RTL Generation (Conference Proceedings)
Huawei: System-Level ASIC Algorithm Simulation Platform Using Simulink (Conference Proceedings)
Watch
FPGA Implementation of an LTE Receiver Design (27:01)
Download Code
HDL Implementation of LTE OFDM Modulator and Detector
Explore
Hardware Design with MATLAB and Simulink
4. System Verification and Testing
5G System Verification and Testing
After completing baseband, RF, and antenna array designs, it is

essential to verify whether the system designs yield satisfactory results
in the lab and in the field under real-world conditions. To do so,
engineers need to work with live 5G signals and waveforms using
interfaces to test and measurement equipment.

5G Live-Signal Generation and Reception
By connecting to software-defined radio (SDR) and RF instrument During field testing, it is important to be able to quickly modify test
hardware, you can use MATLAB® and Simulink® to perform over the-air parameters and test scripts to accommodate different test scenarios.
tests to validate your 5G designs in simulation, in the lab, or in the Using MATLAB provides the flexibility to customize tests and to
field under real-world conditions. The test benches, signal generators, diagnose and debug subtle issues that are difficult to address in the
scopes, and measurements used at the simulation stage can be reused more constrained software environments and encrypted waveforms
for hardware testing. This approach eliminates the need to recreate that test and measurement instruments typically provide.
tests in a different software environment and reduces test development
MATLAB and Simulink support a range of available SDR hardware,
time and errors.
as well as RF signal generators and spectrum analyzers from RF
You can capture live 5G or LTE signals for analysis and comparison to instrument vendors such as Keysight, Rohde & Schwarz, National
baseband simulation results. Algorithm designers can use the captured Instruments, and Anritsu. SDR support packages are available for Xilinx
signals to test their algorithms, and the RF team can use this setup to Zynq and FPGA Radios; USRP® N, X, and E Series Radios; PlutoSDR;
verify their RF design. Download an example that demonstrates live LTE and RTL-SDR. From these options, you can choose the hardware that’s
signal generation and capture capability. most appropriate for your requirements and budget.
TRANSMITTER
SUPPORTED HARDWARE
Digital DAC PA
Baseband
Front End
DIGITAL PHY RF FRONT END

Software-Defined Radio
Digital
Baseband ADC LNA
Front End
RF Signal Generator Spectrum Analyzer

RECEIVER
MATLAB and Simulink support for over-the-air (OTA) testing with a range of available SDR and RF instrument hardware,
simplifying comparison of OTA tests to simulation results.

5G Live Signals via Software-Defined Radio
A software-defined radio (SDR) is a wireless device consisting of a

configurable RF front end with an FPGA or programmable SoC to perform
digital functions. Commercially available SDR hardware can operate at
different frequencies to transmit and receive standard-compliant and custom
signals to test baseband algorithms and RF front end designs.
You can use MATLAB and Simulink with SDR hardware as a cost-effective,
real-time platform for a range of wireless engineering tasks, including:
• Over-the-air lab and field testing with live RF signals
• Signal capture for posttest analysis
• Rapid verification with custom radio functions

A typical SDR device with RF front end and FPGA board.
BASEBAND RF SIGNAL RF SIGNAL BASEBAND

WAVEFORM GENERATION CAPTURE WAVEFORM
GENERATION HW Support HW Support ANALYSIS
package package
Over-the-air
+ +
LTE System Toolbox™ SDR Platform SDR Platform LTE System Toolbox™
MATLAB and LTE System Toolbox with supported SDRs. This provides a flexible, cost-effective environment for live signal generation and capture.

5G Live Signals via Software-Defined Radio
continued
With an interactive app or a few lines of MATLAB code, you can adapt SDR hardware to generate baseband signals that span a wide range of
possibilities—a candidate 5G signal, a 4G LTE standard-compliant signal, or a fully customized signal.
Generation (left) and analysis (right) of an LTE downlink test model (E-TM) waveform.

Generation and Capture of Live 5G Signals
Using RF
BASEBAND
WAVEFORM
Instruments
RF SIGNAL
GENERATION
RF SIGNAL
CAPTURE
BASEBAND
WAVEFORM
GENERATION HW Support HW Support ANALYSIS
package package
The second method for working with live signals uses commercially To transmit signals, you can generate the 5G baseband signal,
available test instruments. These instruments employ finely calibrated download it to a signal generator, configure and control the
RF characteristics, making them suitable for precise lab, field, or parameters in the baseband signal, and upconvert the IQ waveform to
Over-the-air
production tests. However, 5G experiments and field trials require RF and play back over the air. On the receiver side, you can retrieve
greater software flexibility
+ and analysis capability than is typically IQ data into a PC for analysis, perform visualization and
+ analysis,
found onLTEsuch instruments.
System These limitations can
Toolbox™ SDRbe overcome by using
Platform programmatically
SDR configure
Platform acquisition parameters, and
LTE System down-convert
Toolbox™
MATLAB and Instrument Control Toolbox™, which supports interfaces the RF signal to baseband in the hardware.
and standards such as VISA, TCP/IP, SPI, USB, and GPIB; equipment
from different manufacturers; and instrument types, such as
signal generators and vector signal analyzers.

WAVEFORM GENERATION CAPTURE WAVEFORM
GENERATION Instrument Control Instrument Control
ANALYSIS
Toolbox Toolbox
Over-the-air
+ +
LTE System Toolbox™ Signal Generator Spectrum Analyzer LTE System Toolbox™
Over-the-air testing with MATLAB and test and measurement instruments.

Analysis of Massive Field Trial Data Sets
Network equipment vendors and wireless operators have been

conducting public field trials to demonstrate their 5G technology and
characterize its operation in a real-world setting.
In 5G field trials, many parameters are measured and monitored

dynamically, such as reference signal received power (RSRP) and
reference signal received quality (RSRQ). System performance is
recorded by capturing signals and sweeping across a large range of
parameters.
After taking the measurements, designers can extract useful and

actionable findings from the data. Compared with 4G systems, 5G field
tests capture massive amounts of data due to high data rates and the
need to capture and analyze massive MIMO radiation patterns.
The field trial system requires a test and analysis system that supports
scalable data capture, data processing, analysis, and sharing of results.
Huawei field trial from Tokyo.

Test Data Capture and Analysis
Test engineers performing field tests often use commercially available information such as antenna pattern files. It is helpful to have a
test instruments. However, 5G field trial analysis requirements go far common environment or tool that can access various kinds of data
beyond simple measurements. from different equipment vendors.
Field trial analysis software must be able to import data directly from For very large data sets, teams can use computing clusters or cloud
test instruments or from stored data in a variety of formats. The data storage that scales from a single workstation to compute clusters or
represents captured signals, name and time stamps, and configuration process big data sets.
Using MATLAB to capture, process, and analyze field test data stored locally or in the cloud.

Data Processing and Visualization
Test engineers may want to store raw captured data or show the results
to their management, partners, or customers after analysis.
For example, a team might want to show cell handover points on

a map, decide if signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is
satisfactory, and how the RSRP varies. In performing this task, it can be
necessary to quickly generate standard waveforms and repeat the test
process many times. Cell ID Change Points
Analysis of the signal in conformity with the standard and handover point and cell ID number.

Visualization of 5G Field Test Results on Maps
Visualization is critical in field testing. Test engineers need to If properly implemented, this visualization architecture enables
superimpose captured signals as well as performance and parameter engineers to comprehensively visualize system performance in
data on a representation of a geographic map. 3D and pseudo-3D real-world scenarios and demonstrate results to inform network
representations require latitude and longitude in the map. planning decisions.
For some 5G applications such as vehicle-to-vehicle communication

and base station coverage analysis, engineers need to directly access
map data with latitude, longitude, and building location information.
Visualization of cellular signal coverage on a street map (left) and regional map (right).

Analysis and Results Sharing
For large-scale postprocessing of data and central SHARED

management, system architects can deploy their 5G field DIRECTORY
testing software as applications on enterprise systems. These

applications can be hosted on a dedicated server or cloud,
so the system architects can remotely check the test data and
centrally manage system updates. Using MATLAB application WEB
APPLICATION
deployment tools, the development team can leverage their
MATLAB PRODUCTION SERVER
previous work, and everyone on the team (system architects WEB SERVER
and developers, field engineers, and management team) can Visualization
remotely view and validate performance and analysis results. DESKTOP

APPLICATION
You can implement enterprise applications with MATLAB
Decoding
Production Server™, which lets you incorporate custom
algorithms, tests, and analytics into web, database, and Pre-Process APPLICATION SERVER
BATCH
APPLICATION
production enterprise applications running on dedicated
servers or a cloud. See an example of this deployment process.
This 5G field test workflow has been used by cellular service
DATABASE SERVER
providers and leading suppliers and is ideally suited for the
A B C
demands of 5G field trials.
IT architecture of a 5G field trial.

Learn More
Ready for a deeper dive? Explore these resources to learn more about 5G
system verification and testing.
Watch
5G/LTE/WLAN: Waveform Generation, Simulation, Measurement, and Over-the-Air Testing (46:18)
Learn
Verifying LTE Designs Using Live Signals and Test and Measurement Equipment
LTE Transmitter Using Analog Devices AD9361/AD9364
Explore
Designing and Testing LTE Systems
Software-Defined Radio (SDR)
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Technological Magazine Cum Journal For Telecom & Networks Issue 2, Edition Q2 2018

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Technological Magazine Cum Journal For Telecom & Networks Issue 2, Edition Q2 2018

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Xgnlab

Technological Magazine cum Journal for Telecom & Networks

2018 Q2 xgnlab page 1

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We expect this magazine to benefit at maximum to professionals, students, researchers and

All the best and many thanks, enjoy reading.

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You can write to us on mail at ​contact@xgnlab.com

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ABOUT THE WIRELESS BROADBAND ALLIANCE

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UNDERTAKINGS AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

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WRIX for IoT

Interoperability & Dynamic Roaming

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Introduction IoT Roaming

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Functional Activities by WRIX

Summary of WRIX module functionality

• On-line proxy routing for RADIUS

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WRIX-L (HSP) • Reconcile the financial settlement together

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support additional based join procedure, highlighted that the

IoT roaming support other non-EAP authentication

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• DNS is used for discovering the "next hop" • Where the roaming hub acts as a gateway

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IoT Application Security

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Transformation of Core Network in 5G

These eco system requirements are

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with hotspot2.0 -- Passpoint etc. Also enabler. In such endeavour the

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This paradigm shift which I refer to as

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use of these provided services. interconnection across various

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associations from one AMF and

Service based principles apply Common Core Network

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defined NG-RAN and the 3GPP Application Support with

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A large part of the functionality

computing, which is supported, for expected to serve huge amounts of

and Service Continuity (SSC) modes plane path management is essential.

or via the functionality of Uplink The system architecture defines in

Classifiers and Branching Points. addition to the SSC modes the

You can write to us on mail at contact@xgnlab.com

Video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnhRp2jXsA4