WIGWAM

A Wireless Gigabit System with

Advanced Multimedia Support
Gerhard Fettweis, Tim Hentschel, Ernesto Zimmermann, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

Abstract
Driven by steadily rising user demands and application requirements, wireless short range communications sys-
tems (WLAN) have seen a five-fold increase in data rates every 3-4 years in the past decade. With 54 Mbit/s
WLAN systems massively conquering the consumer market and standardization for the next generation 250
Mbit/s WLAN underway, the next step can already be anticipated. Consequently, research must start to pave the
way towards Gigabit WLAN. There are many challenges, not only regarding the underlying hardware platform,
but also considering the physical layer, link control, and the network layer. The WIGWAM project aims at de-
veloping the 1 Gbit/s WLAN component for a future heterogeneous wireless communications system, address-
ing all network layers from hardware up to the protocol layer to find solutions that enable the transmission of
highly heterogeneous multimedia traffic in short range environments.
Detailed information is available at http://www.wigwam-project.com/

1 Introduction 2 WIGWAM Scenarios

The past decades have been marked by two parallel
trends that massively transformed the way people
work and live: the advent of the internet and the wide-
spread introduction of personal mobile communica-
tions. During the next decade, these two digital in-
dustries are expected to converge, requiring wireless
networks to facilitate user mobility by providing the
desired information anywhere at any time. Example
applications in this context comprise access to email,
intranet and internet, the distribution of multimedia
content in home and hot spot environments, replace-
ment of Ethernet networks in offices, and wireless pe-
ripheral interfaces for digital equipment. Naturally,
customers of wireless networks expect the same high
quality of service and ease of use as known from wire
based solutions. This translates into a multitude of
challenges: high capacity reserves, in order to support
the extreme peak data rates, reconfigurability and
multi-band operation in order to provide service in a
heterogeneous environment, and plug-and-play net-
work configuration in order to enable fast and flexible
set-ups. Currently deployed cellular and ad-hoc wire-
less networks (2G, 3G, and WLAN) are not able to
cope with these requirements, simply because they do
not support the required data rates and/or lack inter-
operability with other standards.
The aim of the WIGWAM project is the design a
wireless communications system that is able to sup-
port a maximum aggregate data rate of 1 Gbit/s, using
carriers in the 5 GHz band, with extension to 17, 24
and 60 GHz. Due to the extremely high data rates and
carrier frequencies, the currently prevailing techno-
logical frontiers will be touched or even have to be
extended.
The project focuses on four main application scenar-
ios that have been developed to capture the user re-
quirements in different environments:
o Home Scenario
Due to its characteristic as a mass market,
fulfilling the user needs arising in the home
environment constitutes a major design crite-
rion. The massive use of high quality multi-
media applications (streaming audio and
video) with data rates well in excess of 100
Mbit/s for numerous users is one reason for
the need of 1 Gbit/s overall throughput.
Other key requirements in this scenario are
self configuration and zero maintenance fea-
tures as well as low transmit powers, to
minimize exposure to electromagnetic radia-
tion.
o Office Scenario
Wireless LAN solutions available to date al-
ready enabled office staff to work detached
from its desk – to some degree. However,
with 100 MBit/s and Gigabit Ethernet back-
bones being state of the art, and business ap-
plications such as Voice over IP and video
conferencing demanding high Quality of Ser-
vice, several key challenges have yet to be
tackled in order to provide office users with
the desired service quality. To ensure the
confidentiality of information transmitted
over the air, powerful encryption is a core is-
sue.
 o Public Access Scenario
In a future heterogeneous wireless network,
large scale coverage will be provided by next
generation cellular networks whereas high
data rate access in urban and hot spot envi-
ronments will be provided by short range
wireless systems. Expected high variations in
user data rates and differing service require-
ments call for a highly flexible MAC. In or-
der to enable user mobility, horizontal and
vertical handovers must be supported, i.e.,
the system will have to interoperate with
other B3G standards.
o High Velocity Scenario
The aim is to establish wireless links to vehi-
cles moving at very high speeds, as a back-
bone access method required to be able to
provide coverage within the vehicle. Classi-
cal examples for this scenario are bullet
trains and cars on highways. The wireless
link will be set up to “strings of access
points” forming a row, e.g. on the highway’s
center divide, with line-of-sight connection
to cars. This approach calls for fast and accu-
rate frequency offset correction, as well as
technologies that enable reliable high speed
(soft) handovers.
The main design objective is to attain the required
data rate of 1 GBit/s but at the same time not to ex-
ceed the limits given by the technology that can be
anticipated to be available in 2007, when the project
is finished.
3 Technical Challenges
Most design challenges of a Gigabit short range wire-
less system are related to the high data rate of 1
Gbit/s. As an example, we will shortly describe some
of these challenges in the following:
1. ADC
Given today’s analog-to-digital conversion
technology and its only moderate evolution
speed over the last decades, a digitization
bandwidth of 100 MHz (combined with suf-
ficient dynamic range) appears to be a rea-
sonable working assumption for the hard-
ware platform of a Gbit WLAN system. Put-
ting this in relation to the anticipated data
rate of 1 Gbit/s, we see that a spectral effi-
ciency of at least 10 bit/s/Hz will be re-
quired.
2. Dirty RF
In view of the high system bandwidth re-
quirements for Gigabit Wireless, carrier fre-
quencies can be expected to be significantly
higher in the future. In combination with de-
creasing supply voltages and high SNR re-
quirements for MIMO techniques, non-linear
effects in the RF front-end (e.g., phase-noise,
clock jitter, non-linear amplifiers) will have a
strong impact on system performance –
“Dirty RF” will become an issue. Appropri-
ate analog predistortion as well as digital
compensation techniques have to be devel-
oped in order to compensate the error effects.
3. MIMO Techniques
The use of multiple antenna techniques is a
prerequisite to achieving a spectral efficiency
of at least 10 bits/s/Hz within reasonable
SNR limits. The main design challenges that
have to be addressed to make the inclusion of
MIMO techniques possible are channel esti-
mation and base band signal processing com-
plexity.
4. MAC
In today’s WLAN systems, the reception of a
packet is usually confirmed by an acknowl-
edgement message of no more than 14 bytes.
The transmission of such very short mes-
sages over a conventional MAC is highly in-
efficient, due to minimum burst sizes and
additional overhead (e.g., for authentication,
request to send, clear to send, channel esti-
mation, etc.). It is obvious that, if we follow
the conventional approach, achieving a pay-
load rate of 1 Gbit/s could require data rates
of as much as 2 Gbit/s “over the air” which
is neither feasible nor reasonable.
4 Project Overview
In order to find solutions to all these challenges,
WIGWAM is a broad initiative of both industry and
research institutions and universities. The total num-
ber of partners is 27, with a funding of 52 PY/Y.
The list of main project partners includes: Alcatel,
DaimlerChrysler, Telefunken Radio Communication
Systems, IHP, Infineon, MEDAV, Nokia, Philips, Sie-
mens and the Vodafone Chair Mobile Communica-
tions Systems of the Technische Universität Dresden.
The above mentioned challenges affect all layers in-
volved in wireless data transmission. Therefore, five
working groups with specialized know-how have
been built to address the specific research topics aris-
ing in the different layers:
o System concept (Working Group 1)
The task within this working group is to co-
ordinate all research efforts and to use the
 defined scenarios as well as data from stan-
dardization bodies to develop parameter sets
that are then used as guidelines for the other
working groups. The results obtained within
this work package will flow back into the
standardization process.
o Hardware platform (Working Group 2)
This working group develops technologies
that support the transmission, reception and
processing of data at 1 Gbit/s, calling for
novel approaches in antenna technology, ana-
log and digital signal processing, ADC and
DAC. Cost efficiency and low power con-
sumption are the main requirements.
o Physical layer (Working Group 3)
After developing channel models for the
propagation conditions prevailing in the dif-
ferent scenarios, adaptive coding and modu-
lation techniques will be a key focus of in-
vestigation, in order to facilitate the efficient
adaptation of the user data rate to the instan-
taneous channel capacity. Moreover, MIMO
techniques promising to deliver the required
high spectral efficiency are investigated.
o Link layer (Working Group 4)
Wireless communication at such high rates
generally requires new medium access
(MAC) techniques that need to be as re-
source-efficient as possible in order to leave
the maximum possible bandwidth for the
payload – high throughput and low latency
are key requirements. Very short transmis-
sion ranges at high frequencies (60 GHz) re-
quire the inclusion of multi hop strategies
into the developed solutions. Connection
with wire-based (IP based) networks and in-
teroperability with other wireless network
standards calls for appropriate handover
mechanisms and convergence layers in such
heterogeneous environments.
o Network layer (Working Group 5)
Providing 1 Gbit/s to a mobile user, even
when he is moving fast through a system of
short range cells, is a challenging task for the
mobility management. Cross layer optimiza-
tion of network layer and radio resource
management will help to develop handover
techniques between neighboring cells and
different wireless standards that meet the
quality of service requirements.
Technological solutions and concepts that lead to the
proposal of a “1 Gbit/s short range component” and
the proof of its feasibility constitute the main result of
the WIGWAM project. The task to build and end-to-
end system demonstrator is far too complex within the
given time frame. Yet, key components will be real-
ized and the following demonstrators built:
o A “vertical” demonstrator shows the integra-
tion of analog front-end, digital base band
processing and data link control. A limited
subset of the available parameters values will
be used. It is the aim to integrate all compo-
nents on a single chip (system-on-chip de-
sign).
o A multi band pilot demonstrator to show the
reconfigurability of the multi band RF plat-
forms.
o The functionality of components that consti-
tute a predominant challenge is to be demon-
strated separately.
The project is scheduled to last from October 2003
until March 2007. A first version of the system con-
cept has been developed within the first six months,
in order to provide all working groups with a sound
basis for further research. In spring 2004, Working
Groups 2-5 started pushing forward their respective
subjects, which they will present in a status seminar in
2005 before publishing their proof of concept at the
end of the project. Working group 1 will give annual
updates of the system concept, as to be able to react
on changing requirements.
5 First results
From October 2003 to March 2004, task groups for
each of the different scenarios worked together to
identify parameters that allow the specification of the
four main WIGWAM scenarios. To keep the design
space as much open as possible, these parameters
were solely based on environment conditions and
user/application requirements, and do not include any
specific implementation aspects. Two main classes of
parameters were defined: system issues parameters
and implementation detail parameters.
System issues parameters include:
o User
Communication range, aggregate data rate,
user data rate, number of users, user velocity,
security requirements, handover capabilities
o Resource requirements
Bandwidth, carrier frequency, adjacent chan-
nel suppression
o System and network
User addressing (unicast, multicast, broad-
cast), multi-hop capabilities, coexistence
with other systems
o Channel
Delay, delay spread, Doppler shift, Doppler
spread, path loss exponent, LOS/nLOS
Implementation issues parameters include:
o Terminal
Terminal class, transmit power constraints,
battery constraints, cost constraints,
size/shape constraints, supported number of
antennas, localization support
o Traffic and MAC
Supported services (IP, streaming modes,
etc.), latency / round trip delay, delay jitter,
synchronous/asynchronous operation, peer-
to-peer capabilities

In the following, task groups for each of the different

scenarios worked together to assign values to the
specified parameters that correctly capture the nature
of the specific scenario.
An analysis of commonalities between the scenario
definitions yields insight into what are the main fea-
tures of the envisioned system. Examples are a maxi-
mum transmit power of 100/1000mW, a desired trans-
ceiver size in the order of MiniPCI or even Flash-
Card, support of IP packet & streaming & VoIP
network and integration into 3GPP IMS (all IP) Core
Network. MIMO technology (i.e., at least 2 antennas
per device) will clearly be necessary to support the
required spectral efficiencies, but the number of RF
chains that can be implemented in small scale devices
(handheld, etc.) is harshly limited. The target cost is
10€ for (low end) terminal chip-sets and 100€ for in-
door access points.

The four scenarios differentiate themselves mainly by

the channel models and fallback systems. Obviously,
data rate must be traded for range and/or user veloc-
ity.
The main coexisting networks in area coverage sce-
narios are 3G technologies, while WiFi (802.11a/b
and beyond) is the main competitor in home and of-
fice environments. Peer-to-peer capabilities are
mainly envisioned for indoor scenarios, whereas lo-
calization support is required only for public access
scenarios where context aware service provisioning is
a growing market.

The different work packages within WIGWAM have

now started to develop solutions that fit into the given
framework. The next step is hence to identify key
technologies on MAC and PHY level that are most
appropriate to achieve the proclaimed goal of reach-
ing 1 GBit/s in short range wireless communications.

Acknowledgement
The WIGWAM project is funded by the German Min-
istry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant
No. 01 BU 370.