WiMAX Workshop 30th Nov. 2006

This site contains a summary of what happened at the workshop.
If you have any questions please send them tosan@calccit.org

Agenda

The Agenda, in Adobe Portable Document Format, is available here (PDF, 352kb).

Presentation Slides

Introduction
JD Margulici, CCIT (Power Point, 7.26Mb).

Overview of Emerging Communications Technologies
Harsh Verma, GloCol (Power Point, 7.62Mb).
Harsh Verma, GloCol - KT WiBro Demo (MPEG 13.2Mb).
Jay Iyer, Cisco (Power Point, 4.27Mb).

User Needs
Christopher Flores, Accelaro (Power Point, 1.29Mb).
Ian Turnbull, D2 (Power Point, 13.3Mb).

The WiMAX Business Case
Benson Chiou, CCIT (Power Point, 965kb).
Vince Sheetz, Intel (Power Point, 6.28Mb).

Berkeley Highway Lab Testbed & WiMAX Project — Moved to the end of the day.
Fred Yazdan, Caltrans (Power Point, 3.34Mb).

WiMAX Roadmap & Deployment
Dean Chang, Aperto — Overview (Power Point, 1.27Mb).
Dean Chang, Aperto — Networks Customers (PDF, 2.60Mb).
Neil Brown, Sprint-NEXTEL (Power Point, 575kb).

Transportation Applications of WiMAX
Ben McKeever, MTC (Power Point, 6.34Mb).

Summary

Introduction

The WiMAX Workshop began with JD Margulici and Benson Chiou introducing CCIT, its mission and some key points about WiMAX. They mentioned that CCIT exists to bridge the gap between research and industry. They believe that WiMAX can be very useful in connecting field elements and easing the deployment of new ones. This is in line with Caltrans' policies to invest more energy partnering with industry in order to improve mobility across California.

A round of self-introductions followed the introduction.

Overview of Emerging Communications Technologies

The first speaker was Harsh Verma, from GloCol Inc. GloCol was founded in 2003, with seed money from Cisco Research, to build way-side networks. They have had trials of mobile IP (vehicle to roadside), helped with WiFi on Capital Corridor trains, and assisted with testing different frequencies for use with WiMAX at the BHL (Berkeley Highway Lab). GloCol plans to "blanket" the country with WiMAX, as they expect the second internet revolution to be total, always-on connectivity. Harsh then mentioned WiBro, and its incorporation into mobile WiMAX. How does WiMAX stack up with the emerging trend of consolidating all communication devices? It has high throughput and a "right-start" with BHL.

Jay Iyer of Cisco Systems then talked about what consumers are going to expect out of wireless technologies. Only providing voice is no-longer adequate, choices of multimedia communications is needed. An important advantage of WiMAX is that it can co-exist with WiFi hot-spots. There are some network problems that need to be addressed: flat-IP, QoS (Quality of Service), security, mobility, differing bandwidth requirements, multi-mode access policies, and standardization. To provide this kind of diverse network the cost of WiMAX must come down; which is expected. Jay then went on to describe the overall network view of WiMAX and how it will work with existing technologies. In short, Cisco is dedicated to building a less-expensive consumer wireless network.

User Needs

Christopher Flores of Accelaro Systems, Inc. then provided an overview of the TMS' (Traffic Management Systems') communication requirements in California. He showed that the video component of the TMS is the only part that has high bandwidth requirements. He used the D8 (Caltrans District 8) communications system to show that there are many varied communications technologies in service. There are two primary environments with separate considerations: urban and rural. Using Caltrans' biennial inventory, it is clear that many new field elements will be added in the next few years. During the discussion an audience member commented that WiMAX will be able to help connect existing elements and facilitate adding portable, temporary, and new kinds of elements. Looking forward, having a wireless network will help integrating the TMS with VII (Vehicle Infrastructure Integration) and other emerging ITS applications.

Tom Wells of MTC (The Metropolitan Transportation Commission) described the communications needs of D8 as a mixed urban/rural district. Currently much of D8 is a private fiber network, this is simple, secure (it is hard to steal a strand of fiber), and available in an emergency when other services are down. But fiber is also very expensive, at $200 per meter. If a wireless network can be made secure and reliable in an emergency, it may be a cheaper alternative.

Ferdinand Milanes from Caltrans Headquarters said that WiMAX may be a solution for Caltrans, who manages the largest public safety communications system. The largest challenge is interoperability with existing systems. There is a need to balance information including voice, traffic data applications, and other kinds of monitors. Caltrans wants a transparent solution which will likely entail some kind of public/private partnership. In doing so, Government policy is of utmost importance.

The last speaker on user needs was Ian Turnbull from D2 (Caltrans District 2). Ian spoke about ITS communication needs in rural areas and extreme weather conditions. All their field elements are in very remote locations so power is a big concern. They currently have the backbone as mountain top wireless locations using the 5.8GHz ISM band. Some additional requirements include: all nodes must be IP, they need to carry at least 384kbps for PTZ (Pan-tilt-zoom) cameras, everything must be easy to trouble shoot, and the system has to be perceived as reliable in an emergency and in harsh weather.

The WiMAX Business Case

Benson Chiou of CCIT started the discussion of the business case for WiMAX by highlighting some of its advantages: high throughput, secure, non-line-of-sight functionality, long range, wide coverage, QoS, quick deployment, and it's always-on. He then mentioned that some of the applications for transportation include backhaul communications and video delivery.

Vince Sheetz from Intel then provided an overview of the technology and its deployment using real world statistics instead of what the specification sheet says. Vince's talk was long and varied because he answered many audience questions during the presentation.

Vince says Intel is interested in promoting WiMAX outside of their chips because they believe it will lay the ground work for widespread use which will allow them to produce more hardware. He then described what WiMAX is (and how it compares with IEEE 802.16), and gave some usage scenarios either as a backhaul solution or as a last mile replacement for DSL. Currently the market is driven by proprietary solutions and Intel expects that to change in the coming years. He then talked about some of the advantages of WiMAX over the current cellular-tower structure, along with some equipment examples. Some features of WiMAX not previously mentioned include the ability to choose and balance bandwidth with power use and penetration (range), the deterministic user allocation model (can guarantee some level of service for some number of nodes), the built-in security and QoS design, and because it is adopted in many parts of the world, the price will drop quickly.

During the course of answering questions, Vince talked about the currently limited certification process, mentioned that mobile WiMAX may include a mesh network of some kind although nothing is concrete yet, and talked about licensed versus unlicensed spectrum. Licensed spectrum is protected from interference, and unlicensed is cheaper and usable in small, dedicated areas.

How fast and how far can WiMAX go? It depends, according to Vince. Some typical numbers are:

• Point-to-point range is 15 to 30 miles.
• Point-to-multi-point range is 15 to 20 miles.
• Both can carry 5 to 30 Mbps (compared to cellular's 1 to 3 Mbps).

Another standard, 802.16-20, is being talked about for communication with vehicles moving very quickly, but Vince believes that by the time this standard gets finalized, WiMAX will have been improved upon enough to accommodate this.

WiMAX Roadmap & Deployment

Dean Chang of Aperto Networks and a member of the WiMAX Forum gave a lively talk about the certification process provided by the WiMAX Forum. Currently the only equipment certified operates at 3.5GHz because this is the frequency allocated to WiMAX in most of the world (but not the US).

Frequencies in the US are:

• 3.5GHz is owned by the military which uses it for ship-to-shore communications; experimental licenses for 3.5GHz can sometimes be obtained from the military.
• 2.5GHz is available for WiMAX and is mostly being bought up by corporations.
• 3.6GHz is being considered, and will possibly be available later.
• 4.9GHz has been allocated for public safety use and using WiMAX in this band is currently being discussed.
• 5.8GHz is the unlicensed band which may be useful.

Dean then spoke about the difficulty of making multi-frequency equipment — essentially, the soft radio is far in the future. He then explained the differences between TDD (time division duplex) and FDD (frequency division duplex). Basically when dealing with symmetric multi-path, TDD is more efficient and 802.16e (mobile WiMAX) is going to use it.

Dean then went over some working groups in the WiMAX Forum and talked about their specialties. During the discussion it was mentioned that the Applications group is probably going to be the most pertinent to transportation, afterwards it was thought that the Marketing group may be better. Next there were some questions about WiMAX replacing WiFi, to which Dean replied that the possibly upcoming mesh will still need an access point and might replace WiFi, but WiMAX will, for the near future, compliment WiFi.

Next Neil Brown from Sprint spoke about the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) band plan for 2.5GHz. Historically, 2.5GHz was reserved for educational use in the US and was interleaved. It is now being re-arranged so that it is not interleaved and it can be sold for commercial use. Sprint owns much of it in major markets with a few exceptions in the south east where Bellsouth is competing. Sprint wants to cover all communications to the little screen people carry around, and to do so WiMAX is the cheaper alternative in urban markets. This is partly because Intel is making the customer equipment, so there is little subsidy cost for Sprint.

Transportation Applications of WiMAX

Jim Allison and Kingston Cole of The Capital Corridor Joint Powers Authority spoke about their endeavor to compare every option to provide at least 4Mbps (with 1.5Mbps reserved for ITS use) at 80 miles per hour to their trains. There is a lot of interest in doing this as their RFI (Request for Information) got 11 responses. Moving into next year they have whittled that down to 2, pushing for testing in January. They have also been researching how this is done in other parts of the world and looking at various ways to implement it.

Next was Ben McKeever of MTC (The Metropolitan Transportation Commission), talking about VII (Vehicle Infrastructure Integration). Ben is the project manager for VII California. Ben provided an overview of VII and talked about its two motivating factors: fatality rate reduction, and easing congestion. He then provided an in-depth example of how some vehicle collisions at intersections could be avoided. He then showed how VII intersects with many other areas of ITS. The VII California Testbed is using wireless because there is a lack of fiber along US-101 between San Francisco and San Jose. WiMAX is the strongest candidate for backhaul connectivity.

The workshop concluded with Fred Yazdan of Caltrans briefly talking about the California ATMS testbeds. There are two testbeds, one in Orange County and one in Berkeley. He pointed the audience to the website (http://testbed.its.uci.edu/).