WiBACK

Introducing Fraunhofer’s
Wireless Backhaul Technology

An overview of the concepts and the current status

(as of March 2014) regarding our ongoing R&D efforts
MOTIVATING WIBACK

Most rural areas throughout the world experience bad connectivity to the Internet. Compa-
nies suffer from inferior competitiveness and the population from digital exclusion. One of
the reasons is the lack of technology to enable an appropriate business case for high-
bandwidth service-provisioning in many deployment scenarios.

WiBACK is the result of several years of research and development at Fraunhofer FOKUS. It
was motivated by the intention to provide carrier-grade service qualities for voice and data
transmission over a large area with low-cost wireless technology. From a technological point
of view, the WiBACK core can be positioned between point-to-point radio links and fibre-
optic backbone networks. In its deployment, WiBACK is supplemented by access technolo-
gies such as Wi-Fi, GSM, UMTS or LTE, see Figure 1.

Figure 1- WiBACK bridges the gap between fixed infrastructure Back -Bone(Core)
Networks and Access Networks. Edge Nodes such as Gateways (GW) and Ac-
cessPoints (AP) form the WiBACK interface to external networks.

Aiming at minimizing the CAPEX and, especially, the OPEX, WiBACK features a very low
energy foot print as well as a self-managed, autonomous operation. This allows for solar-
powered deployments and reduces the demand for trained personal, which is often lacking in
developing rural areas.

WIBACK DEPLOYMENT SCENARIOS

In a typical deployment scenario, one or multiple WiBACK edge nodes connecting to a fixed
and reliable network infrastructure are available. These can be provided by a commercial
service provider or they can be interfaces to the existing network of an operator.

Located far from these edge nodes, multiple locations require high-quality connections to a
voice or data network / the Internet. What “far” means depends on the local situation. In
particular, the challenge cannot easily be solved by deploying a simple point-to-point radio-
link or by digging cables into the ground.

Under such conditions, WiBACK serves as the backhauling technology to connect numerous
user access points with fixed infrastructures.

Figure 2: Typical WiBACK Deployment Scenario in Rural Areas

Examples for this deployment include temporary wireless networks for large events, rapid
network deployment in disaster areas, broadband Internet services for rural areas, and wire-
less wide-area infrastructures in emerging regions.

Key features that make Fraunhofer’s WiBACK technology unique are the combination of

 a wireless network that can span huge distances (several hundred km);
 provisioning of carrier-grade (guaranteed) service qualities for voice and data traffic;
 low capital expenditure (CAPEX) due to the use of commercial off-the-shelf hardware
(typically IEEE 802.11 mass-market components with an optimized MAC Layer);
 low operational cost (OPEX) due to auto-configuration and self-management capabili-
ties, as well as very low energy consumption;
 the possibility to run most nodes in the network on solar energy due to their energy effi-
cient hardware and software, and the integrated charge controller.
WiBACK can be used to complement existing operator networks, but may also be de-
ployed as a cost-effective low-energy alternative to conventional backhaul networks. To
that end, WiBACK provides transparent IEEE802.3 Ethernet bridging incl. IEEE8021.q VLAN
trunking between Edge Nodes (i.e. GW and AP) and supports any kind of access technologies
(such as Wi-Fi and GSM, L2 Switches). Thus, typical mobile-operator services such as roam-
ing or hand-over can transparently be implemented on-top of WiBACK, which provides inter-
faces for capacity management and traffic classification.
A CLOSER LOOK AT WIBACK HARDWARE

The Wi BA C K Con t rol le r is the gateway (GW) to an external network and, hence, is usually
located at the boundaries between a WiBACK backhaul network and a rather fixed infrastruc-
ture network. Most of the network logic is implemented in this node, including monitoring
and network management functions. Conceptually, multiple Controllers can be operational
in a a network, in order to reduce the risk associated with a single point of failure.

The Controller manages traffic paths inside the WiBACK network, and ensures that links with
an associated service quality will never be overloaded. In particular, links for voice traffic will
always run at very low latency and close-to-zero packet loss.

The Wi BAC K R e p ea te r is a Backhaul Node with two radio interfaces. It is typically located
outdoor and can be run on solar energy. While each repeater can bridge a distance of 22/50
i
km (tested/expected) , multiple repeaters can be concatenated to bridge much larger dis-
tances. Since each repeater only introduces a transmission delay of 1 to 2 ms, up to ten re-
peaters may be used to span distances of
several hundred kilometers.

WiBACK repeaters can be clustered (via

their Ethernet interface) to build a wi re-
les s ro u te r , an intersection inside a large
wireless network. This allows the imple-
mentation of fully or partially meshed
wide-area wireless networks, with redun-
dant physical links.. The clustering concept
allows the modem hardware to be located
close to the antennas, thus keeping anten-
Figure 3: Ultra-Low-Power Two-Radio na cables short and reducing local interfer-
WiBACK Repeater ences or cross-talk.

Following the heterogeneous WiBACK concept, repeater nodes can operate with different
radio technologies. While IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) provides the cheapest chipsets, other technolo-
gies such as WiMAX are supported as well. The modular WiBACK concept makes it easy to
support additional, even future radio technologies at low effort. A wireless repeater may use
different, licensed and unlicensed, frequency bands on each interface. Spectrum manage-
ment and coordination with external systems (ie.TV White Spaces Databases) is handled
centrally by the WiBACK controller.

The WiBACK Access Node provides the interface to different access technologies such as Wi-
Fi access points, GSM/UMTS/LTE base stations, Layer2 switches. Such devices can be con-
nected via the Access Node’s Ethernet interface which may operate in tagged (IEEE802.1q
VLAN) or untagged mode.

WIBACK SOFTWARE

While the hardware consists of selected and energy-efficient commercial off-the-shelf com-
ponents, the software defines the heart of WiBACK. Error! Reference source not found.
depicts key functional building blocks which are:

 an SDN/MPLS-based traffic forwarding mechanism supporting transparent Layer2

bridging including IEEE8021.q VLAN trunking;
 an IEEE 802.21-inspired technology-independent network management;
 automatic radio-planning and topology management to set-up and maintain the under-
lying infrastructure (SON);
 automatic link calibration incl. MAC Layer Optimization for low-latency P2P-Operation;
 capacity management to assign available wireless resources and enforce access policies;
 extensive monitoring to detect performance issues and to support Traffic Engineering

Figure 4- Key WiBACK Building Blocks and their relationship

Traffic Forwarding
SDN/MPLS-based traffic forwarding, as it is also used in traditional telecom operator net-
works, provides virtual tunnels to separate traffic of different traffic classes. Each data packet
is associated with an MPLS label, which in turn is associated with a specific traffic class. Even
when forwarded between the same radio nodes on the same radio links, a voice packet will
experience a different handling than a data packet, and typically be forwarded first. Sophisti-
cated traffic-engineering concepts ensure high network performance, efficient usage of
available resources, and provisioning of guaranteed quality of service at the same time.

The use of MPLS also results in reduced demand on the hardware in terms of computing
power, thus lower CAPEX and faster message forwarding. Transparent Layer2 forwarding,
incl. support for IEEE802.1q VLAN trunking, ensures compatibility with higher-layer protocol
such as IPv4 and IPv6. To that end, segments of a WIBACK network form QoS-aware link-
local broadcast domains.

Network Control
IEEE 802.21, an international standard originally developed for inter-technology handovers,
was extended by Fraunhofer to support an extended set of control functions. This extension
is used to manage the MPLS paths across the network, and to collect and provide network
monitoring information. Its technology-independent nature allows WiBACK to integrate any
type of radio network technology, provided that an appropriate control interface has been
made available. A central component, the In t er fa c e M an ag em en t F un c tio n (IMF) pro-
vides a uniform and technology agnostic interface to higher layers. MAC adapters located
logically below the IMF are responsible for mapping a set of generic primitives onto technol-
ogy specific features and mechanisms. The higher layer modules on top of the IMF provide
functionalities of traditional routing protocols and beyond, such as topology discovery, radio
planning, channel assignment, route computation, or monitoring.

TRM
Topology Energy Resource Pipe Node Terminal Pkts Out
Statistics
Mngmt Mngmt Mngmt Mngmt Mngmt Control
Function
Function Function Function Function Function Function
Shaper/Queueing
MOD_SAP MOD_SAP MOD_SAP MOD_SAP MOD_SAP MOD_SAP MAC Scheduler

AI_SAP & MOD_SAP Primitives

Access

NET_SAP
Transport PacketFwd Edge
Interface Management Function Servcice
Ethernet
MPLS Device
AI_SAP Primitives
(VLAN)

Abstract Interface
Technology
AI_SAP AI_SAP AI_SAP AI_SAP AI_SAP Independent

Aggregated
802.11 802.16 DVB Ethernet IP Link Monitoring

Statistics
Adaptor Adaptor Adaptor Adaptor Adaptor

TIM Ctrl TIM Ctrl

Pkts In
TIM Ctrl TIM Ctrl TIM Ctrl

Control Plane Data Plane

Figure 5 – The modular WiBACK Control Plane is complemented by an MPLS-based

Data Plane

The control plane is based on a centralized management approach, where so-called M a st er

nod e s manage a set of Sl a ve node s in their administrative area. Dedicated management
entities maintain the resource allocation and forwarding state of their network areas. Multi-
ple Master nodes might be operational within each administrative area in a primary/backup
configuration. Contrary to the rather distributed routing protocols such as Open Shortest
Path First (OSPF) or Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR), the centralized approach offers
the opportunity to perform network wide optimizations when allocating radio resources or
when assigning the overall network capacity to best match payload demands.

Topology Management
Automatic topology management, provided by the T op olo gy Ma na ge me nt F un c tio n
( TM F) automatically discovers neighboring nodes, sets up control paths between each node
and a Master node, reacts on new nodes as well as node failures, and provides mechanisms
for fast re-routing if necessary. The WiBACK Controller uses TMF information to assign radio
channels (frequencies) or to select optimal end-to-end paths based on selectable criteria or
policies. Monitoring information such as signal quality, link errors or end-to-end QoS viola-
tions determine may trigger actions of the self-healing process.

TMF implements a ring-based approach where a Master node first brings up its own radio
interfaces and determines the optimal radio configuration. This is computed based on the
capabilities of the radio interfaces and the ambient spectrum usage assessed by passive
channel utilization analysis. Additionally, TMF may coordinate with external spectrum alloca-
tion databases (i.e. TVWS). Once this process is complete, the Master starts sending Wi-
BACK beacons to all its active interfaces to inform adjacent Slave nodes about its availability.

Slave nodes determine their configuration during the bootstrap phase and then switch into a
passive beacon scan mode in which they periodically scan all administratively permitted
channels for WiBACK beacons sent by a Master node or already associated Slave nodes.
Once they detect WiBACK beacons they will attempt to associate with the sending node. If
multiple WiBACK beacons have been detected, they will be sorted and associations will be
attempted starting with the highest rated sender.
Link Calibration
An automated Link Calibration is performed for each newly activated link with the goal to
determine, for example, the proper range, modulation and coding (MCS) as well as TxPower
settings for each link. Based on this information, the resulting logical link properties, such as
capacity and latency are estimated. Those properties serve as the basis of the RMF’s con-
straint-based path computation. In the WiBACK cross-layer design, the TMF may specify the
maximum TxPower allowed on a given link, while the respective technology is free to opti-
mally adjust itself to the present channel conditions within the limits set forth by the TMF
(i.e. TxPower, MCS, MAC timings).

Figure 6 - The Link Calibration procedure play a crucial rule since it performs phy s-
ical link optimization and maps the physical link configuration onto a set of logical
link properties required for resource management and Traffic Engineering (TE).

Resource Management
Logical Resource (i.e. capacity) management is provided by the Res o ur c e Man a ge men t
Fun c ti on ( R M F ) to ensure that the capacity of a link is never exceeded. Based on configu-
rable policies RMF may adjust its resource allocations to best match end-user demands. Up-
on association of a new Slave, the TMF re-computes the optimal channel configuration for all
available physical radio links in the WiBACK network and may trigger network reorganiza-
tions with the goal to optimize the overall network performance (i.e. capacity or latency).

Multi-Layer Technology Independent Monitoring (TIM)

WiBACK maintains extensive network monitoring statistics of its nodes, links and MPLS
LSPs, so-called Pipes. This information is continuously examined by the self-management
modules to detect possible network problems such as link errors or end-to-end QoS viola-
tions. Statistics on the monitoring data are maintained by the Statistics Functions (SF). A Web
Interface provides access to this information for administrators. Passive monitoring is used
where possible to keep the load caused by monitoring/probing frames at a minimum.
 Figure 7 - Live Monitoring Data may be accessed via a Web Interface

STATUS AND OUTLOOK

WiBACK has been developed by Fraunhofer FOKUS. Initial research and development was
funded internally (by Fraunhofer) as well as by grants from the European Commission and
the German Ministry of Research (BMBF).

While R&D is continuing to add and improve functionality such as energy awareness, self-
healing, multicast/broadcast capabilities, and security, stable snapshots with increasing func-
tionality are continuously being tested “in the field”. Two pilots in Germany have been set up
to connect rural areas while pilots in Africa are being set up to establish connectivity in
emerging and previously unconnected regions. The pilots allow us to evaluate reliability,
vulnerability in outdoor conditions, operational costs, and customer satisfaction.

The local utility company in Bruneck, Italy (Statdwerke Bruneck) has chosen WiBACK to ex-
tend the reach of its city-wide fiber-network to service remote locations without access to
the fiber network.
MORE INFORMATION

For further details, please visit our website at http://wiback.org.

Selected References
 M. Kretschmer, T. Horstmann, P. Batroff, M. Rademacher, and G. Ghinea. Link calibra-
tion and property estimation in Self-Managed wireless Back-Haul networks. In 18th Asia-
Pacific Conference on Communications (APCC 2012), Ramada Plaza Jeju Hotel, Jeju Is-
land, Korea, October 2012.
 M. Kretschmer, J. Moedeker, and G. Ghinea. Path signalling in a wireless backhaul
network integrating unidirectional broadcast technologies. Broadcasting, IEEE Tran-
sactions on, PP(99):1, 2013.
 M. Kretschmer, C. Niephaus, and G. Ghinea. A wireless back-haul architecture sup-
porting dynamic broadcast and white space coexistence. In ICCCN 2012 Workshops:
6th International Workshop on Wireless Mesh and Ad Hoc Networks (WiMAN)
(WiMAN 2012), Munich, Germany, 2012.
 D. Henkel, S. Englaender, M. Kretschmer, and C. Niephaus, Connecting the unconnected
- economical constraints and technical requirements towards a Back-Haul network for
rural areas, in IEEE Globecom 2011 Workshop on Rural Communications-Technologies,
Applications, Strategies and Policies (RuralComm 2011) (GC’11 Workshop - RuralComm),
(Houston, Texas, USA), Dec. 2011

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Subject to regulatory EIRP limits