3G Network Hardware

NETWORK HARDWARE

For engineering and marketing teams with an interest in network hardware design and development policy.

The programme is the third day of a 4 day series of programmes covering network hardware, network software, handset hardware and handset software.

Day 3 Objective

* To review uplink hardware in the IP RAN including base station/node B uplink form factor and performance requirements.
* To review downlink hardware in the IP RAN including base station/node B downlink form factor and performance requirements
* To study IP router hardware platforms and their functionality in the IP RAN and IP core network.
* To study cellular/WiFi hardware form factors and the impact of cellular/WiFi hardware integration on network design.

Day 3 Scope

Day 3 is directly relevant to design engineers, product managers and technology and market research team leaders working on present and future network hardware development projects. The programme draws on over 20 years of research and active involvement in network hardware design and will be of direct interest to engineers and product and market managers with responsibility for defining wide area, local area and personal area network hardware design policy. Typical delegate organisations include component vendors, infrastructure manufacturers, third party OEM and ODM hardware development houses and test equipment vendors with an interest in future cellular network hardware performance trends and related user expectations.

Timed Agenda

09.00 - 10.30
The Traffic Mix and Network Design
How handset hardware and software determines uplink and downlink loading, IP QOS network topologies, differentiating interference based and congestion based admission control, hard blocking and soft blocking, static and dynamic rate matching, Release 5 and 6 status review, impact of Flexible PHY and Flexible MAC functionality on IP RAN and IP core network architectures, traffic bandwidth/ signalling bandwidth/storage bandwidth trade offs, key performance indices (KPI's) and future network quality benchmarks.

Uplink Hardware

How the physical layer and MAC layer determine offered traffic, PHY and MAC efficiencies and device processor power budgets as a basis for characterising uplink network loading, EDGE dual transfer mode and link adaptation/incremental redundancy as one example, HSUDPA enhanced uplink data channels (EUDCH) as a second example, typical voice and audio capture bandwidths and image capture bandwidths, typical data uplink application bandwidths, the media multiplex and its effect on traffic volume and value, typical up link budgets and related base station/node B design issues, present and likely future base station/node B uplink form factor and performance requirements, range/data rate/capacity trade offs, system planning considerations and related uplink radio system performance considerations (uplink sensitivity and selectivity).

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee

11.00 - 12.30
Down Link Hardware

How handset hardware determines base station/node B downlink performance requirements, processor overheads, voice, audio, video and text(display) capabilities, the per user downlink media multiplex, EDGE dual transfer mode as an example of available PHY and MAC capabilities, HSDPA 5 code, 10 code and 15 code handsets and their impact on Node B downlink hardware specification, channel quality indications and Layer 1 scheduling, typical latency comparisons, handset processor loading and battery capacity as the determining factors in downlink traffic load modelling, related downlink radio system performance considerations and node B pico cell, micro and macrocell hardware configuration.

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch

13.30 - 15.00
Uplink/Down Link Hardware
Uplink/downlink load modelling, uplink/ downlink asymmetry versus symmetric loading models,the conversational versus streamed, interactive and/or best effort traffic mix, impact of See What I See (SWIS) and Hear What I Hear (HWIH) POC(Press To Talk) on IP RAN and IP core hardware requirements, implications for delivery bandwidth, buffer bandwidth and storage bandwidth provisioning, particular issues of implementing multi service networks, content complexity, policy complexity, session complexity, protocol and processor complexity, present router hardware platforms, typical packet capture delay, switching and routing delay and queueing delay, task partitioning, the MAC demultiplex, classification and traffic management, hardware co processors and their role in meeting delay budget and power budget constraints, incoming packet rates, bus and memory bandwidth requirements, DSP and memory architectures, memory hardware options and performance comparisons, practical hardware implications of traffic shaping protocols, practical hardware (IP core) implications of the IP multi media sub-system , impact of UMA (Universal Mobile Access) on IP core hardware architectures and technologies, the circuit switch/packet switch mix and related IP core hardware KPI's (key performance indices).

15.00 - 15.30 Tea

15.30 - 17.00
Cellular/WiFi Network Hardware Integration

WiFi access point hardware platforms, commonalities between the WiFi MAC and HSDPA/EDGE MAC, channel coding commonalities, impact of WiFi handsets on uplink and downlink traffic loading, WiFi in cellular base station/node B platforms, technical issues of WiFi physical proximity to UMTS/W-CDMA and/or GSM/EDGE, present handset power budget and processor limitations, typical access point power budgets and (802.11 a, b and g) channel configuration, SIM/USIM based access control, inter- network handover requirements, SGSN/GGSN functionality, controlling and drift RNC functionality, existing IuB/IuR interface configuration, existing ATM transport and adaptation functionality, future network hardware form factors. Possible longer term impact of 802.16 and 802.20 on network design.

DAB/DMB/DVB/DVB-H Network Hardware Integration

Practical (RF and baseband)issues of integrating DAB/DMB/DVB transmitters into cellular base station/node B platforms, link budget and processor budget comparisons, the 'coeparative network' hardware proposition.

Summary and Close