Network Design

NETWORK DESIGN

Topics

A two and a half day programme for engineers and market and research team leaders involved in network hardware and software development programmes with particular reference to IP RAN and IP core implementation and cellular/WiFi network integration.

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.
* To review uplink software in the IP RAN including mobility management,admission control and load balancing functionality.
* To review downlink software in the IP RAN and related traffic management and buffer management metrics.
* To study uplink software in the IP core network and related storage management and application management metrics(KPI and QOS management)
* To study cellular/WiFi network software form factors and the possible impact of cellular/WiFi software integration on network design.

Scope

This programme is directly relevant to design engineers, product managers and technology and market research team leaders working on present and future network development projects..The programme draws on over 20 years of research and active involvement in radio access network and core network design and will be of direct interest to engineers and product and market managers with responsibility for defining future network design and performance policy and/or for managers and team leaders with responsibility for strategic network technology planning. Typical delegate organisations include device vendors, base station/node B and WiFi access point manufacturers, infrastructure manufacturers, third party OEM and ODM hardware and software development houses and test equipment vendors with an interest in future network performance trends and related user expectations.

DAY 1

18.30 Registration and Welcome

19.00 - 21.00 Dinner

21.00 - 22.00
Impact of the traffic mix shift on 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.

DAY 2

08.00 - 09.00 Breakfast

09.00 - 10.30
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, HSDPA 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
Downlink 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/Downlink Hardware

Uplink/downlink load modelling, uplink/ downlink asymmetry versus symmetric loading models,the conversational versus streamed, interactive and/or best effort traffic mix, 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.

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, implications of Power Over Ethernet on indoor picocell and access point integration, possible longer term impact of 802.16 and 802.20 on network architectures.

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 'co- operative network' hardware proposition.

19.00 - 21.00 Dinner

21.00 - 22.00 Special Interest Session
Delegates are encouraged to nominate topics of particular interest to be addressed in this session.

DAY 3

08.00 - 09.00 Breakfast

09.00 - 10.30
Uplink Software

Loading thresholds and network stability issues, typical jitter and latency figures, modelling multi media traffic, network bandwidth effects,heavy tailed and self similar traffic and performance evaluation, predictability bounds, self similar loading and buffering, feedback controls and related delay bandwidth products, issues of session denial and session/resouce access prioritisation, connection prediction, declarative applications and declarative devices, MEXE and MIDP case study of software (application layer) transparency, impact of handset software and the GUI (graphical user interface) on uplink offered traffic, effect of the downlink on uplink loading (trigger moments), associated peak loading considerations, (including rare event simulation), traffic descriptors and session descriptors, flow management and session management techniques, optimised uplink scheduling.

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee

11.00 - 12.30
Downlink Software

The IPV4 to IPV6 transition, typical packet lengths in IP voice and IP video and related address and traffic shaping overheads, ATM virtual paths and virtual circuits and equivalent IP based transport protocols, RSVP, Diffserv, MPLS and related 'real time' traffic protocols, SIP based session management and the IP multimedia sub system, service properties and the IP TV proposition, case study of present DAB/DMB and DVB/DVB H network and service architectures, co-operative networks and content repurposing, image/video source coding including Windows based and MPEG based system options.

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch

13.30 - 15.00
Uplink/Downlink Software

Service level agreements (SLA's) and Service Level Guarantees, typical SLA measurements, application SLA's, voice and video quality SLA's and integrated Grade of Service metrics, quality based billing, billing on the basis of storage access, server classifications and server prioritisation, resource management and the OSI 9 layer model (addition of the management logic layer and managed resource layer to the 7 layer model), role of middleware in application performance monitoring, the Common Information Model and Web Based Enterprise Management, authentication and security and the 'Service Delivery' and/or 'Media Delivery' network proposition, integration of perceptual engineering into IP QOS based Service Level Agreements, how these relate to present and likely future network KPI's (key performance indices), merits/demerits of data SLA's, application performance measurement good practice and likely future requirements.

15.00 - 15.30 Tea

15.30 - 17.00
Cellular/WiFi Network Software Integration

'Best connect broadband' GUI management, SIM/USIM based inter RAT handover and roaming, WiFi network software options including ad hoc and mesh network deployments and point to point point to multipoint system configuration, IP based mobility management, Universal Mobile Access (UMA) work items, directory enabled networks as an alternative, issues of wide area, local area and personal area network integration, WiFi mobility and GSM MAP functionality, SIM/USIM based mobility management capabilities, Release 7 work items and their likely impact on future network software form factor and functionality.

DAB/DMB/DVB-H Network Software Integration

Practical issues of integrating DAB/DMB/DVB broadcast service software platforms into cellular service platforms, the 'co-operative network' software proposition.

17.00 Summary and Close