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Why Offload?
3G traffic trends have been growing with smartphones and dongles, and some of the mechanisms to
offload the traffic are – HSPA+ upgrade along with Hybrid Iub, Femtocells, Wi-Fi and upgrade path to all-
IP 4G systems. Since 4G systems offer all IP super-core optimized for packet data transmission, an easy
path would to upgrade to these systems, easier said than that as LTE ecosystem is still developing while
WiMAX deployment seems to be dying down.
Meanwhile as the standard bodies as well as the Vendors work it out to bring new devices and
Infrastructure certified and ready for deployment for 4G, the current networks have to struggle and use
different mechanisms to offload data traffic. Below is a typical device type distribution of a WCDMA
service provider.
Traffic modeling based from the table above, network on-air time for PS services are now on par
with or higher than on-air time for CS services. For smartphones, the PS Erlang is even higher than the
CS Erlang, hence significant capacity savings could be achieved if a portion of the PS traffic could be
carried by Wi-Fi instead of the 3G network as soon as it enters the Wi-Fi zone.
Let us spread the deck of cards that we have available and do a techno- analysis of which is the most
suitable for this place an time. Networks can be offloaded by various other wireless ‘ancillary’
technologies and standards starting with – Wi-Fi, UMA (unlicensed mobile access), Femtocells & their
variants with Rel.10 and possible other solutions like Whitespaces and smartgrid-based neighborhood
area networks (NAN). LTE-Advanced also gives some congestion ‘relief’ techniques like relays which
come in three forms – amplify & forward, Selective Decode & Forward as well as Demodulation &
Forward.
AT&T customers with qualifying iPhone data plans have unlimited access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi
network — more than 20,000 U.S. AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots. The new process eliminates the previous two-
step authentication, making it easier and faster for iPhone customers to connect to AT&T Wi-Fi. Auto-
connect is established once a customer connects their iPhone to an AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spot the first time.
The addition of auto-authentication for iPhone users comes at a time when Wi-Fi usage continues to
experience rapid growth, driven by the proliferation of Wi-Fi enabled devices. More than 4 million
connections were made at AT&T’s U.S. Hot Spots with smartphones, including the iPhone 3G, in the first
quarter of 2009 alone.
Client Mobile IP: Each device supports a local Mobile IP client that interacts with HA via FA so that
incoming data can be successfully routed by HA to the device.
Proxy Mobile IP: Instead of having a Mobile IP client on the device, an instance of this is created in the
ASN(in WiMAX). Proxy MIP eliminates the constraint of requiring Mobile IP client on the WiMAX device.
Proxy MIP allows MIP registration which takes place by the DAP/CAPC on behalf of the Client/CPE.
A Media Independent Handover Function (MIHF) that provides three services for efficient handovers
Information Service:
Event Service: delivers link layer conditions & triggers e.g. “link going down”
Command Service: controls link behaviors e.g. “scan link”
This will result in a relevant frame-work to allow efficient multi-RAT mesh network
Mobile broadband operators are revisiting Wi-Fi in order to help manage the high costs of data services
delivery. And the cost implications of the growing mobile broadband data glut are nowhere more
prevelant than on the operator radio access network — the RAN. And with highly loaded cell sites often
located in dense urban locations, Wi-Fi can offer a low cost alternative to continued cell splitting.
Moreover, IP enabled Wi-Fi enables lower cost backhaul options as well.
Stoke's SSX-3000 offers high density user-to-network and network-to-network secure session
termination and provides the ideal security gateway for Wi-Fi deployments for either 3GPP or 3GPP2
networks.
With this perspective, and in compliance with leading standards including 3GPP/2, ITU and PCMM, the
Stoke Session Exchange (SSX) was designed and developed to deliver a wide range of mobile operator
gateway functions to meet the challenges of rapidly growing mobile broadband data services for 3G and
4G network deployments. The SSX mobile broadband gateway offers fundamental feature, price and
performance advantages over re-purposed routers or legacy session-oriented platforms.
LIPA
The features of the architecture for LIPA for HeNB subsystem are -
For LIPA traffic, a Local Gateway (L-GW) function for EPS that can be either collocated on the
HeNB or as a standalone node includes partial P-GW function and S-GW downlink data buffering
function; it could also be possible, if required in the future, to be used as anchor point for inter-
HeNB mobility;
The S-GW in the core network serves for the CN traffic;
The L-S11 interface between the L-GW and the MME is used to manage the session for LIPA
traffic;
For UMTS the direct tunnel functionality can be used to manage the PDP connection between the L-GW
and the HNB. It is assumed the User plane does not go through the HNB GW for the direct tunnel.
Architecture above illustrates the LIPA architecture including the L-GW function in UMTS for the HNB,
where the L-GW is physically co-located with the HNB and no Gn is supported, i.e., LIPA for the
residential or single HNB scenario. In the case of the enterprise network where mobility is supported,
the L-GW is located above the HNB but still physically within the enterprise network, and the L-GW now
includes the functionality to support a Gn interface to the HNB.
SIPTO
SIPTO for Macro-Cellular breakout point is close to the UE's point of attachment to the access network,
and that it shall be possible to support mobility for offloaded traffic, which means that the breakout
point is "at or above RAN". Moreover, SIPTO for H(e)NB Subsystem allows the breakout to be located
either in the residential/enterprise network as LIPA, or "above" H(e)NB in the hierarchical view of the
mobile operator network i.e. in the backhaul or at the H(e)NB-GW.As a consequence, two types of
breakout architectures are distinguished:
Architectures with breakout "at or above RAN" (covering macro and some H(e)NB SIPTO
scenarios);
Architectures with breakout "in the residential/enterprise IP network" (covering LIPA and some
H(e)NB SIPTO scenarios).
In addition, selected IP traffic offload for the Home (e)NodeB Subsystem may support the following
three scenarios:
Scenario 1: Home (e)NodeB Subsystem and backhaul are provided by the same operator;
Scenario 2: Home (e)NodeB Subsystem and backhaul are provided by different operators;
Scenario 3: Local Breakout point (L-PGW) for LIPA/SIPTO is located in a private address domain, e.g.
behind a NAT gateway.
At intra-SGSN mobility, the SGSN shall trigger the SGSN initiated PDP context deactivation
procedure; otherwise
Mobility to a new SGSN/MME, the target SGSN deactivates the PDP contexts determined as not
applicable for local breakout.
The behavior should be the same as for PS domain emergency handling for HO into a restricted area
when ordinary contexts/bearers are active. During mobility between different CSGs, the SGSN shall
determine whether the CSG-ID has changed, if it has changed the SGSN shall re-evaluate whether the
existing local breakout can still be applied for the target CSG.
IFOM
The increased data demand, caused by the increased use of 3rd party applications and Internet
browsing is creating interest for new operator tools to lower the cost on providing data access. The
increased availability of WLAN radio in many terminals and the increasing availability of WLAN access
networks in many geographical locations provide means to achieve this goal.
When the subscriber happens to be under WLAN coverage, it is beneficial for the operator to offload
some traffic (e.g. best effort) to the WLAN access. At the same time it may be beneficial to still keep
some traffic (e.g. VoIP flow) in the cellular access. With this IP flow mobility solution the operator can
lower it data access costs while the subscriber just experiences maximized bandwidth without any
service disruption or interruption.
It is therefore of interest to 3GPP community to specify a solution for operators for a seamless WLAN
offloading via IP flow mobility. Based on this solution, operators can use WLAN as a seamless extension
of their cellular access and thus increase the overall system capacity while minimizing the access cost.
The MAPIM Study Item documented in TR 23.861 provides a technical solution for seamless WLAN
offload which is mature enough to specify this capability as part of 3GPP normative specification.
Additionally it is possible to provide a limited non-seamless WLAN offload as done in current
deployments via a transient IP connection via WLAN (referred also as Direct IP Access in I-WLAN). This
Conclusion
Wi-Fi, whitespaces, Femto and other indoor solutions alike
shall be used as mechanisms to offload the macro networks
whether they are 3GPP/3GPP2 or WiMAX based networks due to influx of data demand. It remains to be
seen how operators evolve their solutions and cater to the’ always-on’ devices that need broadband
everywhere. Spectrum as we know is always a scare resource but ‘intelligent’ use of unlicensed
spectrum along with licensed spectrum will the main play that operators would need to adopt and push
the vendors to bring these solutions into the market fast enough to reap benefits. Wireless broadband is
in an exciting phase where devices and customers are demanding more at a faster rate pushing the
operators into a defensive mode unlike in the past.