Ashu SabharwalRice University At-scale Programmable Wireless Testbeds Ashu Sabharwal Director, CMC Rice University

Ashu SabharwalRice University At-scale Programmable Wireless Testbeds Ashu Sabharwal, Ed Knightly, Behnaam Aazhang and Joe Cavallaro CMC

Ashu SabharwalRice University Broadband Wireless Testbeds Programmable –Clean-slate design At-speed –Data-rate which users care about ( Mbps) At-scale –1000s of Real users

Ashu SabharwalRice University Broadband Wireless Testbeds Programmable –Clean-slate design –High-performance At-speed –Data-rate which users care about ( Mbps) –Stay with the technology curve At-scale –1000s of Real users –Deployment: capacity-coverage-cost tradeoffs WARP TFA-Rice

Ashu SabharwalRice University Wireless Open-Access Research Platform Xilinx Virtex 2Pro 4 Daughtercard slots (upto 4x4 MIMO) Fully operational & all code open-source at warp.rice.edu

Ashu SabharwalRice University Wireless Open-Access Research Platform Performance Flexibility Deployability Xilinx Virtex 2Pro 4 Daughtercard slots (upto 4x4 MIMO) Fully operational & all code open-source at warp.rice.edu

Ashu SabharwalRice University WARP: Performance Current PHY (2x2 MIMO) –30 Mbps in 12.5 MHz –60 Mbps tested in lab With optimizations, capable of hitting 100+ Mbps

Ashu SabharwalRice University WARP: Flexibility Spectrum usage with 4 radios –160 MHz across 2.4GHz and 5 GHz –Upto 4x4 40 MHz MIMO (802.11n, WiMax) Many extensions –TI DSP: can implement a full cell phone –Video card: for raw video input (joint source-channel coding)

Ashu SabharwalRice University WARP: Deployability Implements PHY, MAC, routing on every node –Can implement real-time clean-slate full stacks –All layers use conventional tools 8”x8”  deployable like small access points Network Stack Devices

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice Houston Pecan Park Low income community (56% <$25K/year) Empower via technology –Education (36% graduation rate) –Health (high chronic disease rates)

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice Scalability Observable “Reality” Applications Houston Pecan Park Low income community (56% <$25K/year) Empower via technology –Education (36% graduation rate) –Health (high chronic disease rates)

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Scalability Two-tier Architecture –Access-tier : Clients (home & mobiles) to mesh nodes –Backhaul-tier : Mesh nodes wirelessly hop to gateway Dramatically reduced deployment costs –Limited fiber & inexpensive nodes

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Scalability (Pilot Program) Operational since 2004 – Mb/s over 3 Km 2 Growing to 4x4 scale users over 4 Km 2 City inviting CFP to cover 620 Miles 2 of Houston Projected Growth: 1500 companies, $1 Billion market by 2010

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Observable Mesh nodes –Single-channel –Multiple antenna types Deployment research –Node spacing, path length to gateways –Link versus network-wide behavior

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Reality Bite 1 Research has to treat users like end-customers –Even if you made no promises –Police/Commuters are using TFA Key issue –Useful only if real users use it –Real users will use it only if the network is useful (reliable) –Running experiments, reboots, unreliabilities not tolerated even for free services Reliability and Accessibility are critical

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Reality Bite 2 Want a large user base ? –Devices have to be reliable, cheap like –Research devices can only be in small numbers Does not preclude innovation –Control and backhaul protocols –Applications - healthcare Standard Access Protocol Key to Scale

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Reality Bite 3 CAPEX ~$20K/Km 2 OPEX –ISP –Customer support –Maintain research devices –Deploy new protocols –Work with community Earthlink, Tropos handle such scale OPEX >> CAPEX

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Applications Rice, Methodist Hospital & TFA Collaboration Addressing Chronic Cardiovascular Disease –CVD responsible for 40% of all dealths in Texas –Higher occurrence in low-income

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Applications Rice, Methodist Hospital & TFA Collaboration Addressing Chronic Cardiovascular Disease –CVD responsible for 40% of all dealths in Texas –Higher occurrence in low-income Dasco hypothesis: 1950’s medical literature for low-cost monitoring –Simple metrics + info-gap theory yield effective predictors

Ashu SabharwalRice University TFA-Rice: Applications Inter-connecting low-cost sensors, “health-phone,” pervasive wireless, and medical practitioners Collection, dissemination, and analysis of health data Analysis alerts patient and community health worker of potential problems Health-phone Blue Box

Ashu SabharwalRice University Near Future Plans Deploy WARP nodes with novel new protocols Higher throughput backhaul Target 3 Mbps/user

Ashu SabharwalRice University Conclusions Research challenges abound –Design, deploy, measure, model, … –Transformational applications

Ashu SabharwalRice University Conclusions Research challenges abound –Design, deploy, measure, model, … –Transformational applications What is our ultimate metric ? –CANNOT just be bits/sec Improving –Life expectancy –Education

Ashu SabharwalRice University More Information WARP : Ashu Sabharwal (warp.rice.edu) TFA-Rice : Ed Knightly (tfa.rice.edu) Health Phone: Lin Zhong ( Team: Behnaam Aazhang, Joe Cavallaro (cmc.rice.edu)