A Reference Architecture for All IP Wireless Networks ITSUMO Group itsumo@research.telcordia.com An SAIC Company

The Objective Propose a reference architecture for all IP wireless networks, and an architecture for interworking of the proposed reference model with the existing wireless/wireline infrastructure.

Reference Architecture of All IP Wireless Networks Signaling & Control Visiting Network Wireline IP backbone network BSC BS Home Network MRC Internet Regional IP network

Network Elements Mobile Station (MS) Base Station (BS) User terminal Adaptive software radios, i.e., full flexibility in the frequency band Signaling entity Base Station (BS) Adaptive software remote multiplexer/demultiplexer Essentially a MAC layer repeater Base Station Controller (BSC) A multi-port bridge (or Switch) with an IP interface to MRC Interacts with the network control and management system (via the MRC) to control and manage base stations.

Network Elements Mobile Routing Center (MRC) Signaling & Control An IP Router Default router of all MSs behind it May also include BSC functions Signaling & Control connection management means of interaction between users and network control system, and among network control entities MAAAQ, i.e., Mobility management, Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA), and QoS management

Interworking with today’s Mobile Telephony & PSTN PSTN & 1G/2G Signaling & Control ALL-IP Signaling & Control IWU 1G/2G Access Wireline IP backbone 1G/2G WG2 Access TG PSTN WG3 3G Access WG3 3G Access 3G Access 3G Circuit & Packet 3G Circuit & Packet 3G Packet only

Merits of the Architecture Pros & Cons Multiple Data Links: The IP traffic whose source and destination are both on the IP subnet of the ACN network need not pass through any ATM subnet, and avoids the ATM segmentation and reassembly (SAR) processing and overhead. The ATM SAR function introduces some processing delay as well as transmission overhead of about ten percent of total throughput (i.e., 5/48 = 0.104). Thus, with the multiple data links approach, the IP subnet traffic avoids up to about ten percent loss of link utilization. Note that when the source of a communication is on IP subnet and its destination is on the ATM subnet of ACN network (which may not occur in reality), the SAR can not be avoided. In addition, the multiple data links alternative dictates a static partitioning of the cross link bandwidth between the “IP -bearing” and ATM data links. This static resource sharing is usually less efficient, particularly, when the load of either the IP subnet or the ATM subnet is light while the other link is saturated. Single ATM Data Link: The advantages of this alternative are that: It allows the traffic of the IP and ATM subnets to use the signaling and traffic management features of a single data link mechanism (i.e., ATM in this case) to dynamically utilize the bandwidth of the cross-link as necessary. It can utilize the control and management capabilities of ATM to facilitate QoS support for IP and native ATM applications of ACN subscribers. For instance, it can use the signaling and QoS features of ATM to determine and allocate the necessary capacity for the IP subnet traffic. The disadvantages of this alternative are that i) all traffic of the IP subnet, regardless of the destination, will experience additional SAR delay and transmission overhead, and ii) ATM cell loss have a more drastic impact on the performance of the IP traffic because loss of a single cell in an IP packet triggers its retransmission.

Summary & Open Issues Summary Open Issues Proposed a reference model for All IP wireless networks and its interworking with existing infrastructure for review, enhancement, and adoption in 3GPP2. Open Issues The exact functions of IP-centric BS, BSC, MRC, and signaling and control The exact functions WG2 and WG3