OBAN, Exploiting the Local Loop for Public Wireless Broadband

The OBAN project is funded by the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme, project partners and the Swiss Bundesamt für Bildung und Wissenschaft

The information in this document is provided as is and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user thereof usesthe information at its sole risk and liability

J. Charles Francis Swisscom Innovations

JohnCharles.Francis@swisscom.com

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Overview

• Public WLAN

• OBAN Approach

• OBAN Service Examples

• Opening WLAN

• Opportunity for Service Providers

• Deploy Now or Later?

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Today, there are many initiatives & approaches for offering public WLAN

• Hotspots• Airports, hotels etc.• Municipal networks• Use mesh technology• Access points located on street furniture• WiFi sharing initiatives• Grassroots• Third party • OBAN (operator focus)

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Some approaches have drawbacks

• Hotspots– Limited availability

(hotels, airports etc.)– Expensive

• Municipal networks– Poor indoor bandwidth – Most WLAN usage is indoors!

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

The OBAN concept is to share residential broadband with the public using WiFi

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

There are many potential OBAN base-stations

• High broadband penetration

• Growing WLAN usage at home

• Conveniently located where people live

• OBAN service possible anywhere there are houses

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Several OBAN-enablers have evolved

• Standards– 802.11e available (QoS)

– WiFi Pre-n product certification announced (range extension)

• New WLAN products– Phones

– Cameras

– MP3 players

– Video recorders

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Many potential services

VPN Connectivity

Video Uploads Photo

Uploads

VoIP Calls

Music Downloads

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

High-speed connection to the work place

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Holiday photos or videos shared and secured

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Music download

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Cheap phone and video calls

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

The resident has two main reasons to open bandwidth to the public

• Community membership– Get access to resources of others in

return for offering own

• Financial reward– Service provider subsidy of access

line or WLAN equipment– A share of revenue from public users

• Preconditions– No impact on privacy & security– No impact on residential QoS– No legal implications

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

ISPs currently waste most local-loop value

Local-loop capacity waste – Dedicated to one family– Not used most of the time– Bitrate is limited by Internet

bottlenecks towards the server– Bitrate is limited by subscription

ADSL Example (5 mbs capable copper)

– 2 Giga Bytes download per month => less than 0.2 % downlink used

– 99.8% for exploitation

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Cellular operators can benefit

• Extend capacity at lower cost • Avoid public concerns about

unsightly masts• Avoid costs of site acquisition

cabling, maintenance• Use cheap base-station equipment

(from the Internet world)• Off-load high-bandwidth traffic,

low margin traffic• Enter new residential business

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

There are good reasons to deploy OBAN now

• Leverages existing investments (local loop, WLAN)

• Excellent indoor coverage

• New WiFi products appear

• First ventures on the market (Fon)

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva

But, there are also reasons to wait

• Not well understood technology• Small cell size and delay in pre-N standard for range

extension• Unlicensed spectrum remains an issue for QoS due to

inference• Economics of installing external antennas versus mounting

on street furniture unclear• New WLAN terminal types appear, but usage habits not

yet established (e.g. WLAN VoIP phones)• Cheap WLAN VoIP will cannibalise cellular

Dec. 11–14, 2006 BroadBand Europe, Geneva