CARMEN - CARrier grade MEsh Networks
CARMEN, CARrier grade MEsh Networks, will study and specify a wireless mesh network supporting carrier grade triple-play services for mobile/fixed network operators. Future operator networks will be comprised of a common core network and several access networks, and the CARMEN access network will complement other access technologies by providing a low cost and fast deployment mesh network access technology. The project proposes the integration of heterogeneous wireless technologies in a multi-hop fashion to provide scalable and efficient ubiquitous quad-play carrier services.
To address the integration complexity of heterogeneous radio technologies, CARMEN introduces a layer 2.5 located between the subnet layer and the routing layer, in order to abstract technology specific issues into a common set of events and commands. Upper layers will use the abstract interface of layer 2.5 to dynamically adapt functions such as routing, mobility and monitoring. One relevant issue is that CARMEN will provide capacity handling algorithms to exploit specific features of the mesh networks such as the availability of multiple links between two peers (i.e. multipath) or the use of radio broadcast instead of unicast to alleviate the load of broadcast services (e.g. video) in the mesh network. CARMEN will focus on three planes: technology, message transfer, and self-configuration and management, to provide a complete solution for setting up and maintaining a cost-effective carrier grade wireless mesh access network.
Soundness of the obtained results is guaranteed by the strong operator involvement, and by performing a use-case implementation. The experience of the consortium guarantees that the developed solutions will produce significant advance with respect to the current state of the art, which will be reflected in IPR creation, proposals of standards (with focus on IETF and IEEE), and dissemination of the results in high impact conferences and journals.
UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID
AGH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ALCATEL-LUCENT DEUTSCHLAND AG
BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PLC
DEUTSCHE TELEKOM AG
FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
NEC EUROPE LTD
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
To realize the CARMEN’s vision, the following three main objectives are proposed:
While carrier grade, in general, has many aspects, including equipment reliability, security, AAA, QoS, management, standard’s compliance, mobility support, service integration, etc; addressing all of these issues in the context of a single project is a major challenge. Ultimately, a carrier grade mesh network should be flexible, reliable and able to provide fixed and mobile wireless users with high quality triple or quadplay services. To this end, specific tasks of the project will look into the design and validation of various interdependent functions covering admission control/resource management, routing, dynamic self-configuration, mobility and monitoring.
The design of routing and mobility schemes for both unicast and broadcast services over CARMEN requires the following functionalities to be validated: A multipath routing solution taking into account the multi-radio aspect by employing an interface that abstracts from specific radio technologies to media-independent functionalities, a broadcast/multicast routing protocol, and an algorithm/protocol to provide network based mobility management.
A number of radio interface technologies exist which offer diverse characteristics in terms of range, capacity, cost, etc. It is therefore natural to envisage that an operator’s network would comprise of some mixture of these technologies. Two of the most compelling technologies for which standardised multi-hop mesh/relay variants are currently based on are WiFi and WiMAX. The following figure illustrates the envisioned CARMEN heterogeneous mesh backhaul solution.
More specifically, the aforementioned interfaces are to be abstracted from the radio technology dependent media access control (MAC) layer to upper layers, which are radio technology independent. The main objective here is hence to define an interface to provide an abstraction of radio based MAC layers technology dependent functions in mesh environments. This abstract interface will be used by upper layers to interact with radio based MAC layers in a technology independent way. Also, it is envisaged that the current MAC layers of the current IEEE 802.11 and 802.16 standards need to be extended to support multi-hop/mesh environment.
In addition, a unique radio planning technique will also be developed to support distinct CARMEN requirements under permanent and temporary scenarios. Along this, the aspect on easy extension of existing networks will also be considered. At the same time, the network needs to be cost-effective in order to compete with existing non-mesh solutions. CARMEN solutions should therefore result in reduced CAPEX and OPEX costs.
In line with the objectives above, a list of measurable or tangible outputs in terms of scientific publications, IPRs, prototype and testbed developments are expected.
Project Co-ordinator
Albert Banchs
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Avda. Universidad, 30
28911 Leganés
Spain
Phone: +34 91 624 8802
E-mail: banchs at it.uc3m.es
Deliverables
Articles in Journals and Magazines
Conference and Workshop Presentations
Contributions to Standardisation