Worldwide Standards for Gb/s WPAN Using the 60 GHz Unlicensed Band

1
Worldwide Standards for Gb/s WPAN Using the 60
GHz Unlicensed Band

• Bruce Bosco

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Overview

• What is a standard ?
• What are the types and advantages of various
  standards organizations (SDOs)?
• Why is 60 GHz band generating so much interest?
• What are the SDOs presently looking at this
  space?
• Why do we care?

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Standards What Why?

• Standard (n) a pattern or model that is
• generally accepted
• Standardize (v) to make things
• of the same type all have the
• same basic features
• This discussion Standard (n) A technical
  specification, usually a formal document
  specifying uniform criteria
• A means to enable interoperability

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Types of Standards

• Open Standard
• Anyone can participate
• Implies reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty
  fees
• Proprietary Standard
• Privately held by a single entity
• Private/membership Standard
• Consortium of members. Generally requires a paid
  membership and usually by invitation
• De facto Standard
• Informally established and accepted over time
• As opposed to De Jure, or by decree
• Mandatory Standard
• Generally Government mandated

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Proprietary Vs. Standardized Solution

• Proprietary
• First to market
• Minimize technological compromise
• Often most innovative
• Can be very successful (Microsoft, Apple)
• Standard
• Slow, often messy process
• Always some compromise
• But alternate sources usually available
• Interoperability increased marketing
  base
• Competition lower product cost more
  demand
• Takes advantage of economies of scale

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Economy of Scale

• Producer
• Lower profit margin/unit but potentially much
  larger total profit!
• Example
• 10M units _at_ 1 net Vs.
• 10k units _at_ 100 net

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Motivation for Gb/s Standards

• Ever increasing amount of digital data for
  consumer applications
• High definition uncompressed streaming video
• Interactive gaming
• Digital photography
• Digital home movies
• Data and file transfer

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Common Use cases

• Required for proposal evaluation in both
  802.15.3c
• and ECMA-387

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Motivation for Gb/s Standards

• Present wired standards/data rates
• Wired de facto standard presently for high data
  rates
• Gigabit Ethernet- 1 Gb/s for consumer, typical
  interoffice
• Firewire/IEEE 1394 - 400 Mb/s to 800 Mb/s (rates
  up to 3.2 Gb/s defined)
• DVI/HDMI 3.986 Gb/s to 4.5 Gb/s ( 10.2 Gb/s for
  versions 1.3a and 1.3b)
• USB 2.0 (Hi-speed) 480 Mb/s

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Motivation for Gb/s Standards

• Present deployed wireless WPAN/WLAN
  standards/data rates
• 802.11 b/g/n
• .11n advertises rates up to 300 Mb/s
• Note that these are maximum data rates
• Sustained rates are usually ½ or less than the
  max
• Recent benchmarking of several commercially
• available systems indicate maybe ¼ advertised
• rate is more accurate

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Motivation for Gb/s Standards

• Expectation from consumer is that wireless
  maintain a quality of service (QoS) very close to
  that of wired
• Deployed systems requirements
• Robust
• Easy to set up
• Cost effective (cheap)

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Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)

• What is our working definition of WPAN?
• Traditionally, less than 10m in radius from user
• More recent definition is that range is not key
  defining factor
• Focus is inward, towards a single user or
  isolated ad-hoc network

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Why 60 GHz?

• Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth
• Unlicensed
• 7 GHz US Japan
• 3.5 GHz contiguous spectrum available world wide

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Why 60 GHz?

• Attenuation due to atmospheric absorption and
  most other materials

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Why 60 GHz?

• Relatively high gain antennas required
• Limited interference to adjacent link even at
  same frequency
• Spatial and frequency reuse enabled
• Multiple users at closely space channels in very
  near proximity possible
• Inherent degree of security
• Very difficult to intercept a signal

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Why 60 GHz?

• Demonstrated multi-gigabit performance
• Motorola, IBM, NEC and others have published
  results showing sustained rates up to at least
  3.5 Gb/s for LOS applications
• IBM, Sibeam and others have implemented solutions
  in low cost SiGE and CMOS technologies
• Because of the available bandwidth, very low
  complexity modulation schemes can be implemented
  for robust operation and high QoS
• Example Motorola demonstrated over 3 Gb/s at low
  BER at 10m using OOK modulation (2005)

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Standards and Alliances for 60 GHz WPAN

• IEEE 802.15.3c
• ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association
  ) - 387
• 802.11 VHT60/Tgad
• WirelessHD?
• Other SDOs and Alliances

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IEEE 802.15.3c

• IEEE Open SDO
• Task Group (TG) formed March 2005
• Define an alternate physical layer (PHY)
  operating in the new and clear US band including
  57 64 GHz
• At least one mode capable of gt 1 Gb/s _at_ at least
  10m
• Key players
• - Motorola - Intel
• - NICT - IBM
• - Panasonic - Sibeam
• - Qualcomm - Samsung
• - OKI - Phillips

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IEEE 802.15.3c

• Notable features and accomplishments
• Media access layer (MAC)
• 802.15.3 MAC with enhancements
• Developed for 802.15.3a UWB standard
• Enables ad-hoc networks
• PHY
• Four channels of 2.16 GHz/channel defined
• First three for US applications
• Common mode is ?/2 BPSK at 25.3 MHz
• Single carrier data rates up to 5.18 Gb/s
• Optional single carrier and OFDM modes

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IEEE 802.15.3c

• Notable features and accomplishments
• Channel Model
• Developed comprehensive indoor model based on
  measured data for line of sight (LOS) model
• NLOS model derived from LOS model and verified
  through selective measurement
• Required an large amount of resources and time to
  complete
• Implemented in MATLAB
• Recommended for Tgad 60 GHz model

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IEEE 802.15.3c

• Status
• In Sponsor Ballot (closes today)
• Next to final step
• Expected release September 2009

Alternate millimeter-wave PHY for 802.15.3
timeline
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ECMA-387

• International, private (membership-based) SDO
• Key member companies for this standard
• Panasonic
• Phillips
• IBM
• Ericsson
• Newlans
• GEDC (Georgia Electronic Design Center)

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ECMA-387

• Notable features
• MAC
• Based on ECMA-368 MAC, with changes to support
  directional communication in 60 GHz
• Uses discovery beacon to establish network
• Similar to 802.15.3 MAC but appears simpler
• PHY
• Homogeneous Networking - all device PHYs have
  the same capabilities
• On-OFF Keying (OOK) is mandatory for all devices
• Type A SCBT, DBSK, OOK
• Type B DBSK, OOK
• Type C OOK
• Other SC and OFDM modes are optional
• Very simple compared to 802.15.3c

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ECMA-387

• Status
• Revision 1 completed and published December 2008
• Approved for JTC-1 fast-track procedure for
  approval by IEC and ISO members
• Typically six month process, full approval
  expected by June/July 2009

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IEEE 802.11 VHT60/Tgad

• Very high throughput (VHT) group - study options
  for obtaining higher throughput for .11n
• VHT 60 subgroup for gt 1 Gb/s using 60 GHz band
• Project Authorization Requirement (PAR) approved
  January 2009
• First Task Group meeting January 2009

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IEEE 802.11 VHT60/Tgad

• Notable features
• MAC
• May use 802.11n MAC for .11n functions
• Could use 802.15.3 MAC for high rate/high
  frequency hybrid
• Or modified .11n MAC for both
• PHY
• Dual PHYs - .11n and .15.3c like
• Not set how it would be implemented
• Two main points that differentiate from .15.3c
• PHY would automatically and quickly fallback from
  60
• GHz to 5 or 2.4 GHz 802.11 networks when
  blockage or other problems occur maintaining
  quality of service (QOS)
• Compatible with existing 802.11 services, access
  points and base stations as well as its network
  management features

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IEEE 802.11 VHT60/Tgad

• Status
• Project Authorization Requirement (PAR) approved
  January 2009
• First Task Group meeting January 2009
• Plan to finalize standard through full approval
  2012
• Periodic conference calls with Tgac (VHT6) and
  802.15.3c on coexistence issues

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WirelessHD

• WirelessHD?
• Formed in 2006
• Generate next generation specification for
  consumer targeted A/V applications
• Coalition includes Intel, Broadcom, LG,
  Panasonic,
• Sibeam and others
• Lots of press, hype, CES demos and so on
• Specification released January 2008
• First generation production chip set limited
  availability and access
• Key features OFDM exclusively, beam steering
  (low rate PHY only)

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Other SDOs and Alliances

• NGmS
• Next generation millimeter-wave specification
• Members
• Broadcom, Intel, others
• Details
• Possibly will leverage work done in 802.15.3c
• May focus primarily on OFDM PHY
• Little else know at this time
• Bluetooth
• Still appears to be some interest in order to
  obtain high speed (not necessarily large file)
  data transfers
• Others?

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Recent Developments

• Gefen reportedly to begin producing WirelessHD?
  compliant adapters with first production
  available Q2 2009. Cost is around 700 per link.
  (Jan 8, 2009)
• IBM announces initial results of new chip with
  hybrid antenna in a single package. Rates up to
  five Gb/s at five meters were reported.
  Technology is based on SiGe HBT. (Jan 23, 2009)
• IMEC reports on results for several key blocks of
  a 60 GHz radio based on 45nm CMOS. Results
  included a power amplifier with 11 dBm 1 dB
  compression point right at the requirements for
  10m range .(March 2009)

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Why do we care?

• OPPORTUNITIES still early enough to get into
  the game
• Integrated semiconductor solutions
• RF
• Baseband
• ADC DAC
• Antenna
• Packaging
• Network architecture
• Software
• Systems
• Consumer products
• Enterprise products

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Summary

• Standards are needed for interoperability and
  conformance
• Various types of standards each address a
  specific space
• 60 GHz band is the front runner for addressing
  multi-gigabit wireless requirements
• Several SDOs are targeting this space
• Opportunities to leverage this developing market
  are emerging presently and could be exploited

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Acknowledgments

• Steve Rockwell SKR Consulting LLC
• Abby Mathew - Newlans

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References

• Cambridge Online Dictionary http//dictionary.camb
  ridge.org/
• IEEE 802.15 website http//www.ieee802.org/15/
• ECMA website http//www.ecma-international.org
• IEEE 802.11 website http//www.ieee802.org/11/inde
  x.shtml
• Wireless HD website http//www.wirelesshd.org/
• B. Bosco, S. Franson, R. Emrick, S. Rockwell, J.
  Holmes, A 60 GHz Transciever with Multi-Gigabit
  Data Capability, RAWCON 2004
• IEEE Publication 15-09/0245R0 Project Timeline
• IEEE Publication 15-06-0369-09-003c Summary
  Usage Models
• http//www.engadget.com/tag/60ghz/

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THANK YOU!