Voice over Wireless LAN

Outline
„ Introduction to VoWLAN
„ Wireless LAN Technology
„ Why VoWLAN?
„ VoWLAN Requirement
„ VoWLAN Challenge
„ Summary
Introduction to VoWLAN
„ VoWLAN or Voice over Wireless Local
Area Network expands the capability of
WLANs or Wireless LANs
„ VoWLAN is a natural extension of VolP
„ VoWLAN is the added feature that will
enable you to make phone calls using
this mobile Internet access
VoWLAN Technology
„ VoIP + Wireless LAN
„ VoIP
„ SIP, RTP, H.323
„ Wireless LAN
„ WiFi : 802.11a/b/g
„ WiMAX : 802.16
 802.11 Overview
„ Infrastructure mode
Wired Network

Access Point

Access Point

End Device
End Device End Device
End Device
802.11 Overview
„ adhoc mode

End Device
End Device

End Device

End Device
802.11 Overview
„ DCF : Distributed Coordination Function
„ Contention-based MAC function
802.11 Overview
„ PCF : Point Coordination Function
„ Contention-free MAC function
 802.11 Overview
802.11b 802.11a 802.11g 802.11b
+
Raw Data Rates 11Mbps 54Mbps 54Mbps 22/44Mbp
s
Average Actual 4~5Mbps 27Mbps 20~25Mbp 6 Mbps
throughput s
Frequency 2.4GHz 5GHz 2.4GHz 2.4GHz

Available Spectrum 83.5MHz 300MHz 83.5MHz 83.5MHz

Modulation DSSS/CCK OFDM OFDM PBCC

Encoding
Channels/non- 11/3 12/8 11/3 11/3
overlapping
WiFi Phone protocol stack

Application
VoIP Application MMI
Vocoder
Control Plane Data Plane Management Plane

SIP/SDP RTP/RTC RADIUS/DIAMETER

P
UDP/TCP

EAP/802.1x/… IP
802.11e/f/h/i/k … 802.11 MAC

802.11 a/b/g/ RF/BB

Why VoWLAN
„ Low cost
„ Free Charge of ISM Band
„ ISM band : free (2.4-2.4835 GHz)
„ 3G band : NTD 10 Billion
„ Inexpensive network deployment
„ Reuse of existing network, easy to setup
„ Low cost of Access Point VS. High cost of Base
Station
Why VoWLAN
„ Low complexity
„ Centralized architecture in cellular network
„ PBX contains most intelligence of the network
„ Typically hard to maintain the proprietary
system
„ Decentralized architecture in VoIP network
„ Intelligence are implemented in User Agent
„ Easy for maintenance
Why VoWLAN
„ Low transmission power
„ Small coverage of the AP, small
transmission power needed
„ GSM: 500mW ~ 2W
„ WLAN: < 100mW
„ Easy for providing value-added service
„ Voice and data service is integrated into
VoIP
„ Flexibility of SIP protocol
Why VoWLAN
„ Market trend
„ VoWLAN market will reach $507 million
(end user revenue) by 2007 (In Stat/MDR)
„ VoWLAN handset will grow by more than
89 percent annually until 2007 when there
will be more than 653,000 (On world)
VoWLAN Requirement
„ Performance
„ Voice quality must be as good as wired
network
„ Delay >100 ms is typically sensible by human
„ Low latency : <50 ms latency is recommended
„ Reliable transmission over wireless channel
„ Low packet lost rate
„ User mobility management
„ Support roaming between wireless network
VoWLAN Requirement
„ Capacity management
„ Heavy traffic load increase packet lost rate
and latency
„ Number of Users must be controlled
„ Channel assignment
„ 11 channels in 802.11b
„ Manage operating channel among adjacent
Access Point
VoWLAN Requirement
„ Security
„ Data ciphering
„ Wireless channel is insecure
„ Data over wireless should be protected
„ AAA
„ Authentication : legal user identification
„ Authorization : service level differentiation
„ Accounting : statistics for billing
„ Location Tracking
VoWLAN Challenge
„ Due to the requirements of VoWLAN,
several issue should be solved
„ User Mobility Issue
„ Power Consumption Issue
„ Security Issue
„ QoS Issue
„ Capacity Issue
„ Other Related Issue
User Mobility Issue
„ Supporting user mobility is an important
feature of VoWLAN
„ Typically concern about two factors
„ Handoff latency
„ Packet lost rate
„ Seamless handoff
„ Fast handover : focus on reducing handoff latency
„ Smooth handover : focus on reducing packet loss
during handoff
 Handoff Approach
„ Layer 2 approach
3

Access Point AAA Server Access Point

1
2
4
1 : reassociation
2 : auth (802.1x, EAP)
3 : auth (RADIUS/DIAMETER)
End Device End Device 4 : packet send/recv
Handoff Approach
CN
„ MIP approach

HA FA

Access Point Access Point

MN
 Handoff Approach
„ SIP Mobility approach MN
REINVITE

SIP Proxy AAA Server

Access Point Access Point

MN
Handoff Approach
„ Intra ESS
„ L2 approach with/without authentication
„ Inter ESS
„ DHCP + MIP
„ DHCP + SIP Mobility
„ Inter Domain
„ Same as Inter ESS, but business policy
should be concerned
Power Consumption Issue
„ Always be a problem since only limited
battery power available at mobile
device
„ System
„ CPU, Memory, LCD, DSP/Codec
„ WLAN
„ Physical Layer: RF
„ MAC Layer: 802.11a/b/g
„ Network Layer: TCP/IP
802.11 Power Saving Mode
„ Reduce power consumption of
transceiver when mobile device is idle
„ AP buffers data packet for the mobile
device which is in PSM, and inform it to
receive by sending beacon
„ Mobile device in PSM periodically wake
up to receive data packet buffered in AP
 802.11 Power Saving Mode
beacon beacon with data PS poll PS data

AP 1 2 21 2 1

Beacon
Wait
Interval
Interval

Client 1 sleep 1 1

Client 2 sleep 2 2
802.11h
„ Supplementary to 802.11a (5GHz)
„ TPC (Transmission Power Control)
„ Keeps signal strength efficient, using only
enough power to reach active users rather
than using a uniform power output
„ DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection )
„ Selects the radio channel at the access
point to minimize interference with other
systems
Security Issue
„ Data ciphering
„ WEP, 802.11i
„ AAA (Authentication, Authorization,
Accounting)
„ 802.1x, RADIUS, DIAMETER
WEP
„ WEP use RC4 to encrypt data which is
dependent on the IV (Initialization
Vector) and Shared Key

IV Shared Key RC4

XOR
Data ICV CipherStream

IV CipherText
802.11i
„ Data transfer protection
„ TKIP : based on RC4
„ CCMP : import AES algorithm with better
security
„ Authentication
„ 802.1x, EAP
EAP
Authentication
802.1x
TKIP CCMP
Data ciphering
TKIP
CCMP
802.1x
„ General-purpose, port-based network
access control mechanism for any 802
technology
„ Enables mutual authentication of
devices
„ Provides service for exchange of 802.11
session keys
„ Leverages existing AAA infrastructure
„ Extensible protocol to support future
authentication methods (RFC 2284)
 802.1x – EAP Authentication

End Device Access Point Auth Server

Request/Identity

Response/Identity Radius-Access-Request

EAP-Request Radius-Access-Challenge

EAP-Response Radius-Access-Request

EAP-Success Radius-Access-Challenge

802.1X RADIUS
QoS Issue
„ Typically, voice quality is depend on the
delay and loss rate of packets
„ No QoS guarantee in legacy 802.11 DCF,
since each mobile device contends for
the channel by using CSMA/CA
„ There are some proprietary QoS
schemes proposed, but QoS is still an
open issue
802.11e
„ Promise to bring QoS capabilities WLAN
system need for streaming applications
„ Introduce HCF (Hybrid Coordination
Function) to provide some QoS facilities
„ EDCA : Enhanced Distributed Cannel
Access
„ HCCA : Hybrid coordination function
Controlled Channel Access
EDCA
„ Contention-based channel access
„ Four backoff entities within one station
„ Each backoff entities represents one
Access Category (AC) and has different
contention window size
„ AC_VO (voice), AC_VI (video) , AC_BE
(best effort) , AC_BK (background)
 EDCA MSDU

Mapping to Access Category

AC_VO AC_VI AC_BE AC_BK

Queue Queue Queue Queue

Backoff Backoff Backoff Backoff

Mechanism Mechanism Mechanism Mechanism

Transmission
HCCA
„ Controlled channel access
„ HC can allocate TXOP (Transmission
Opportunity) during CFP or CP by
transmitting QoS CF-Poll frame
„ During CFP, this mechanism is the same
as legacy 802.11
„ During CP, it will allocate the medium
after detecting the channel being idle
for PIFS
 HCCA
802.11e Superframe

Contention Free Period Contention Period

Polled TXOP TXOP Polled TXOP

Capacity Issue
„ Voice quality is a key component of voice
service (real-time, high throughput)
„ CSMA/CA mechanism limits the max # of
subscribers under the AP
„ A VoIP streams typically requires less than 10Kbps
„ Ideally, the number of simultaneously VoWLAN
sessions is
„ 11M / (10K * 2) = 550
„ However, the maximum number of VoIP sessions
is about 12 if GSM 6.10 (13.2Kbps) is used
Capacity Issue
„ An analysis result from “W. Wang et al,
Solution to Performance Problems in
VoIP over 802.11 Wireless LAN”
Codec Max # of user
GSM 6.10 11.2
G.711 10.2
G.732.1 17.2
G.726-32 10.8
G.729 11.4
 Multiplex-Multicast Scheme
„ Multiplex : Combine several downlink data into one
„ Multicast : Multicast the packet to all destination
„ De-Multiplex : Retrieving the corresponding payload
MUX MUX

Access Voice Voice Access

Internet
Point Gateway Gateway Point

DEMUX DEMUX

End End End End

Device Device Device Device
Other Related Issue
„ Codec Compression
„ The ability to maximize the wireless bandwidth for
voice, intelligent use of compression codec is
important.
„ Often require hardware assist, the target device is
hardware dependent and needs to be specially
designed
„ PBX Integration
„ Provide the PSTN access, often a gateway solution
„ SIP ENUM
SIP ENUM
Other Related Issue
„ Combine WLAN and Cellular
„ WLAN
„ High bandwidth, Low Cost, Multimedia
Service, Video Phone
„ Cellular
„ Large Coverage, High Mobility, Mature
Billing System, Popularity
 WLAN + Cellular
Sim-based AAA

Web
Multimedia Server
Center AAA Cellular
Internet Server
HLR
Multimedia Access

Access Voice Session Access

Point Point

WiFi WiFi WiFi WiFi WiFi WiFi

Phone Phone Phone Phone Phone Phone
Summary
„ The existing VoWLAN solutions may not be
robust and reliable enough to support
deployment for a large base of users
„ QoS of VoWLAN is always an open issue
„ it may or may not have a good solution
„ Security and Capabilities for fast handoff
between APs still needs some improvement
Summary
„ RF management and MAC layer mechanism
affect power consumption of mobile device
„ Voice over WLAN is a trend
„ Many cellular operators have devoted to the
development of VoWLAN
„ Government promotes the combination of WLAN
and Cellular network
„ VoWLAN may just be the next big thing in mobile
telephony