At-scale Programmable Wireless Testbeds

1. At-scale Programmable Wireless Testbeds Ashu Sabharwal Director, CMC Rice University Rice University

2. At-scale Programmable Wireless Testbeds Ashu Sabharwal, Ed Knightly, Behnaam Aazhang and Joe Cavallaro CMC Rice University

3. Broadband Wireless Testbeds • Programmable • Clean-slate design • At-speed • Data-rate which users care about (10-100 Mbps) • At-scale • 1000s of Real users Rice University

4. WARP TFA-Rice Broadband Wireless Testbeds • Programmable • Clean-slate design • High-performance • At-speed • Data-rate which users care about (10-100 Mbps) • Stay with the technology curve • At-scale • 1000s of Real users • Deployment: capacity-coverage-cost tradeoffs Rice University

5. Wireless Open-Access Research Platform • Xilinx Virtex 2Pro • 4 Daughtercard slots (upto 4x4 MIMO) • Fully operational & all code open-source at warp.rice.edu Rice University

6. Wireless Open-Access Research Platform • Performance • Flexibility • Deployability • Xilinx Virtex 2Pro • 4 Daughtercard slots (upto 4x4 MIMO) • Fully operational & all code open-source at warp.rice.edu Rice University

7. WARP: Performance • Current PHY (2x2 MIMO) • 30 Mbps in 12.5 MHz • 60 Mbps tested in lab • With optimizations, capable of hitting 100+ Mbps Rice University

8. WARP: Flexibility • Spectrum usage with 4 radios • 160 MHz across 2.4GHz and 5 GHz • Upto 4x4 40 MHz MIMO (802.11n, WiMax) • Many extensions • TI DSP: can implement a full cell phone • Video card: for raw video input (joint source-channel coding) Rice University

9. WARP: Deployability • Implements PHY, MAC, routing on every node • Can implement real-time clean-slate full stacks • All layers use conventional tools • 8”x8”  deployable like small access points Network Stack Devices Rice University

10. TFA-Rice • Houston Pecan Park • Low income community (56% <$25K/year) • Empower via technology • Education (36% graduation rate) • Health (high chronic disease rates) Rice University

11. TFA-Rice • Scalability • Observable • “Reality” • Applications • Houston Pecan Park • Low income community (56% <$25K/year) • Empower via technology • Education (36% graduation rate) • Health (high chronic disease rates) Rice University

12. TFA-Rice: Scalability • Two-tier Architecture • Access-tier : Clients (home & mobiles) to mesh nodes • Backhaul-tier : Mesh nodes wirelessly hop to gateway • Dramatically reduced deployment costs • Limited fiber & inexpensive nodes Rice University

13. TFA-Rice: Scalability (Pilot Program) • Operational since 2004 • 2000+ users @ 1 Mb/s over 3 Km2 • Growing to 4x4 scale - 4000 users over 4 Km2 • City inviting CFP to cover 620 Miles2 of Houston • Projected Growth: 1500 companies, $1 Billion market by 2010 Rice University

14. TFA-Rice: Observable • Mesh nodes • Single-channel • Multiple antenna types • Deployment research • Node spacing, path length to gateways • Link versus network-wide behavior Rice University

15. TFA-Rice: Reality Bite 1 • Research has to treat users like end-customers • Even if you made no promises • Police/Commuters are using TFA • Key issue • Useful only if real users use it • Real users will use it only if the network is useful (reliable) • Running experiments, reboots, unreliabilities not tolerated even for free services Reliability and Accessibility are critical Rice University

16. TFA-Rice: Reality Bite 2 • Want a large user base ? • Devices have to be reliable, cheap like 802.11 • Research devices can only be in small numbers • Does not preclude innovation • Control and backhaul protocols • Applications - healthcare Standard Access Protocol Key to Scale Rice University

17. TFA-Rice: Reality Bite 3 OPEX >> CAPEX • CAPEX ~$20K/Km2 • OPEX • ISP • Customer support • Maintain research devices • Deploy new protocols • Work with community • Earthlink, Tropos handle such scale Rice University

18. TFA-Rice: Applications • Rice, Methodist Hospital & TFA Collaboration • Addressing Chronic Cardiovascular Disease • CVD responsible for 40% of all dealths in Texas • Higher occurrence in low-income Rice University

19. TFA-Rice: Applications • Rice, Methodist Hospital & TFA Collaboration • Addressing Chronic Cardiovascular Disease • CVD responsible for 40% of all dealths in Texas • Higher occurrence in low-income • Dasco hypothesis: 1950’s medical literature for low-cost monitoring • Simple metrics + info-gap theory yield effective predictors Rice University

20. TFA-Rice: Applications • Inter-connecting low-cost sensors, “health-phone,” pervasive wireless, and medical practitioners • Collection, dissemination, and analysis of health data • Analysis alerts patient and community health worker of potential problems Blue Box Health-phone Rice University

21. Near Future Plans • Deploy WARP nodes with novel new protocols • Higher throughput backhaul • Target 3 Mbps/user Rice University

22. Conclusions • Research challenges abound • Design, deploy, measure, model, … • Transformational applications Rice University

23. Conclusions • Research challenges abound • Design, deploy, measure, model, … • Transformational applications • What is our ultimate metric ? • CANNOT just be bits/sec • Improving • Life expectancy • Education Rice University

24. More Information • WARP : Ashu Sabharwal (warp.rice.edu) • TFA-Rice : Ed Knightly (tfa.rice.edu) • Health Phone: Lin Zhong (www.ruf.rice.edu/~mobile) • Team: Behnaam Aazhang, Joe Cavallaro (cmc.rice.edu) Rice University