Return of CB Radio

1. Return of CB Radio Andy Lippman lip@media.mit.edu Communications Futures Program Massachusetts Institute of Technology William Lehr wlehr@mit.edu CFP Sponsor Meeting Huawei Biltmore Hotel, Santa Clara CA October 24-25, 2011

2. Return of CB (or towards the Proximal Internet) • Motivation: why/what proximal Internet • Requirements • Some multidisciplinary research questions

3. Vision of a wireless future • Pervasive computing  Internet of Things  Smart everything • Competition  Innovation  Growth : virtuous cycle ! Wireless certainly, but does it require the Internet, or a Mobile Service Provider? - A: No. Does not require, but complements To require is bad for competition, openness, robustness

4. Source: Xinzhou Wu, FlashinQ presentation, May 2010 QUALCOMM Proprietary and Confidential

5. Qualcomm “FlashlinQ”Proximal Internet Source: Xinzhou Wu, FlashinQ presentation, May 2010 “Media Swap” In-building Automation Control Mobile Social Network “Profile Matching” “Multi-player” Neighborhood Gaming “Proximate Context-aware Gaming” “Vouch” – building 3rd-party Trust Nets “FlashPay” – eCash between eWallets QUALCOMM Proprietary and Confidential

6. Real and Virtual Worlds Real Radio Zigbee BlueTooth WiFi ----------------------- FlashlinQ Internet 3G/4G Fixed broadband Virtual Near ------------------ Range ------------------ Far -- tech allows us to virtualize the real world -- where the boundary is, is a design decision!

7. Some questions this vision raises • Q: To merge the real/virtual worlds – do we need a new radio? Is something like FlashlinQ the kind of radio we need? • - A: Something like this is worth experimenting with at scale, but this is only one possible path (and maybe far from best) • Q: How closely (and where/how in architecture) should we merge real/virtual worlds? • -A: Lots of policy, user acceptance, business model issues here • Q: Assuming we need a new radio and FlashlinQ is a good place to start, what needs to happen to get the ball rolling? • - A: What we hope to investigate…

8. Return of CB: Proximal Radio Requirements • Features: “as easy to use, as available, as cheap as CB Radio” • -- Anyone can buy and use to communicate (point-to-point(s), link-layer) without requiring a subscription (“unlicensed”). • -- Works without an infrastructure network. • But, functionality/flexibility limited • -- Not data/m2m friendly. • -- Not flexible architecture for radio (business models or policy)

9. Technical Requirements for Proximal Internet • “Moving through sea of connectivity and resources, sensing what is available and communicating peer-to-peer with resources” • Discovery: what devices are proximal? “Aura-Sense” • - Shared medium (air=sound, smell, light=vision)  RF • - Always on  automatic, continuous, passive, energy efficient • - Scalable  1000s of devices ( Spectral efficiency) • Communicate: point-to-point (any-to-any) links, proximally • - Range (~1km but not ~5km)  “Local” ( Mobility) • - Capacity (kbps-10 Mbps but not 100Mbps+) • - Secure communication  Private

10. Radio flexibility & Spectrum Management • Q: Does radio need to live in licensed spectrum (as FLQ)? • - aka, protected/protocol-constrained (non-technology neutral) • - But, not assigned to operator as exclusive-licensed (which not open) • - how to have flexibility of unlicensed (business model) with interference protection/availability of licensed (technical/protocol)? • Q: If we need a “Proximal Radio” Band, how to get there? • - need for international harmonization (scale economics) v. stagnation • - candidate bands? Below 3GHz – TV bands?? FRS/CB?? • - mobilizing policy debate: public safety? Killer app? Niche focus? • Q: Relationship to Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) vision? • - aka, Cognitive/software defined/”waveform” agile radios • - with shared spectrum, decoupling of RF/radio/service • - Is Proximal Radio a new “narrow waist” for Internet?

11. End-user control, silo apps, and platform design • Proximal radio : allow end-user to learn about resources in environment and selectively communicate with them • Q: Who controls what is sensed? • - aka, is this sensing or surveillance? • - is giving user choice really a choice? • Q: Do different domains require different defaults? • - e.g., health info v. “just-in-time” coupons • - if yes, who manages the virtualization? What’s the platform? • - what is the “killer app” (domain) to get the ball rolling? • - how do we get these radios into the hands of users?

12. Public safety v. Retail (coupons) v. Health (monitoring) • Value proposition • - who pays?: public good v. ad support v. bundled niche app • - when/how used?: Rare v. daily; necessity of ubiquity? • - $ benefit/cost margin • Value-chain structure • - who adopts? consumer v. business; B2C v. B2B • - regulatory/institutional? • User experience • - push/pull/ambient, automated v. manual mode • - experience, not search good (?) : learning • - social/network, not individual (?): influencers • - etc.

13. Summing up… • Proximal Internet is key to value chain growth opportunities • A new radio is needed, a new kind of CB … • Qualcomm’s FLQ puts a worthy stake in the ground • BUT lots of research questions … • -- What’s the right spectrum management model? • -- Implications of new radio platform for Internet arch? • -- How will pervasive computing change our lives?

14. Further reading • Chapin, J. and W. Lehr, 2011. Mobile Broadband Growth, Spectrum Scarcity, and Sustainable Competition, 39th Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (www.tprcweb.com), Alexandria, VA, September 2011. (pdf) (slides) • Corson, M. S., R. Laroia, L. Junyi, V. Park, T. Richardson, and G. Tsirtsis, 2010. Toward proximity-aware internetworking, Wireless Communications, IEEE 17, 26-33. • Lippman, A. 2011. Proximal Radio, MIT Media Lab. • Weiser, M., 1991. The computer for the 21st century, Scientific American 265, 94-104. • Wu, X., 2010, FlashLinQ: A clean slate design for ad hoc networks, presentation slides, (slides)