802.11ai – Improving WLAN System Performance

1. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) 802.11ai – Improving WLAN System Performance Date: 2013-11-06 Authors:

2. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Agenda • Introduction to IEEE802.11ai, FILS • Key use case for 11ai • 802.11ai features in details • Trial report of the FILS feasibility study • Current status of IEEE802.11ai • Note: • This presentation has not been approved by IEEE802.11ai task group as an official overview document. It has been proposed by the authors based on the approved submissions as of Nov 2013.

3. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Today’s Market Trends • Growth of portable device market - Majority of the Wi-Fi are portable devices . • True mobile usage: Users frequently pass through (isolated) hot spots while on the move • The dwell time of an user within a cell is short • Isolated hot spots cause frequent initial association /authentication (link setup) • New application’s request (Twitter, Facebook…) • Push Notification Service • Short and quick updates • High bandwidth • Very SMALL CELL of each AP • So even with short dwell time under a given AP, always-on connectivity is a must

4. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Hot Spot Environment 1/2 • Dense deployment: The famous “Tokyo Metro Station” • Increasing amount of spectrum & number of networks & number of devices • Signaling overhead, exchange of unnecessary information • QoS violation • Use of WLAN offloading is increasing • It is equally important to shorten the link setup time as it is to shorten the data transmission time • Shorter scanning reduces power consumption of the device

5. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Hot Spot Environment 2/2 • Most of air time is occupied by management frame. • Especially undesired Probe Response frames are overflowing • KDDI’s report • Understanding the current situation of public Wi-Fi usage. • 13/11-13-0523-02 • hew-understanding-current-situation-of-public-wifi-usage.pptx Frame type profile at metro station Breakdown of Management frames

6. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Introduction to 11ai Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS) • The initial link setup includes all operations required to enable packets exchange. The main operations include: • Network and BSS discovery • Authentication and association • Higher layer setup such as IP address configuration • FILS focuses on an environment where mobile users are constantly entering and leaving the coverage area of an existing extended service set (ESS). Every time the mobile device enters an ESS, the mobile device has to do an initial link set-up. This requires efficient mechanisms that: • (a) scale with a high number of users simultaneously entering an ESS • (b) minimize the time spent within the initial link set-up phase • (c) securely provide initial authentication.

7. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Network and BSS discovery: Scanning procedure changes • More control to scanning procedures: • Terminating the ongoing scan • More reporting options of the scanning result • Immediate reporting • Reporting after a channel is scanned • Legacy, reporting after scanning is completed • Announcing one or more neighbor BSS or channel information in Beacon, Probe Response and Fast Discovery (FD) frame • Reducechancesof scanning channels with no AP • BSSID of neighbor AP enables more precise active scanning • More information on neighbor BSSs may be provided

8. AP1 Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) AP1 AP2 AP2 AP3 AP3 Probe Request STA 1 STA 2 STA 2 Delay probe request transmission Abort probe request transmission Probe Response STA 1 Active Scanning, Expedited Scanning Procedure • STA avoids sending unnecessary Probe Request: • If a device has received a Probe Request, it should avoid transmitting of a Probe Request for same APs

9. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) AP1 AP1 AP2 AP2 AP3 AP3 Probe Request STA 1 STA 2 STA 2 STA2 send Probe Request for same APs Receive probe responses Probe Response STA 1 Active Scanning, Probe Response Collision Avoidance • AP avoids sending unnecessary Probe Responses: • Single copy of Probe Response or Beacon frame is enough AP1 AP2 AP3 Probe Request STA 1 STA 2

10. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Chn 1 Chn 6 Chn 1 Chn 6 Probe Response + Neighbor List Probe Request Contains information of itself (AP 2), as well as AP 1 and AP 3 of Channel 1 and Channel 6 Request for information of other BSSs STA 1 STA 1 AP1 AP1 AP2 AP2 AP3 AP3 Active Scanning, Comprehensive Response • One Probe Response may contain information of multiple APs • The total number of Probe Request and Probe Responses is reduced

11. AP1 AP1 Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) AP2 AP2 AP3 AP3 Probe Request Probe response is transmitted if all the criteria are met Criteria for AP delay performance & RSSI STA 1 Probe Response STA 1 Active scanning, New Response Criteria • Probe Request contains criteria to transmit Probe Response. Response is transmitted only if the criteria is met • Criteria include: • Reception power • AP’s channel access delay, capabilities • STA’s QoS requirement • Vendor specific information etc.

12. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Active scanning, Probe Response Reception Time Element • The transmitters of the Probe Request may indicate how long the transmitter will be available to receive Probe Responses • Probe Response Reception Time is set to MAX_Probe_Response_Time

13. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Passive Scanning, Key Enhancements • FILS Discovery (FD) frame: a new public action frame • Small-size: MAC headers + FD frame body, 40 to 55 bytes for typical uses; • Only one mandatory information element: SSID; • Optional information items: AP’s Next TBTT, AP-CCC, Access Network Options, Capability, Security, Neighbor AP information. • FD frame is transmitted between Beacon frames, for a fast AP/Network discovery; • FD frame may be transmitted as a non-HT duplicate PPDU, enabling a larger channel than 20MHz; Beacon Example #1 FD frame Primary channel of the transmitter Preamble Payload of FD Frame T1 time Preamble Payload of FD Frame Example #2 Preamble Payload of FD Frame T2 time Preamble Payload of FD Frame Example #3 T3 time

14. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Reducing Sizes of the Responses • AP Configuration Change Count (CCC) keeps track of changes of the parameters in Probe Response and Beacon • One octet in length • AP-CCC does not consider changes of BSS Load, Average Access Delay and other rapidly changing parameters

15. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Control allowed STAs for concurrent initial links • Differentiated Initial Link Setup element can be set by AP to control allowed STA for concurrent initial links • Conditions for STAs can be set by AP including: • ILS User Priority • MAC Address Filter • Vendor Specific Category • Link Setup Bursty

16. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Network Discovery, Key Enhancements • GAS query enhancement by using an AP white-list • A new IE with one or multiple 6-byte BSSIDs in GAS request to indicate the AP(s) that the requesting STA wants to query. • GAS traffic reduction by using GAS Configuration Sequence Number • A new IE with an 1-byte unsigned integer: • indicating the version number of AP’s GAS configuration information set; • monotonically incrementing whenever there is any change in the AP’s GAS configuration information set; • Used in Beacon and/or Probe Response.

17. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Feature of IEEE802.11ai (Higher layer setup) • Significant reduction in setup signaling: Authentication, 4-way handshake, Association & Higher layer setup including IP address assignment completed in 2 roundtrip signaling messages • Fast authentication & FILS IP address assignment speeds up the authentication & IP Address assignment procedure 3rd Party (DHCP Server) DHCP Messages, etc.

18. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Link Setup States per 802.11ai

19. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) {(STA:KSTA), (AP:KAP), …} FILS Key Establishment with TTP KSTA KAP Secret keys STA AP TTP Beacon/Probe Resp. Authentication Request Requires STA and AP to share secret key with same TTP (e.g., via ISPs that have pre-existing business relationships) Key Establishment Authentication Response Association Request Key Confirmation Association Request • FILS authentication with online TTP: • TTP actively assists STA and AP in deriving shared keying material (hence, “online”) • Two flavors: with or without “Perfect Forward Secrecy” (PFS) • NOTE: With “PFS”, TTP usually does not learn shared key STA-AP, nor can re-compute past sessions should node get compromised (in short: better security)

20. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) FILS Key Establishment w/o. TTP {CertSTA, CertAP, …} Public keys CA root key STA CA root key AP CA Beacon/Probe Resp. Authentication Request Requires STA and AP to certify their own public key with some CA (e.g., during manufacturing) Key Establishment Authentication Response Association Request Key Confirmation Association Request FILS authentication without online TTP: • STA and AP can derive shared keying material and authentication directly, via use of certificates (so, no need for any active involvement third party for authentication) • Third party may still be involved for authorization or for configuration (as with all FILS key establishment protocols)

21. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Adding “piggy-backed info” to protocol flows … STA AP TTP Services Beacon/Probe Resp. Authentication Request Authentication help Key Establishment Authentication Response IP address assignment Association Request Authorization Configuration help + piggy-backed info request Key Confirmation Association Request Subscription credentials + piggy-backed info response • Piggy-backing info along FILS authentication protocol: • Higher-layer set-up, including IP address assignment • Authorization functionality, subscription credentials, etc. • See details elsewhere in presentation

22. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Trial report of FILS feasibility study • The effect of reducing packet exchange was evaluated by field test in Japan • The details are reported in IEEE802.11 as, https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/13/11-13-0323-02-00ai-tgai-experimental-test-report-of-fils.pptx • FILS STAs completed the association process in significantly less time than WPA STAs •  More time within the AP coverage for (user) data exchange • The large number of link setup frame exchanges for WPA2 STAs (as compared to FILS STAs) made them vulnerable. • If retransmission of a lost frame did not succeed after three attempts, the association process had to restart from the beginning • This field trial did only consider the higher layer set-up features while using legacy scanning. We expect FURTHER performance improvement when the FILS scanning features are in use

23. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Trial report of feasibility study with FILS 2/2 • 20 FILS and 20 WPA2 are entering the service area. • Measured the distance of STA and AP where STA establish link successfully and received http contents. • Measured the time from Association/FILS request to IP address assignment propriety application. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOKaVOPWXTU • 90% (18/20) FILS STA established link before arriving at in the front of AP • 85% (17/20) WPA2 established link since they passed in the front of AP • Average link setup time from FILS request to IP address assignment is 0.742 Sec • Average link setup time from Association request to IP address assignment is 21.599 Sec Established Link Point FILS 非接続 歩きながら移動 非接続 Service Area WPA2

24. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) ANNEXUSE CASE EXAMPLES THAT BENEFIT FROM FILS

25. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Alternative Use Cases • Automatic metering • Power electric • Water meter • Gas meter • etc.. • Drive through • Digital Signage • V2V,V2X

26. Hiroshi Mano (ATRD) Feasibility Study of Automobile Application • Fast initial link setup enables opportunistic vehicle to vehicle communication. • Toyota InfoTechnology Center measured the number of user text message exchanges during specific time period. • Assumption • Air coverage: 50m • Vehicle speed: 40km/h（11m/Sec） • Available communication time : 5Sec • WPA2: More than 4Sec communication time is required to exchange messages. • FILS: it is available to exchange messages under short communication time. • Y: Number of exchanged messages • X: Communication time • This measurement did only consider the higher layer set-up features while using legacy scanning. • We expect FURTHER performance increase if the stations implemented the new scanning features.