BROADBAND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION IN VEHICLES

Presented By P.SHAMEER BASHA 710237 B.SAHADEVULU 710204

Department of Electronics and communications engineering,

Sri krishnadevaraya University College of Engineering & Technology.

ANANTAPUR
EMAIL:

psb786.2008@gmail.com

devudu.saha6@gmail.com this more attractive to the frequent commuter, novel technologies for providing virtual offices or virtual homes in vehicles need to be developed. In order to provide high-bit-rate interactive multimedia services to fast-moving mobile users, one has to reuse the limited radio spectrum as efficiently as possible. This is made possible by using a cellular network with very small cells resulting in a high reuse factor of the

ABSTRACT:

Today our society is struggling more and more with environmental and economic problems related to the ever-increasing traffic on our highways and in our cities. The resulting traffic jams give rise to waste of time and money and are polluting our environment at a rapid pace. As a result, carpooling and public transport will be strongly encouraged by governments and industry. In order to make

frequency spectrum. This will result however in frequent handovers (typically every few seconds) because mobile devices may move very fast, crossing many cell boundaries. This paper discusses the major issues related to broadband wireless communication in vehicles, with special emphasis on the handover protocols and smart antennas and their influence on the quality of services of (QOS) of offered services Introduction There is no doubt that the Internet is one of the biggest success stories in the history of information and communication technology .Due to its elegant design, it can not only offer us the World Wide Web and email but also various multimedia services like videoconferencing, online gaming and video on demand. On the other hand, mobile and wireless technologies have experienced an unprecedented boom in the last decade. One of the big challenges yet to come is to merge these two worlds into an all-IP worldwide communication network. Mobile users want to move freely without any disruption in their active multimedia applications: they demand the same quality of service as in the case of wired access. This will enable car-poolers and commuters to continue their professional activities from their mobile terminal on their

way to their job or during a business trip (virtual \office), to be connected to their personal home network (virtual home), to participate via video conferencing at a meeting, to watch a streaming video during a long trip, to play interactive video games, to have continuous access to tourist information, etc1. There are already signs that in hot spots, with low user mobility, this is technically feasible, Universal relying, for example, on the Mobile Telecommunications

System (UMTS) and public wireless local area networks (WLANs). But for mobile terminals moving at vehicular speeds, the so-called virtual office or virtual home is far from a reality. In this paper we discuss the problems we are facing and how they could be tackled. The Pitfalls Bandwidth shortage The common literature on wireless and cellular systems is clear about one thing: the available bandwidth, in terms of bit rate, for mobile users moving at vehicular speeds is inversely related to their velocity (Figure 1) This implies that the popular Internet applications are not yet available at vehicular speeds, due to the lack of high bandwidth and quality of service. When todays commuters, for example in a train or in a car, want to access the Internet, they see themselves restricted to simple web surfing or email.

Table 1 shows the requirements of some multimedia Internet applications in terms of required data rate, maximum tolerable delay, maximum tolerable packet loss and IP traffic behavior. Interactive multimedia services like online gaming and provide video conferencing are still unavailable to them, even with promising new technologies like UMTS or WLAN. We further note that some applications, such as video, are not yet adapted for transmission over the Internet. Todays available video codes (such as MPEG) are optimized for minimal data storage and lead to very non-uniform data traffic with peak data rates that are much higher than the

average data rate. This complicates traffic engineering and quality of service (QoS) support mechanisms a lot. In addition to the popular multimedia services that are common on the Internet today, the availability of high bandwidth for passengers in a vehicle could open up a world of new applications and revenues for the providers. For example, weather and road conditions could be announced to the cars on a regular basis or fast and reliable medical assistance could be supplied to ambulances, and, last but not least, the infotainment industry could open up a new market for offering tourist information and entertainment in high-speed trains.

Frequent handovers Unfortunately, the lack of bandwidth is not the only bottleneck that is preventing us from offering broadband services to fast moving users. For example, IEEE 802.11a WLAN is able to provide a (shared) wireless bit rate of 54 M bit/s, but only for cell sizes of a few tens of meters. Figure 2 shows the cell size and available bit rate for different wireless technologies. We observe an inverse relationship between the bit rate and the cell dimension. One could argue that, apart from economic reasons, nothing is preventing todays telecom operators from deploying a lot more base stations along the road in order to provide more bandwidth the vehicles. This will however result in frequent handovers, typically every few seconds, because mobile users may move very fast, thereby crossing many cell boundaries. This makes handover probably one of the most critical issues for delivering seamless services to mobile users at vehicular speeds2. The current cell planning strategy is to maximize the coverage and to minimize the number of cells by allocating more cells in areas with high subscriber density, resulting in large cells in rural areas where the vehicular speeds are higher. Current handover optimized to protocols are therefore not sustain high handover

reduced shared bandwidth (see also Figure 2), as the high (omni directionally) radiated power, needed to cover a large area, results insignificant inter symbol interference. With current cellular technologies, like UMTS, fastmoving users are switched to larger cells to reduce the handover frequency and see themselves restricted to lower data rates. In addition, if the future wireless networks are revolving towards all-IP packet based access networks, the handover protocols will have to make handovers at the network level as well. Existing IP-based handover protocols make a trade-off between packet loss and handover latency, and Table 1 shows that multimedia applications, like video and voice, are very sensitive to this. The current protocols also suffer from scalability issues when multiple fast moving subscribers are in play.

Tackling the Problems

In order to provide high-quality multimedia applications to fast-moving users in future cellular networks, not only the physical communication link needs to be enhanced, there are implications on the network level as well. In the following we present some new advances in the area of antenna design and IP handover protocols that, in our opinion, are necessary for enabling broadband multi media services in future wireless IP networks.

frequencies. Bigger cells furthermore lead to a

Increasing the bandwidth Advanced antenna systems play an essential role in increasing the overall performance of Wireless communication systems. To realize broadband access for wireless networks, todays international research focuses on smart antenna systems and on MIMO multiple input multiple output) systems. The smart antenna concept can be best understood by first taking a look at a classical cellular network as depicted in Figure 3. Here, the base station antennas are omnidirectional

dimension, the same frequency can be reused in neighboring cells. The combination of a directional antenna system with a signal processing unit yields a smart antenna system. The intelligence is embedded in the signal processing capabilities. The RF hardware of the signal processing unit allows the radiation pattern of the antenna array to be changed and hence beam steering to be performed. The purpose of the whole system is to optimize the signal transfer between receiver and transmitter and to suppress the effect of interfering signals and noise. In switched antenna systems a choice is made from a set of predefined radiation patterns, while in adaptive systems it is possible to dynamically change the radiation pattern; for example, to account for the movement of the receiver. To do so, steering algorithms must be sufficiently fast. In a smart antenna system the signals on the different antenna

and in neighboring cells different frequencies are used, to avoid interference. By using a directional antenna system (see Figure 4), the available spectrum can be used in a more efficient way: due to the extra spatial

elements

that

constitute

the

antenna

receiver.

Provided

an estimate

for the

propagation channel is available information can be sent over N independent channels, increasing the bandwidth N times (N being the minimum number of antenna elements available at the receiver and transmitter). Proper functioning of a MIMO system ultimately depends on the presence of rich multipath propagation. However, both indoor and certain types of outdoor environments often exhibit line-of-sight propagation capable of compromising the performance of the MIMO system. Moreover, the transmitter and receiver are supposed to be stationary in existing MIMO systems. The problem becomes far more complex when the mobility of the user be taken into account. Hence, correct knowledge of the often very complex array are not independent. By properly choosing them, the antenna elements act together as a larger single antenna with a single but steerable radiation pattern. Taking into account the complexity antenna array and the fact that it takes space than a single antenna, such arrays typically found at the base station. The challenge however comes from the mobile user side. Using an antenna array at the mobile user is only possible provided such an array is both compact and cost effective. In a MIMO system, an antenna array available both at the transmitter and the propagation channel is necessary to be to use the capacity of the communication channel in an optimal way. From the above general explanation, will be clear that at the physical layer two challenges must be addressed when trying to realize broadband access for mobile users: Development of a compact and cost effective smart antenna system at the mobile terminal, and Prediction of the complex signal propagation channel.

Of course, the real challenge is to actually build a compact signal processing unit. To this end research has been started in the domain of active antennas3. The main advantages of such active arrays are increased bandwidth, better signal-to-noise ratio, reduced losses and a much more compact design. It is clear that these features are highly desired for an antenna system at the mobile user. Advances in IP handover protocols An IP handover protocol prevents connection loss while moving from one base station to another. It has the critical task of providing seamless user connectivity even though the IP protocol was not designed with host mobility in mind. Therefore, the Internet engineering task force (IETF) has developed the mobile IPv6 protocol4 which allows IP hosts to remain connected to the Internet moving. of its Each mobile host is while always

its care-of address, each time it moves from one base station (BS) to another. However, packets sent between the mobile routing through the home agent. routing by host and a To avoid a correspondent host incur suboptimal triangle this, a mobile host can optionally optimize performing

identified by its home IP address, regardless current point of attachment to the Binding update (BU) with the correspondent node as well. The delay between the moment the mobile host has associated with the new base station and the moment it starts sending and receiving packets on the new link may be substantial; for example, in the order of seconds. A mobile host must first detect at the network layer that its point of attachment has Internet. When away from its home, a mobile host is also associated with a care-of- address, which provides information about the mobile hosts current location. IPv6 packets addressed to a mobile hosts home address are transparently routed to its care-of address (Figure 5). To accomplish this, the mobile host (MH) notifies its home agent (HA) of the current binding between its home address and

changed, then it must perform a configuration of the new link, including router discovery and allocate a new care-of-address. Hereafter, the mobile host must perform binding updates with the home agent and any correspondent hosts. Any packets between the correspondent host and the mobile host sent or underway during this time, arrive at the old care-of address, where they are dropped since the mobile host no longer has link connectivity with the old base station. The higher the bit rate of the application, the more packets are lost and the worse the quality of service for the user becomes. In the case of high handover frequency, the mobile IPv6 protocol wont be able to follow the frequent change in connections and will ultimately fail. The Mobile IP Working Group is further developing two mobile IPv6 extensions to address this packet loss and handover latency. These extensions are: Hierarchical mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6)5 This extension deals with reducing the amount of signalling and latency of handover between a mobile host, its home agent and one or more correspondent hosts by introducing the mobility anchor point (MAP) in an IPsubnet. The MAP acts like a local home agent in the new subnet for the visiting host and reduces the delay related to the location update, as the mobile host now sends only a

local binding update (BU) to the local MAP, rather away. Fast handovers for mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6)6 FMIPv6 reduces the amount of configuration time in the new subnet by using link layer triggers in order to anticipate the movement of the mobile host. For example, a reduction in the signal strength of the downlink may indicate that handover will be necessary soon. The new protocol provides support for preconfiguration with link information of the subnet, while the mobile host is still attached to the old subnet. In addition, FMIPv6 reduces packet loss by providing fast IP connectivity as soon as a new link is established by forwarding the packets that are delivered to the old care of address to the new care-of address. Unfortunately, a lack of standardization manufacturers prevents the hardware than to the home agent and corresponding hosts, that are typically further

with a minimum handover delay minimal packet losses during handover. As indicated in the previous section, current IP- based handover protocols cannot yet meet the requirements of high mobility and high bandwidth combined with seamless handover. These handover protocols are rather developed for sporadic transitions from one cell to another and are hence only suited for slowly moving mobile users. There does not yet exist a solution seamless handover for fast mobile from implementing this cross-layer exchange of information. In addition, the integration of these techniques into HMIPv6 is not straightforward. These protocols are still in their initial experimental stage. The overall handover latency and packet loss in MIPv6 will be dependent on the various delay factors such as movement detection, IP address configuration and location update. The Mobile IP Working Group has not yet incorporated case of a fast-moving commuter demanding high bandwidth in their charter. Handover protocols for 4G and beyond As in the near future carpooling and public transport will be more and more encouraged by the local and public authorities, there will be an increasing demand for various Internet and multimedia applications in the car and the train. For this kind of applications, a highspeed high-capacity wireless link is needed users, which move rapidly from one cell to another in a more or less predictable way, which the case for cars driving along the highway and for trains. INTEC is currently developing a dedicated intelligent routing protocol for fast and seamless handover, taking into account the knowledge of the position and the trajectory of the vehicle. The latter can be accomplished for example by using Global Positioning System (GPS) information, but also prediction techniques based on smart antenna properties can provide additional information. The intelligent routing protocol is further based on location servers for storing statistical data, in order to define the places where the probability for handover execution is high. The environment under consideration is characterized by these properties: users are moving continuously and behave in a predictable manner,

 Hand over frequency is high, and Users need high bandwidth with little or no packet loss and handover latency. The intelligent routing protocol also requires new scheduling techniques to ensure the quality-of-service requirements for each of the mobile hosts applications. The new IP handover protocol will at a later stage be extended towards complex environments, like cities, which inherently exhibit uncertainties in the trajectory of the mobile hosts. A test bed is being build at INTEC for the experimental validation of this new intelligent handover protocol (Figure 6)1. We are using standard equipment, like 802.11b PCMCIA cards and steerable attenuators, and homedesigned and home-made directional switched beam antennas, in order to emulate a fastmoving mobile user, experiencing numerous handovers while running a high bandwidth multimedia application, which requires a high quality of service; for example, a video from a video streamer over the Internet. The mobile host, the routers and gateways are all standard Linux PCs, running the Click Router software package, enhanced with our own handover protocol implementation. First demonstration results of the intelligent routing protocol will be presented at the FITCE Congress 2003, while technical results on smart antennas have recently been submitted for publication8.

Conclusions
The provision of virtual offices or virtual homes in vehicles is undoubtedly an adequate solution to deal with the environmental and economical problems related to the everincreasing traffic on our highways and in our cities. A lot of issues however still remain unresolved for high-quality multimedia applications to be provided to fast-moving users. The need for higher bit rates in cellular systems forces the cells to smaller sizes. High user mobility that further can requires deal with handover frequent protocols

handovers. Such protocols are currently nonexistent and therefore todays fast-moving users are generally switched to larger cells and see themselves restricted to lower data rates. If one is trying to engineer a cellular infrastructure with smaller cells in which also fast-moving users can experience the joys of multimedia, one has to face new challenges and encounter untackled problems. These problems start at the physical layer, propagate up to the network layer and may have an impact on the application layer as well (for example, new video-coding techniques needs to be developed to enable scalable and uniform data rates).promising new antenna technologies, alleviate the like smart antennas, of may difficulties multipath

interference and hence increase the available

bandwidth in a cell, but this will certainly not suffice. There is also need for new modulation schemes, intelligent handover protocols and contextaware . applications.

References
1. www.systeminfo.com, 2. Research papers of Tom van Leeuwan, Ghent University, Belgium. 3. Research papersof IIT, Kharagpur.