Insights into Home WiFi Systems

Insights into Home WiFi Systems

Agenda Home WiFi Requirements 03 WiFi @ Home today 04 WiFi repeaters/extenders 05 Overview on WDS 06 IEEE 802.11s/Wireless Mesh 10 Multiple APs - Technical Challenge 15 WiFi Mesh Players & Issues 16 Throughput metrics (WDS Vs Mesh) 18 Qubercomm s Nmesh 23

Home WiFi Requirements Better Connectivity Experience Multiple Access Points Voice/Video over Wireless IoT / Home Automation Smart, resilient, and scalable networks No more Cables WiFi Calling Roaming & Failover Mobile App/Cloud Managed WiFi

WiFi @ Home Today Need for BLE, Zigbee, DOCSIS and etc Band Steering WDS Client Steering / Load Balancing Wireless Mesh Dual Band (Minimum), Tri Band radios PLC repeater Multiple Antennas

WiFi repeaters / Extenders WiFi repeaters uses a single radio to relay traffic between Client & AP WiFi extenders use two/more radios with one radio dedicated for backhaul while the other radio is used for Front-haul (i.e AP BSS)

WDS WDS stands for Wireless distribution System and this is supported by all AP vendors. Enables wireless interconnection of access points in a WLAN network Connect all the Wireless Access Points in a home wirelessly Connection uses 4 address frame format as specified in IEEE 802.11 Specification Enables wireless bridging functionality as it preserves the originator s MAC address across wireless links Implementation differs from vendor to vendor

WDS - Continued WDS are typically used to provide two modes of wireless connectivity between Aps: (1) Wireless bridgingand (2) Wireless repeating Wireless bridging - AP-AP communication only. Provides bridging for its LAN port devices. Wireless STA connections are not allowed. Repeater - Both AP-AP & STA-AP connection are allowed Each hop reduces the throughput by 50% due to half duplex nature of wireless. Not interoperable with other AP vendor s product. Event same vendor APs do not work reliably

WDS Bridge - Data Flow 192.168.1.5 00:03:7f:12:45:24 802.3 SRC: 00:03:7f:12:45:24 DST: 00:03:7f:90:42:89 192.168.1.1 802.11 RA: 00:03:7f:33:11:BC TA: 00:03:7f:44:33:CE SA: 00:03:7f:12:45:24 DA: 00:03:7f:90:42:89 WDS Link 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.3 00:03:7f:44:33:CE 00:03:7f:33:11:BC WDS STA WDS AP AP/BSS VAP is active only in WDS AP 802.3 SRC: 00:03:7f:12:45:24 DST: 00:03:7f:90:42:89 WDS STA will not have any BSS VAP 192.168.1.6 192.168.1.4 00:03:7f:90:42:89

WDS Repeater - Data Flow 192.168.1.5 00:03:7f:12:45:24 802.3 SRC: 00:03:7f:12:45:24 DST: 00:03:7f:90:42:89 192.168.1.1 802.11 RA: 00:03:7f:33:11:BC TA: 00:03:7f:44:33:CE SA: 00:03:7f:12:45:24 DA: 00:03:7f:90:42:89 WDS Link 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.3 00:03:7f:44:33:CE 00:03:7f:33:11:BC 802.3 SRC: 00:03:7f:12:45:24 DST: 00:03:7f:90:42:89 192.168.1.6 AP/BSS VAP is active only both in WDS STA & WDS AP WDS STA shall have 2 interface 192.168.1.7 192.168.1.8 192.168.1.4 00:03:7f:90:42:89

WiFi Mesh Provides Flexibility. Avoids additional cabling costs. Also alleviates 100m ethernet cabling limitation. MP 1 MP = Mesh Point Forwarding Path MP 2 Shortest path selection as compared to fixed cable path in wired link. MP 3 Self forming - Easy mesh network expansion MP 4 Self healing - Specs supports automatic fail over Internet Suitable even for Large campus / Stadiums

Sample Mesh Network Portal Mesh Gate Mesh STA F Portal Mesh Gate Mesh STA Portal AP MBSS G Mesh STA AP M N P O C Mesh STA Mesh STA K L E Mesh Gate Mesh STA A Mesh STA Mesh STA D AP J AP A mesh STA can potentially reach another mesh STA/other STA B Mesh STA H I Q R S Mesh STA +AP solutions typically employ dual radios: One for BSS and another for MBSS

Mesh Path Selection A B E D F G J I K A B E D F G J I K C H C H PREQ PREP Use of Path_Request frames by source to find path Forward Path Reverse Path HWMP path selection frames Path_Response frames sent by destination STA

Mesh Frame Format Octets: 2 2 6 6 6 2 6 2 4 0~7955 4 Frame Ctrl Duration/ID Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Seq Control Address 4 Qos Control HT Control Body FCS RA TA Mesh DA Mesh SA Ultimate source and destination STAs need not be mesh STAs Octets: 1 1 4 0,5,12 or 18 Mesh Control Mesh Flags Time To Live Mesh E2E Seq Number Address Extension (AE) Address Extension Mode Reserved Need not be mesh DA/SA Mesh Source Address or Destination Address Source Address

Mesh Addressing Example SA Mesh SA TA RA Mesh DA DA STA 1 Portal Gate Mesh link 802.x LAN STA 2 Mesh link Mesh STA 3 Mesh link Mesh Mesh link Mesh Gate AP link STA 4 STA 5 STA 6 STA 7 Mesh BSS (MBSS) Infrastructure BSS Mesh Path Receiver Address Transmitter Address Mesh Destination Address Mesh Source Address Destination Address Source Address Mesh STA 4 Mesh STA 3 Mesh STA 5 Mesh STA 2 STA 7 STA 1

Multiple APs - Technical Challenge 192.168.1.5 2.4GHz 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2 2.4GHz 192.168.1.3 5 GHz Simultaneous operation of WiFi AP & WDS / Mesh Link 5 GHz 192.168.1.6 Manage Backhaul Access 192.168.1.4 2.4GHz Smooth Fail over 5 GHz

Players and Issues 2-radio vs. 3-radio Mesh vs. WDS Cost Ease of setup

Throughput Metrics - Root Node Vendor TCP UDP D/L U/L D/L U/L Comments Vendor-1 564, 598 286, 277 546, 548 280, 286 IEEE 802.11s Vendor-2 591, 588 457, 466 628, 582 458, 493 IEEE 802.11s Vendor-3 517, 531 211, 200 491, 488 110, 116 WDS Vendor-4 596, 648 505, 470 671, 692 538, 493 WDS Qubercomm NMesh 595, 582 616, 625 691, 698 706, 680 IEEE 802.11s

Throughput Metrics - Mesh Node Vendor TCP UDP D/L U/L D/L U/L Comments Vendor-1 226, 204 129, 125 240, 269 76, 60 IEEE 802.11s Vendor-2 224, 227 220, 223 218, 166 197, 195 IEEE 802.11s Vendor-3 125, 130 125, 105 125, 125 110, 116 WDS Vendor-4 441, 430 438, 411 441, 495 535, 491 WDS Qubercomm NMesh 234, 232 263, 259 275, 288 332, 355 IEEE 802.11s

2 Radio Vs 3 Radio Dual Band Cost Effective and serves the purpose of a Home Environment unless range extension is required along with better throughput. Spectral Analysis, WIPS/WIDS comes at a cost More STAs connected may degrade performance Lesser the 5G devices may still be fine with 2 Radio solution Dual band routers and wireless backup could consume huge b/w and reduce throughput. Less b/w equals higher interference. Provides better range with just 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band routers. Tri Band Higher in cost but very useful for range extension without affecting throughput Spectral Analysis, DFS Radar scan & WIDS/WIPS is possible without affecting the BSS Radio. More STAs may still get better throughput Beneficial if you have more 5GHz and preferably 11ac WiFi devices Tri-band routers with WiGig support can be beneficial if 802.11ad devices (Wireless NAS) are used. More b/w equals less interference. Tri-band routers with WiGig provides much shorter range than dual band and single band routers.

WDS Vs Mesh WDS Repeater/Bridge All STA-STA traffic need to go through WDS AP Packet flows from one STA to another always follows a static path Failover isn t supported natively. No interoperability. Worse part is, it doesn t even work with different models of the same vendor. No leverage for IoT as is. No power save within WDS link. Proprietary mechanism needs to be deployed. Typically 4 addresses are used and not more. Mesh Allows peer-to-peer data communication and thus offers better throughput. Shortest Path is always chosen. Failover is supported natively. IEEE specification built with interoperability in mind. Potential for IoT devices to form mesh and provide value added services without a dedicated device managing all of them. Mesh specification supports multiple levels of power save. Mesh can use up to 6 Addresses.

WiFi Mesh Players

NMesh Qubercomm s NMesh is an endto- end IoT stack that can be readily adapted and extended to enable the right IoT solutions for any industrial problemspace. It provides a device agnostic IoT software platform that enterprises can leverage to develop and deploy custom applications for their specific use case. Its Mesh architecture and multiradio support provides enterprises with robust and resilient IoT infrastructure that is self-organizing, self- healing, and scalable. Cloud Managed Gateway Device agnostic connectivity over Wifi, BLE, and Zigbee radios IoT Mesh Architecture Smart, resilient, and scalable networks Service Layer Containerized software environments and API s for third party application development and integration Cloud Completely cloud managed and capable of interfacing with your existing cloud infrastructure

NMesh NMesh offers enterprises open access to the entire platform, giving them the tools and freedom to build and deploy any third party solution on top in application containers. Enterprises that subscribe to Qubercomm s IP packages have unrestricted use of API s to our patented algorithms for their custom software deployments. Cloud Interface Ad Casting and Media Services Location-based Network Security Indoor Mapping Tools Locationing Algorithms

NMesh The NMesh IoT stack can be flexibly packaged to meet your specific enterprise's scale and requirements. Cloud Managed Multi-radio Gateway A fixed one-time cost IoT Mesh & Service Layer A monthly subscription cost based on the size and complexity of the deployment API s for Packaged Qubercomm IP s A fixed monthly subscription cost for free use ofapi s