Technology Teach-in Dr Tim Whitley MD Research & Technology 3 October 2011 Agenda • BT‟s innovation approach and breadth • Focus today on three broadband related activities: – Increasing copper based broadband capability – LTE – a reality check – TV White spaces © British Telecommunications plc 2 Innovation around the world BT Innovation centres: USA, UK, Israel, UAE, India, China, Japan BT invested £684m in R&D in 2010/11 Portfolio of 5,600 patents © British Telecommunications plc 3 BT‟s “open innovation” strategy Revenue Innovate within each stage and through the entire value chain Customer experience Cost reduction Invent Architect Customers • Customer coinnovation • Bid support • Roadmaps • Future proofing Validate Operate Productise Channels & Implement Universities • Strategic partnerships • Contract Research • Benchmarking • Internships People & org Government • Collaborative Research • Regional Partnerships • EU, TSB, BIS • Standards • Lobbying Customers Partners • • • • Co-Innovations Prototyping Proof of concept Access to new technology • Influencing industry Start-ups • Access to technology and business models • Informing BT business options • De-risking We multiply the research leverage through our open innovation partners © British Telecommunications plc IN CONFIDENCE 4 BT has a proud history of innovation • • • • • • • • • • • 1837 - William Fothergill Cooke and Professor Charles Wheatstone patented the world's first practical electric telegraph in June. Cooke founded the Electric Telegraph Company in 1846 - from which BT is directly descended. 1926 - BT/Post Office and Bell Laboratories engineered the world's first two way transatlantic telephone conversation (by radio). Commercial radio telephone service started in 1927 1943 - One of BT's (Post Office Telecoms') research teams designed and constructed Colossus, the world's first programmable computer used at Bletchley Park to assist wartime code breaking) 1962 - world's first satellite telephone from London to New York via Telstar 1968 - The world's first digital exchange was opened near Earl's Court 1979 - BT/PO launched Prestel, the world's first viewdata network 1980 - BT laid the world's first purpose-designed optical fibre submarine cable in Loch Fyne 1984 - BT brought into service the world's first 140 Mbit/s commercial optical fibre link using single mode transmission 1989 - BT launched Skyphone, the world's first satellite telephone system 1999 - BT Cellnet was the world's first mobile network to make a live data call via GPRS 2006 - BT implemented the world's first fully-automated 'spam buster' system to track down and tackle professional spammers © British Telecommunications plc 5 Industry recognition of BT‟s approach Business Excellence Award for Innovation 2010 Optimising & accelerating product and system migration with ontology system Local Optical Service Innovation Primary voice service for Ebbsfleet FTTP (BT and 2Wire) Local optical network Fibre to the cabinet: Openreach and Huawei Technology Excellence – R&D Achievement of the Year: Winner Autonomic Fault Prediction and Resolution Managed services Legacy network transformation: BT Global Services and Alcatel-Lucent Billing services innovation Revenue assurance project (BT and cVidya) New media innovation Shape-shifting media (BT and Real Time content) UK IT Industry awards medal for R&D Achievement of the Year : 2 MEDALLISTS: 1. Cloud Service Broker 2. Cloud Secure: Virtual Hosting for Cloud © British Telecommunications plc The IET Innovation Awards 2009 Global Telecoms Business Awards 2009 Best Innovation for Telecommunications I-Plate The IET Innovation Awards 2010 Best Innovation in IT WAN Optimisation Service Global Telecoms Business Awards 2010 IT Service Innovation award: WAN Optimisation Service with Riverbed Business Migration Innovation award: Optimising & Accelerating Product & System Migration with Ontology systems 6 BT‟s strategy drives everything that we do Direct research into our customer experience Research to support profitable revenue growth • Proactive diagnosis and trouble resolution – „predict and prevent‟ • Advanced tests and diagnostics • Customer self-provisioning • Security • Research into consumer behaviour • Identifying ways to accelerate the roll-out of SFBB, DSL and fibre • Supporting delivery of TV & Content • Cloud • Mobility, wireless and convergence • Influencing standards agenda ... and research into emerging areas Using research to cut costs • Organisation and process transformation • Field force transformation • Reducing costs in the access network • Saving money through network rationalisation © British Telecommunications plc programmes Enabling our wider business priorities • Sustainability • Inclusion • Customer engagement (hothouses, showcases) 7 ... and now for the science part • Increasing copper based broadband capability with innovations which: – Increase speed / coverage of installed copper broadband asset – Create a copper broadband evolution path in BT‟s NGA/SFBB strategy • LTE – “a reality check” – What LTE is, and its performance characteristics – LTE‟s role in a mixed economy approach • TV White Spaces – Description of the technology and BT‟s activities – Capabilities and opportunities enabled by TV White Spaces © British Telecommunications plc 8 Radio spectrum 2G/3G/ Mobile Phones Satellite TV TV Fixed links FM Radio MW Radio LW Radio VLF 3 MF LF 30 WiFi 300 HF 3 KHz VHF 30 UHF 300 SHF 3 MHz EHF 30 300 GHz Increasing coverage, but less bandwidth Decreasing coverage, but greater bandwidth DSL band plan TV White Spaces LTE © British Telecommunications plc 9 Supercharging Super Fast Broadband Peter Bell Access Platform, BT Innovate and Design Copper based broadband • Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology enables high speed data communications to be sent over the existing phone lines. • Significantly faster than dial-up through use of higher frequencies • Separate frequency bands used for downstream and upstream transmission – Downstream transmission from exchange to customer – Upstream transmission from customer to exchange • Downstream throughput typically higher than upstream, hence “asymmetric” • A DSL system typically comprises the following : – Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) which terminates the line in the exchange or cabinet and provides backhaul connectivity – Splitter filters used to enable voice and data to be transmitted simultaneously over the same line and separated out at each end – Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) which terminates the line in the customers premise © British Telecommunications plc Common DSL technologies • Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) – Data rates of up to 8Mbit/s downstream and 448kbit/s upstream – Exchange based system • ADSL with extended bandwidth (ADSL2plus) – Data rates of up to 24Mbit/s downstream and up to 1Mbit/s upstream – Exchange based system • Very high-speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) – Currently up to 40Mbit/s downstream, up to 15Mbit/s upstream – Cabinet based system – Key enabler for UK Next Generation Access (NGA) systems © British Telecommunications plc SFBB - Setting the scene: Broadband from the exchange BT/other core networks Local exchange (5600) Backhaul Copper cables ADSL DSLAM, ADSL2plus MSAN plus fibre backhaul Street cabinet ~90k Copper cables CPE Overhead distribution Telephone pole ~8M CPE CPE homes & businesses Underground distribution CPE © British Telecommunications plc SFBB: Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) VDSL DSLAM, plus fibre backhaul BT/other core networks CPE Backhaul Overhead distribution Fibre CPE Copper cables CPE Underground distribution CPE Distance from cabinet to customer still varies so speed achieved still varies from customer to customer © British Telecommunications plc Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) Existing Narrowband Street Cabinet Copper Connection to Customer Premises © British Telecommunications plc Copper „Tie-Cables‟ New Broadband Cabinet Fibre From the Exchange Strategy for achieving 100Mbit/s FTTC • Change the VDSL band plan – Change to a proven increased band plan to boost line rates – Industry wide agreement completed on 4th September 2011 – Implementable on BT‟s NGA systems via remote software upgrade • and potentially in the future … – Vectoring • Remove signal interference (crosstalk) between copper pairs that reduces VDSL line rates • Requires next generation of DSLAM hardware which is now becoming available – Bonding • Use 2 or more copper pairs to customer to double VDSL line rates • Needs new modem and spare copper pairs © British Telecommunications plc What is the “Band Plan” change? • UK NGA is currently constrained to using a band plan with an upper frequency of 7MHz D1 U0 0.025 • U1 3 0.138 Current Plan (truncated to 7MHz) D2 5.1 7.05 f (MHz) U0, U1, D1 and D2 represent the frequency bands used for upstream and downstream transmission BT assessed the available options for changing this and what they would offer UK NGA BT convinced UK Industry to get the regulations changed to enable NGA to be deployed up to 17MHz. • • – – – Extending the frequency enables higher data rates Access Network Frequency Plan (ANFP) revised to include new band plan All UK NGA lines must be configured to use the new band plan by 1st July 2012 U0 0.025 0.138 D1 U1 3.75 U2 D2 5.2 8.5 D3 12 D=Downstream, U=Upstream © British Telecommunications plc 14 Newly Agreed Plan (17MHz) 17.664 f (MHz) Band plan impact • Lines with short D-sides – New Band plan allows approx doubling of maximum speed compared with previous plan (i.e. download of up to 80Mbps from up to 40Mbps) • Lines with long D-sides… – Little change from previous plan (i.e. band plan benefit fades with distance) © British Telecommunications plc What is “vectoring”? • The challenge: • • • Crosstalk is due to signal interference between pairs in a multi-pair copper cable and limits VDSL2 performance (speed and reach) Increasing the number of active broadband pairs in a cable increases crosstalk and reduces line-rates Crosstalk also increases with frequency • The solution: • • • • • Reducing crosstalk results in improved performance. The technique for doing this in real-time is called “Vectoring” Vectoring estimates the crosstalk on each line and cancels it dynamically Vectoring is an international standardised technology with global suppliers BT currently evaluating the network performance of a prototype vectoring system Signal 1 line 1 The unwanted coupling from line to line is called “Crosstalk”. Signal 2 line 2 Another term you will hear is FEXT or Far End Crosstalk. Signal 3 line 3 © British Telecommunications plc Band plan and vectoring impact • Lines with short D-sides – New Band plan allows approx doubling of maximum speed compared with previous plan (i.e. download of up to 80Mbps from up to 40Mbps) – Vectoring further improves those speeds to 100mbps+ • Lines with long D-sides… – Little change from previous plan (i.e. band plan benefit fades with distance) – Vectoring continues to deliver improvement, though at a reduced rate (i.e. there is a reach benefit) © British Telecommunications plc Downstream rate improvement from 7MHz to 17MHz © British Telecommunications plc Improvement With vectoring and bandplan change, VDSL can reach 100Mbps downstream.... © British Telecommunications plc http://cms.comsoc.org/SiteGen/Uploads/Public/Docs_Globecom_2009/Vector_globecom2009_final_v2.pdf What is “Bonding”? • Bonding is a technique to use multiple copper pairs to increase the total line rate – The data carried on two pairs is combined together to give an aggregate rate of ~double the individual rates carried on each pair. • This technique is already widely used by BT for Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) services using symmetric DSL technology (G.SHDSL) • Bonding can be applied to VDSL to achieve either: – Increase bit rate – i.e. doubling line rates to 160Mbit/s – Increase reach – i.e. making 80Mbit/s available on longer loops • Bonding requires dedicated equipment in customers premise X Mbit/s 2X Mbit/s 2X Mbit/s VDSL modem Y Mbit/s X Mbit/s Aggregator 2Y Mbit/s 2Y Mbit/s Y Mbit/s DSLAM © British Telecommunications plc CPE Summary • Technical developments are driving FTTC line rates up • BT gained industry approval to double FTTC line rates to the benefit of the UK • Data rate could rise from up to 40Mbit/s to up to 80Mbit/s • BT is trialling vectoring technology and has seen real world lines achieve 100Mbit/s • Bonding offers additional benefits to further increase the rate and reach of FTTC • Copper pairs still have a strong broadband evolution path and BT is actively pursuing technical and regulatory developments © British Telecommunications plc Focus on broadband related activities: • Increasing copper based broadband capability: – Increase speed / coverage of installed copper broadband asset – Create a copper broadband evolution path in BT‟s NGA/SFBB strategy • LTE – “a reality check” – What LTE is, and its performance characteristics – LTE‟s role in a mixed economy approach • TV White Spaces © British Telecommunications plc 25 In Commercial Confidence BT’s LTE Strategy, Overview October 2009 Steve Buttery Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the latest in a progression of mobile communications standards 2G Global System General Packet for Mobile Radio Service GSM (2nd Generation) Channel: 200 kHz/8 Typical Data Rate: 10 kbit/s GPRS n*200 kHz/8 40 kbit/s Release 99 (3rd 3G Enhanced Data-rates for GSM Evolution Rel 99 Generation) Channel: 5 MHz Typical Data Rate: 384 kbit/s EDGE n*200 kHz/8 100 kbit/s High Speed Packet Access Enhanced HSPA HSPA HSPA+ 5 MHz 1 - 2 Mbit/s* 5 MHz 1 - 3 Mbit/s Long Term Evolution 4G © British Telecommunications plc (4th Generation) Channel: Typical Data Rate: 27 •Ofcom: Measuring Mobile Broadband in the UK – May 2011 LTE Up to 20 MHz 2 - 12 Mbit/s LTE Advanced More on this later... Through each evolution there has been a change to the radio capability – LTE also produces a “flatter” network architecture... The 50,000 mobile masts in the UK (for all operators) are usually split into three “sectors” to increase capacity. 2G radio designed for voice with data added later 3G radio gave better data in fixed spectrum blocks 4G radio gives greater spectrum flexibility © British Telecommunications plc 28 2G 3G 4G PSTN Controller Circuit Core Internet Controller Packet Core Packet Core Internet TDM E1 TDM E1 / Ethernet Ethernet Radio Access Network Core Network Any radio system is a trade-off between three key factors... Coverage Capability Better building penetration and rural coverage is required Capacity Mobile networks are struggling to meet increasing capacity demands Lower latency and higher peak rates will better support advanced services © British Telecommunications plc 29 Any radio system is a trade-off between three key factors... Coverage Capability Capacity LTE will only provide a coverage advantage over 3G in the lower frequency bands: - 2.6 GHz will provide poorer coverage and is for capacity - 850 MHz digital dividend will extend coverage © British Telecommunications plc 30 Any radio system is a trade-off between three key factors... Coverage Capability The capacity of a base station is the average rate achieved by users across the area and so is much lower than the peak. LTE provides a small advantage over HSPA+, but most capacity benefit is from new spectrum. Capacity HSPA+ (2x5MHz) LTE (2x10MHz) Headline peak rates are only available by devoting all the shared capacity to one user close to the mast. LTE (2x20 MHz) Assume 5 active users/cell The difference between „peak rate‟ and „sector throughput‟ is important... © British Telecommunications plc 31 Derived from: http://www.motorola.com/web/Business/_Documents/static%20files/Realistic_LTE_Experience_White_Paper_FINAL.pdf Although the very high peak rates offered by LTE are impressive, they do not necessarily translate into high cell capacities... The ‘average sector throughput’ is lower than some of the headlines might suggest because: 1. The high headline rates are only achieved VERY close to the basestation. Large cells have a low Small cells have a high capacity and high data rates “at the edge” © British Telecommunications plc 32 Cell Capacity & Capacity Data Rate Peak capacity and low data rates “at the edge” Near the basestation, high data rates can be supported… Ce ll C ap ac ity …but at the edge of cell, the data rates are much lower. Distance from basestation Although the very high peak rates offered by LTE are impressive, they do not necessarily translate into high cell capacities... The ‘average sector throughput’ is lower than some of the headlines might suggest because: 1. The high headline rates are only achieved VERY close to the basestation. Access bandwidth is shared between all of the users in the ‘sector’. 2. Core Backhaul Wireless Wired Core Backhaul © British Telecommunications plc 33 Although the very high peak rates offered by LTE are impressive, they do not necessarily translate into high cell capacities... The ‘average sector throughput’ is lower than some of the headlines might suggest because: 1. The high headline rates are only achieved VERY close to the basestation. Access bandwidth is shared between all of the users in the ‘sector’. In practice, the amount of spectrum available is limited. 2. 3. If operators wants to radically increase their network capacity, they need to (a) buy more spectrum and/or (b) move to much smaller cells. © British Telecommunications plc 34 UK Mobile Spectrum Holdings To meet future demand, operators must move to smaller cells... Traffic Growth Forecasts * # Various predictions of mobile traffic show exponential growth BUT LTE on existing sites can only provide modest capacity growth in line with new spectrum. To match predicted growth, operators will need to move to a different architecture with many more basestations – i.e. many small cells. This makes the fixed network increasingly relevant to mobile... Wi-Fi and Superfast Broadband play a key role in this future. *Analysys Mason, May 2011: “Wireless network traffic worldwide: forecasts and analysis 2011–2016“; # http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html Core network Backhaul Large cells, medium capacity Tomorrow Small cells, high capacity, more backhaul capacity Core network © British Telecommunications plc 35 Today So what is the role for LTE? • Much of the benefit of LTE will come with the new spectrum: – Enhanced coverage in lower frequency bands – Increased capacity with new spectrum – BUT spectrum is a scarce commodity • Even with LTE in the widest bandwidth, the capacity of a single antenna will be ~30Mbit/s shared between all users under the base station: – This is equal to the capacity a single customer connection on an NGA fixed network – It will be insufficient to provide video-rich services to many users • To significantly increase capacity will require many small cells: – These will all require backhaul over the fixed network – For very high capacity cells, Wi-Fi is an ideal solution • As with other mobile, LTE will be largely complementary to fixed broadband: – Used for truly mobile, lower data volume services that will command a premium – Fixed broadband will be needed for high performance services • One exception to this could be broadband in ultra-rural areas: – LTE capacity could be enough to provide an improved experience to the outer edges of the fixed network... © British Telecommunications plc 36 BT and Everything-Everywhere have recently announced a trial of LTE – delivering broadband to challenging ultra-rural locations. May 25, 2011 Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale to deliver the UK’s first live customer trial of 4G high speed broadband technology • Trial to showcase the benefits and potential of 4G LTE¹ mobile technology for customers • The collaboration will see mobile and fixed broadband coming together for the first time in the UK • The field trial will be launched in Cornwall, and will be the first of its kind in the UK to involve customers “BT is committed to bringing the highest speed broadband to everyone in the UK, whether that‟s over fibre, copper or airwaves. This is a great mixed economy example of innovation and collaboration by two organisations pushing the boundaries of technology for the benefit of customers.” © British Telecommunications plc 37 Focus on broadband related activities: • Increasing copper based broadband capability: – Increase speed / coverage of installed copper broadband asset – Create a copper broadband evolution path in BT‟s NGA/SFBB strategy • LTE – “a reality check” – What LTE is, and its performance characteristics – LTE‟s role in a mixed economy approach • TV White Spaces – Description of the technology and BT‟s activities – Capabilities and opportunities enabled by TV White Spaces © British Telecommunications plc 38 TV White Spaces for Rural Broadband Paul Bruce – Head of Wireless Research TV “white spaces” spectrum © British Telecommunications plc TV “white spaces” spectrum 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 • • 16 channels (128MHz) of cleared spectrum for auctions (2012) 32 channels (256MHz) interleaved spectrum retained for: • • • © British Telecommunications plc 38• 69 Licensed Primary Usage for Digital Broadcasting - 6 x DTT multiplexes and licensed wireless microphones Unlicensed Secondary Usage – via „Cognitive Radio‟ Access controlled via reference to an Ofcom geo-location database 1 channel (8MHz) dedicated to Radio Microphones TV “white spaces” spectrum 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 © British Telecommunications plc 31 32 Channel 60 69 TV “white spaces” spectrum versus Not-Spot locations The more rural areas of Great Britain are where there are the highest levels of broadband at <2Mbps due to line length…. Percentage of problem lines due to length 0 to 1% 1% to 2% 2% to 3% 3% to 5% 5% to 9% 9% to 11.4% © British Telecommunications plc …which correlates well with the areas of Great Britain where the most TV white space spectrum will be available. White space spectrum availability White = greatest availability Red = least availability The Not Spot opportunity – If „D + E‟ are too long then 2Mbps broadband is not possible. NGA might bring fibre to cabinet but „D‟ length still might be too long – Challenge is to cover „not-spot‟, premises that cannot get 2Mbit/s broadband Number of notspots – There are 2.75m customers whose service is <2Mbit/s in the UK [Ofcom] – TV white space technology could cover around 25% of these. Satellite Next Generation Fibre + Copper Access BET Copper Access TV White Space wireless Access © British Telecommunications plc Non-LoS TVWS LoS TVWS BET – Broadband Extension Technology The Concept Standard TV Aerial Up to 5km non line-of-sight, 8km line-of-sight TVWS BS TV white space transceiver to Ethernet Router Ethernet DSLAM Backhaul Sharing wireless spectrum with Digital TV Transmitters. UHF between 470 – 790MHz © British Telecommunications plc Low diffraction and building penetration loss Rural Broadband Trial on the Isle of Bute • Collaborative R&D project supported by the UK government‟s Technology Strategy Board started 1st April 2011 until mid 2012 • To build and test a trial white space broadband network on Bute, Scotland, with backhaul connection to the mainland via microwave • Purpose: to prove the viability of the technology and establish the processes required • Six collaborating partners: © British Telecommunications plc So currently ... • BT‟s activity with TV white space is in the research phase • Carrying out a technology trial on the Isle of Bute • Part of the toolkit for delivering broadband in difficult situations where copper and fibre not suitable • Ofcom predict real deployments in 2013 following appropriate legislation • Several other research activities including the „Cambridge White Space Trial‟ and EU funded projects © British Telecommunications plc ... and more opportunities with Cognitive (thinking) Radio Secondary use of military spectrum coming available. (Date tbd) Home Hub 3 Introduced Cognitive Radio techniques to WiFi to improve the efficiency of 2.4GHz operation. (Available 2011). © British Telecommunications plc Earliest opportunity is rural broadband in TV white space using geo-location. TSB trial (mid-2011 for 12 months) Solve challenges to make system support QoS & mobility. EU Project QoSMOS (Jan 2010 for 36 months) With dedicated silicon introduce a whole new era of M2M (machine to machine) control. Working with the „Cambridge White Space Trial started‟ (mid-2011) Thank you and questions