ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)

Satellite Earth Stations and Systems (SES); Hybrid FSS satellite/terrestrial network architecture for high speed broadband access

DTR/SES-00347

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 25-Mar-2015
• Technical Committee: SES SCN - Satellite Communications and Navigation
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 30-Mar-2015
• Completion Date: 26-Mar-2015
• Mandate: M/496

Standards Content (Sample)

TECHNICAL REPORT
Satellite Earth Stations and Systems (SES);
Hybrid FSS satellite/terrestrial network architecture
for high speed broadband access

2 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)

Reference
DTR/SES-00347
Keywords
broadband, satellite, terrestrial
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3 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 4
Foreword . 4
Modal verbs terminology . 4
Executive summary . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 References . 5
2.1 Normative references . 5
2.2 Informative references . 5
3 Definitions and abbreviations . 6
3.1 Definitions . 6
3.2 Abbreviations . 7
4 Hybrid access network for high speed broadband access. 8
4.1 Concept and rational . 8
4.2 General architecture . 9
4.3 Satellite network technology . 10
4.3.1 Overview . 10
4.3.2 Multicast over satellite . 11
4.4 Terrestrial network technology . 11
4.5 Intelligent Gateways . 12
4.5.1 Overview . 12
4.5.2 Intelligent User Gateway . 13
4.5.3 Intelligent Network Gateway . 16
4.6 Integration aspects . 16
4.6.1 Overview . 16
4.6.2 Network Level . 17
4.6.3 Management Level . 19
5 QoE in hybrid access network . 22
5.1 Introduction . 22
5.2 QoS and QoE concepts . 22
5.3 Flows/CoS/QoS/QoE relationship . 25
5.4 QoE aware architecture for hybrid access networks . 27
5.5 QoE to QoS mapping in the hybrid access network . 29
6 Topics for future standardization . 34
Annex A: Bibliography . 35
History . 36

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4 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (http://ipr.etsi.org).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This Technical Report (TR) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Satellite Earth Stations and Systems
(SES).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
Executive summary
The present document proposes and analyses an hybrid access network combining one or several terrestrial access
technologies (Fixed or Mobile Service) together with a satellite broadband access network (Fixed Satellite Service) in
order to enhance end users' Quality of Experience of broadband service delivery primarily in under-served areas where
Internet service is available over terrestrial access technologies but delivering rates below that expected of Next
Generation Access.
This hybrid access network will support all the telecommunications services typically offered on Next generation access
technologies, including high bandwidth applications such as video conferencing, live streaming and video on demand
via the satellite link along with the latency sensitive applications such as highly interactive online game play via the
relatively slow terrestrial link.
Intelligent Gateways route the traffic between terrestrial and satellite access technologies according to the Quality of
Service requirements associated to the various service components with the objective to maximize the overall Quality of
Experience for the users (large bandwidth and low latency). In addition, the hybrid network ensures a higher resiliency
towards potential interruption of service on the terrestrial access link.
The present document aims at:
• Providing an overall description of the hybrid access network architecture with special emphasis on integration
aspects with a public packet switched core network on one hand and the home network environment on the
other hand;
• Proposing suitable metrics to compare the Quality of Experience (QoE) over such hybrid access network with
respect to single access network technology;
• Identifying existing standards that have to be modified and additional standards that have to be created for
enabling this kind of scheme.
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5 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
1 Scope
The present document details the benefit of an intelligent combination of satellite and terrestrial broadband access
technologies for the benefits of users mainly in underserved areas.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
reference document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
Not applicable.
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
reference document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] ETSI EN 302 307 (V1.3.1) (2013-03): "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Second generation
framing structure, channel coding and modulation systems for Broadcasting, Interactive Services,
News Gathering and other broadband satellite applications (DVB-S2)".
[i.2] ETSI TS 101 545-1: "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Second Generation DVB Interactive
Satellite System (DVB-RCS2); Part 1: Overview and System Level specification".
[i.3] ETSI EN 301 545-2 (V1.1.1): "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Second Generation DVB
Interactive Satellite System (DVB-RCS2); Part 2: Lower Layers for Satellite standard".
[i.4] Recommendation ITU-T E.800: "Quality of Telecommunication Services: Concepts, Models,
Objectives and Dependability Planning. Terms and Definitions Related to the Quality of
Telecommunication Services".
[i.5] IETF RFC 3697: "IPv6 Flow Label Specification".
[i.6] IETF RFC 3917: "Requirements for IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)".
[i.7] Recommendation ITU-T M.3400.
[i.8] IETF RFC 2722: "Traffic Flow Measurement: Architecture".
[i.9] IEEE 802.1Q: "IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks - Virtual Bridged Local
Area Networks".
[i.10] ETSI TR 102 274: "Human Factors (HF); Guidelines for real-time person-to-person
communication services".
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6 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
[i.11] IETF RFC 4594: "Configuration Guidelines for DiffServ Service Classes".
[i.12] TR-069 DSL Forum.
[i.13] Recommendation ITU-T P.10: "Vocabulary for performance and quality of service".
[i.14] ITU TD 109rev2 (PLEN/12): "Definition of quality of experience (QoE)".
[i.15] Recommendation ITU.T G.100: "Definitions used in Recommendations on general characteristics
of international telephone connections and circuits".
3 Definitions and abbreviations
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions apply:
access link: link established between the IUG and the ING via a satellite or a terrestrial network
NOTE: One access link corresponds to one network interface.
application: program running on a device that requests or generates data that will form a Traffic Flow through a
Network Interface
broadband access: service rate is greater or equal to 2 Mbps on the downlink
high speed broadband: service rate is greater or equal to 30 Mbps on the downlink (Target set by the Digital Agenda
for Europe)
hybrid access network: access networks combining a satellite component and a terrestrial component in parallel where
the delivery of a service using both the satellite component and the terrestrial component intelligently to maximize the
Quality of Experience for end users in under-served areas
Intelligent User Gateway (IUG): Intelligent User Gateway (IUG) is a home device providing broadband access,
security, cached storage capacity and QoE provisioning in an hybrid access network
intelligent network gateway: intelligent network gateway is the counterpart device of the IUG in an hybrid access
network
network Interface: interface that connects the IUG or ING to an access link
next generation access network: access network with high speed broadband capabilities
Quality of Experience (QoE): subjective measure of the user's experiences with a service or an application (e.g. web
browsing, phone call, TV, call to a Call Centre)
Quality of Service (QoS): objective measure of a service delivered by a network
service component: application may carry out multiple functions each producing a unique traffic flow
NOTE: The resultant set of traffic flows related to one application is referred to as a service component.
traffic flows: sequence of packets sent from a particular source to a particular unicast, anycast, or multicast destination
that the source desires to label as a flow (see in IETF RFC 3697 [i.5])
NOTE: More specifically it refers to a set of IP packets passing an observation point in the network during a
certain time interval (see IETF RFC 3917 [i.6]).
under-served area: area where Internet Service is available via a terrestrial access network but with no Next
Generation Access capabilities
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7 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
3.2 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
.mpg file extension for Moving Picture Experts Group video and audio compression
3D Three Dimensions
ACM Adaptive Code and Modulation
BSS Business Support System
CDN Content Delivery Network
CoS Class of Service
CPE Customer Premise Equipment
DSLAM Digital subscriber line access multiplexer
E2E End to End
FCAPS Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security
FR Full Reference
GEO Geostationary satellite
HD High Definition
HD/3D High Definition/3 dimension (TV format)
HDTV High Definition Television
HSPA High Speed Packet Access
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
ING Intelligent Network Gateway
IP Internet Protocol
ISP Internet Service Provider
ITU International Telecommunication Union
IUG Intelligent User Gateway
IUG Intelligent User Gateway
LAN Local Area Network
MDI Media Delivery Index
ModCod Modulation and Coding index
MOS Mean Opinion Score
MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching
MTOSI Multi-Technology Operations System Interface
NCC Network Control Centre
NGA Next Generation Access Network
NI Network Interface
NMS Network Management System
NR No Reference
OAM Operations, administration and management
OSS Operations Support System
OTT Over The Top multimedia content
PEP Performance Enhancing Proxy
QoE Quality of Experience
QoS Quality of Service
RF Radio Frequency
RFC Request For Comment (IETF document)
RR Reduced Reference
RTD Round Trip Delay
Satco Satellite Service Company
SCC Satellite Control Centre
SCN Satellite Communication and Navigation
SLA Service Level Agreement
TTC Telemetry, Tracking and Control susb-system
TV Television
TX Transmit
VDSL Very high bit-rate Digital subscriber line
VoD Video On Demand
WAN Wide Area Network
xDSL Digital Subscriber Line (any version)
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4 Hybrid access network for high speed broadband
access
4.1 Concept and rational
The proposed hybrid access network aims at delivering a resilient High Speed BroadBand service especially in
'underserved' areas at a comparable quality of experience to Next Generation Access networks capabilities.
The underlying concept can be illustrated with the following use cases:
• Business: Mrs McMiggins needs to work from home - a challenge with a highly IT intensive job. She
frequently needs to upload and download large data files, typically several Gbytes. The download time
experienced using a small capacity rural ADSL service causes problems, with on-line collaborators having to
wait whilst files are transferred. They install an hybrid access which selects the satellite communications
system to provide massive capacity on demand and also copes well with the bursty demand: this solves the
problem.
• Gaming: John, their 12 year old son has a friend who lives 13 km away. They enjoy playing competitive
pseudo-sport games using their game console stations. But when parents and sister also use on-line
applications the contention between the traffic types causes delays and glitches in the games which were no-
longer playable. However, the hybrid network solves this problem by routing data that needs low latency over
the terrestrial ADSL system (e.g. the game console connection), with the satellite link used for delay-tolerant
higher capacity services (e.g. down-streaming video from an internet multimedia server - a habit of his sister
Jane who is particularly enthusiast about this internet multimedia server.
• Resilience: with the hybrid network installed, Mrs McMiggins can work from home whilst the children play
computer games etc. On one occasion other residents complain that a construction company has cut through
the Telco cables and cut off the telephone lines and the connection to the mobile mast in the village. Most
people's phones and Internet will be cut off for over a week. However, at the McMiggins house all the traffic
has been routed automatically over the satellite with very little loss of performance.
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9 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
4.2 General architecture
The general architecture of the hybrid access network delivering High speed broadband service is depicted in Figure 1
below:
Figure 1: Hybrid access network architecture
On both edges of the hybrid access network, access and core side, a traffic classifier and a routing entity are located.
These will be in the IUG and ING. While the first aims at identifying the type of application or service component, the
latter selects the most suitable access link to transmit a certain flow of traffic. The criteria for this selection is threefold:
• first, the QoS requirements of the traffic are taken into account;
• second the capabilities of the available access links are considered; and
• finally policies defined by operator and/or subscriber might have an impact.
The Intelligent User Gateway (IUG) is a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) providing secured broadband access,
cached storage capacity and QoS provisioning. It not only provides an interface to several access links, but the IUG will
select access delivery routes in multi operator and service provider domains, matched to the QoE needs of the different
applications and service components. The IUG would be able to determine in real time the QoS requirements of each
application or service component and accordingly make routing decisions to optimize the QoE. It also exploits the
storage resources of the IUG for high bandwidth low priority traffic caching during off-peak hours, to support
applications such as OTT TV service.
The Intelligent Network Gateway (ING) of is a counterpart device of the IUG and is located at the core side. It is a
convergence point for the different user traffic flows handled in the different access links (e.g. satellite, xDSL, Mobile
network resources). The ING works in conjunction with the IUG to select the relevant individual or combined access
links for the forwarding of the different traffic flows for the downlink direction (traffic from the Public network to the
end user premises).
In order to allow for operating with several different network technologies used for the links between the IUG and ING,
a link abstraction is implemented at each Network interface (NI) and exploited by the routing decision in both the IUG
and the ING. This link abstraction will define the network performances solely by certain key parameters including for
example bandwidth, latency, jitter, error rate and cost, all of which may vary over time. The different characteristics of
each individual link can be described in a systematic and efficient manner by this set of well-defined parameters.
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4.3 Satellite network technology
4.3.1 Overview
A GEO based satellite access network is typically composed of the following parts:
• A space segment composed of one or more High Throughput satellites in geostationary orbit. The satellite
connects the GWs of the ground segment to the user terminals, thanks to a set of feeder and user beams.
• A ground segment which includes:
- A main Network Control Centre (NCC) which has the responsibility to control and synchronize the
overall network.
- A main Network Management System (NMS) which handles the management of the resources in the
network.
- A Satellite Control Centre (SCC) which aims at monitoring and controlling the space segment.
- A Telemetry Tracking and Control (TTC) station to transmit and receive information to or from the
space segment.
- A set of Gateways operating which are in charge of transmitting and receiving data, control and
management traffic to or from the user terminals. Each Gateway is equipped with their own local
NCC/NMS to ensure their individuality and their operation sequence in case of a total system
malfunction originating from a main NCC/NMS failure. The Gateways provide access to the public
internet via an Internet Point of Presence.
- An aggregation network segment or backbone interconnecting the Gateways.
• A user segment which is composed of a set of user terminals.
The network that interconnects the User Terminals with the Gateways is based on the DVB-S2/DVB-RCS2 standard
and their future variants (see references [i.1], [i.2] and [i.3]).

Figure 2: Satellite access network architecture with the IUG and ING
The Gateways interface with the Intelligent Network Gateways (INGs) while each User Terminal interfaces with an
Intelligent User Gateway (IUG). Each IUG connects to one ING, while the INGs may connect to multiple IUGs.
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11 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
Typical performances for Satellite broadband network is reported here under.
Table 1: Typical performances of GEO based satellite network roadmap
TIMELINE 2005 2010 2015 2020
st nd rd
Technology Ku-band satellites 1 Gen Multi beam 2 Gen multi beam 3 Gen multi beam
Ka-band satellites Ka-band satellites Ka-band satellites
Typical Max service 2 Mbps to 3 Mbps 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps 30 Mbps to 50 Mbps 100 Mbps
rate (downstream)
In addition the typical RTD over a GEO based satellite access network is approximately 600 ms.
4.3.2 Multicast over satellite
In addition to the management of unicast traffic the potential of multicasting selected streams of OTT video content and
selected cached OTT video content to reduce the total satellite traffic has been identified. The multicast data will be sent
on one of the forward link carriers in each spot beam so the user terminal may implement a second receiver.
The potential benefit of applying group ACM for the multicast traffic lies in a useful bandwidth increase. The
anticipated scheme sets the modcod for multicast transmission to the modcod needed for delivering successfully the
data in unicast transmission to 99,x % of the targeted user terminals (where x is to be defined).The multicast traffic
would be created in the core network and sent over the satellite access network and converted back to unicast
transmissions in the IUG. This would be implemented in a transparent fashion so that no changes would be required in
the content provider and CDN systems nor in the end user devices.
4.4 Terrestrial network technology
This clause considers here only broadband network technologies deployed in underserved areas.
The xDSL access technologies that are currently available are listed in Table 2.
Table 2: Typical performance of xDSL network technologies
Technology Max Max Upstream Typical range Typical RTD
Downstream rate (Modem to DSLAM
rate using 0.4mm cable)
ADSL2 12 Mbps 3 Mbps 5 460 m < 100 ms
ADSL2+ 24 Mbps 3 Mbps 2 400 m < 100 ms
VDSL2 50 Mbps 50 Mbps 1 500 m < 100 ms

Given the focus on the more remote under-served locations it is likely that if the end user has xDSL it will be at the end
of a long link ADSL2 or VDSL delivering rates somewhat below the maximum rates stated above which are only
available in short range.
The mobile network technologies available are depicted in Table 3.
Table 3: Mobile network technologies
Technology Max Downstream Max Upstream Typical Cell Typical RTD
rate Rate Range
(Macrocells)
EDGE
236,8 kbps 236,8 kbps 500 m - urban < 300 ms
5 000 m -rural
UMTS 384 kbps 384 kbps 500 m - urban < 200 ms
5 000 m -rural
HSPA 7,2 Mbps 2 Mbps 3 500 m < 100 ms
LTE 300 Mbps 75 Mbps > 10 km < 50 ms
depending on
location and
antennas
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12 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
Note that the max range associated to the above mentioned service rate performances depends on the environment
profile as well as the base station installation configuration (transmit power, antenna gain, height and tilt). At cell edge,
the maximum downstream rates are likely to be well below those shown above.
A large LTE (LTE Advanced) network deployment is foreseen in urban and suburban areas whereas in rural and very
rural areas 2G (EDGE), 3G (UMTS) and possibly enhancements to 3G (HSPA) are likely to be the predominant mobile
network standards in operation.
4.5 Intelligent Gateways
4.5.1 Overview
The Intelligent Gateways consist of complimentary devices; the Intelligent User Gateways (IUG) at the end user
locations and the Intelligent Network Gateways (INGs) located in the core network. Their fundamental purpose is to
detect different traffic and route this along the best access network at that time for that data.
There are three main traffic flows within the Intelligent Gateways:
• User data flows: This is to carry the end user data that is processed and routed through the IUG.
• Management flows: This is for synchronization with the ING, managing local resources within the IUG as
well as other management policies required in components of the IUG.
• Control flows: This is to exchange with all components of the IUG to ensure various policies defined in the
management plane are executed in organized patterns.
There is an important exchange between the management plane of the IUG and the ING. This helps the operators to
implement remote firmware updates as well as push policy updates to the IUG. Policies defined in the management
plane are enforced by the control plane in all related components. For a coordinated operation of the IUG and ING,
there are exchange of user data flows, management flows and control flows between the control and data plane. A
pictorial representation of their major functions and their interconnection is shown in Figure 3.
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13 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
Intelligent User Gateway Intelligent Network Gateway
Gateway
Management Plane Management Plane
• QoE/QoS Policy
• Device Configuration
• Policy Functions
• Remote device configuration
• Firmware management
• QoS/QoE Policy
• Route Selection Policy
Control Plane
Control Plane
• Synchronisation with IUG
• Policy Enforcement
and INGs
• User data Flow
• User data flow
synchronization
management
• User data flow
• Modem states monitoring
management
User data Plane
User data Plane
• User data routing to other INGs
• User data Classification
• Link Selection
• User data Routing
• Network Address Translation
• User data Classification
Control signal flows
Management flows Data flows
Figure 3: Interactions between the IUG and ING User data, Control, and Management Planes
The key information being routed through the IUG are bidirectional data flows through the communication media.
Within the IUG, the management plane pushes policies to the control and data plane. The control plane is distributed in
different components and their signalling aids organized intra traffic flow coordination. The signalling function is
executed during the traffic splitting and combining phase. Different interfaces are required for communication between
the components.
4.5.2 Intelligent User Gateway
The IUG is responsible for:
a) Keeping track of each access link capability.
b) Detecting, characterizing and intelligently routing data from the end user to the Internet.
c) Other data management functions.
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14 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
All the key functional modules in the proposed integrated system is depicted in Figure 4.

Figure 4: IUG and ING Functional Diagram
In describing functional components, the IUG is used as reference as most modules carry out similar functions in both
the IUG and ING. Figure 4 shows the main components of the IUG, ING and communication network grouped into
different functional modules.
Link Abstraction: Link abstraction relies only on technology independent parameters to characterize a connection and,
thus, hides the technology specifics from entities utilizing this model. It can be a sub-set or a super-set of the
characteristics of the underlying technologies, or it can be completely different which would require certain adaptation.
A technology agnostic link abstraction module is required for this system so that different characteristics of each
individual connection can be described in a systematic and efficient manner by a set of well-defined parameters. Due to
integrated satellite links this link layer abstraction needs to deal with unicast links as well as multicast delivery
mechanisms. This abstraction defines the Link Capability - that is the capabilities of each link in terms of parameters
such as packet error rate, latency and throughput.
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15 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
Management Plane: The management plane groups all functions related to the system operation and tasks between
various components. This also includes traffic flows, synchronization with the ING, policy management, power state
management and managing local resources within the IUG. In managing the local resources, this plane is directly
connected and oversees the operation of all other functional modules within the IUG. This logical module also supports
the data processing unit for efficient admission control of traffic. All local functions within the IUG such as initial
setup, remote configuration, firmware updates, power usage and other high level policy functions are executed here.
The policy function contains various policies required for service requests from other modules in the IUG. For example,
information on the QoS/QoE mapping policy is evaluated by a specific policy function which activates the required
service flows in the data processing unit (e.g. traffic classifier). In general, it provides a plane for managing all service
flows through the IUG with their respective policies.
The management plane of the IUG and ING are consistent and support the FCAPS operations defined by
Recommendation ITU-T M.3400 [i.7] recommendation. The present document specifies five management functional
areas (FCAPS) that need to be supported by the IUG to be operated by an operator:
• Fault management: Detect, isolate, notify, and correct faults encountered in the network. This will include
system level reconfiguration: revising the association of each IUG to an ING, if the normally used ING
develops a fault.
• Configuration management: Configure aspects of network devices, such as configuration file management,
inventory management, and software management.
• Accounting management: Collect usage information of network resources. It also coordinates network usage
rights for example if different price plans exist for one or more of the WAN access services or fair usage
policies.
• Performance management: Monitor and measure various aspects of performance so that overall performance
can be maintained at a defined level.
• Security management: Secure access to network devices, network resources, and services to authorized
individuals.
Control Plane: The control plane ensures that interactions between various components of the IUG do not take place in
an ad-hoc way but are synchronized in organized pattern flows. In general, the control plane can be viewed as a module
that ensures that various defined policies are executed in an organized and efficient way. For specific traffic flows to the
data processing unit, user and flow authentication with the security module and flow control synchronization in the
modems are all coordinated here. The amount of control plane traffic is critical in the IUG design as it increases with
the number of possible traffic paths and even further when traffic splitting is initiated.
Intelligent Routing Plane: The main module of the IUG provides a variety of routing functions. These include network
address translation, traffic classification, traffic splitting/combining and intelligent routing of traffic flows. It also
ensures proper flow control between these components in synchronism with the control plane. To distribute user traffic
among the available network connections, inputs from the link abstraction module on the link state of the various
communication links, defined QoS policies, QoS/QoE mapping tables and input from its embedded traffic classifier are
all required to make intelligent routing decisions. In general, this module is responsible for all components that receive,
process and transmit data within and through the IUG.
To aid routing decisions for selected service flows, the ING will allow its associated IUGs access to its central resource.
This is to facilitate the determination of the QoE requirement for a service operated from a specific IP address or port,
and to interpret the findings using schemes such as Deep Packet Inspection.
Memory: This is the local storage module of the IUG and contains both volatile and non-volatile memory units. Its
capacity will be determined from further tests and the various types of applications it would support. A local partition
that stores information required by the management plane such as QoS/QoE mapping tables and routing tables can be
supported.
Security: This supports basic authentication of users and intrusion prevention features. Policies defining the connection
to home network, access lists of connected devices, firewalls, and well as preventing potential misuse of the operator's
communication links. It also provides encryption and decryption of data through the IUG. In defining the security
policies, it should be noted that to enable intelligent routing, periodic information of link states from the modems might
be required.
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16 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
LAN Interfaces: The LAN interface and its associated wired/wireless LAN connectors provide a means for the
customer's local home network access to the IUG. The de facto connection is via a fast Ethernet 100BASE-TX
connector. Its main functionality will include the serving as an ingress point of all the traffic from the home network
with a unique IP address to the intelligent routing unit. The potential capability of the IUG to be upgraded to serve as a
home eNodeB (Femto) prompts the provisioning of both a wired and wireless LAN connectors.
WAN Interfaces: This consists of the physical WAN connectors to the satellite, xDSL, cellular modems or any other
future access technology. They support primarily unicast traffic and multicast traffic will be supported over a satellite
link. It should be noted that the functionality of the xDSL and Cellular modems need not be duplicated in the WAN
connectors unit as their modems can be embedded in the same unit. Link status information will also be carried over
these interfaces. These WAN interfaces are internal to the IUG in the reference design.
Power supply: This provides the basic system powering of the components in the IUG. It receives triggers from the
management and control plane in order to be able to drive the unit into sleep mode depending on its activity. The IUG is
expected to be always on but to minimize the energy consumption, it can be preconfigured to go into low power state,
while being able autonomously to become active to execute scheduled firmware updates as well as receive link state
event updates.
Modems: Modems will interface between the IUG and the communication links, modulating (and demodulating) RF
signal with the digital information they carry. In the context of this project, it is desirable to convert received RF signal
to IP. Key functionalities of the modems will also include flow control, error correction as well as header compression
for certain links. These modems are also capable of providing information of the status of their links using predefined
link state updates. The modems also execute functions such as header compression and PEP enhancement especially for
the satellite link. The vision is for the modems to be integrated within the IUG and managed by a single operator and
lower levels of integration are also allowed for.
The types of IUG and ING's external interfaces and their functions are summarized below in table 4.
Table 4: IUG external interfaces
Interface Description
11 Connection from the satellite WAN interface to the satellite modem.
12 Connection from the xDSL WAN interface to the xDSL modem.
13 Connection from the cellular WAN interface to the cellular modem.
14 Connection from the IUG LAN interface to the home LAN.
15 Prime power.
16 This is the satellite link between the hub at the satellite gateway and end user location.
17 This interface is the xDSL to an operator's DSLAM or cabinet.
18 This interface is a GSM/UMTS/LTE link to an operator's cell mast and related equipment.

4.5.3 Intelligent Network Gateway
The Intelligent Network Gateway (ING) is the IUG counterpart in the core network. It has dual functionalities of
remotely managing all associated IUGs as well as acting as an interface/gateway to the public internet. It has similar
responsibilities to the IUG but on the outer edge of the hybrid network, i.e. classifying the traffic and intelligently
distributing it among the available connections while taking into account QoS requirements and link capabilities. In the
upstream link, the ING also acts as a concentrator of the different flows sent by the IUGs over the different access
networks. One ING serves multiple IUGs; an IUG communicates with a single ING. The ING may be one or multiple
physical devices or multiple virtualized devices. The ING contains similar functional components as the IUG and these
have been described in clause 4.5.2.
4.6 Integration aspects
4.6.1 Overview
The hybrid access network is designed to use a satellite link to augment the data delivery capability of one or several
terrestrial access links such as an xDSL link or a 3G or LTE mobile network access link. There are no specific
requirements for these access links but in general the satellite link is expected to introduce a much higher data rate
capability and a more predictive link when compared to the other technologies.
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17 ETSI TR 103 272 V1.1.1 (2015-03)
The connection formed between the IUG-ING pair allows for easy integration into existing ISP networks without the
need to significantly change the routing policies of its existing core network beyond ensuring that the relevant addresses
are being correctly advertised.
For the purpose of this clause, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the connection provider that sells to the end user
interconnection with the public Internet and the end user's equipment. The wholesale provider provides network
connections to the ISP but does not sell direct to the end user.
Each access link between the IUG-ING pair is separately identified with either public or private addresses with a single
public address being advertised upstream to the public networks (public Internet). The IUG-ING combination then
transparently selects the optimum routing over the access links to achieve the highest composite level of QoE.
The hybrid access network will be integrated, managed and operated in a range of ways to best suit the commercial and
technical requirements. As examples, three scenarios have been envisaged. In all cases an ISP provides broadband
service via the hybrid access netwo
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