ETSI TR 103 587 V1.1.1 (2018-03)

Reconfigurable Radio Systems (RRS); Feasibility study of a Radio Interface Engine (RIE)

DTR/RRS-0147

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 04-Mar-2018
• Technical Committee: RRS 1 - RRS System Aspects & Cognitive functionalities
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 09-Mar-2018
• Completion Date: 05-Mar-2018

Standards Content (Sample)

ETSI TR 103 587 V1.1.1 (2018-02)






TECHNICAL REPORT
Reconfigurable Radio Systems (RRS);
Feasibility study of a Radio Interface Engine (RIE)

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2 ETSI TR 103 587 V1.1.1 (2018-02)



Reference
DTR/RRS-0147
Keywords
mobile, modulation, radio, system
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Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 4
Foreword . 4
Modal verbs terminology . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 References . 5
2.1 Normative references . 5
2.2 Informative references . 5
3 Definitions, symbols and abbreviations . 6
3.1 Definitions . 6
3.2 Symbols . 6
3.3 Abbreviations . 6
4 Eco-System for a Radio Interface Engine (RIE) . 7
4.0 General . 7
4.1 General description and reference to past work . 7
4.2 Capabilities of a Radio Interface Engine . 8
5 Key Scenarios . 8
5.1 Overview . 8
5.2 Scenario "Optimized Configuration selection in a Heterogeneous Radio Context" . 9
5.2.1 General Scenario Description . 9
5.2.2 Usage example . 9
5.2.3 Role and Usefulness of the Engine . 11
5.3 Scenario "User Circumstance Context Information Management" . 12
5.3.1 General Scenario Description . 12
5.3.2 Usage example . 12
5.3.3 Role and Usefulness of the Engine . 13
5.4 Scenario "Protocol download and installation in Wireless Equipment depending on the context" . 13
5.4.1 General Scenario Description . 13
5.4.2 Usage example . 14
5.4.3 Potential supporting functionalities of a Radio Interface Engine. 14
5.5 Scenario "Processing device selection for execution of protocols in a Wireless Equipment depending on
the context" . 15
5.5.1 General Scenario Description . 15
5.5.2 Usage Example: Energy aware selection of processing device . 16
5.5.3 Potential supporting functionalities of a Radio Interface Engine. 16
5.6 Scenario "Improving Location Information" . 16
5.6.1 General Scenario Description . 16
5.6.2 Usage example . 18
5.6.3 Role and Usefulness of the Engine . 18
6 Conclusion . 18
History . 19

ETSI

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4 ETSI TR 103 587 V1.1.1 (2018-02)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables 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 (https://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.
Trademarks
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ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
right to use or reproduce any trademark and/or tradename. Mention of those trademarks in the present document does
not constitute an endorsement by ETSI of products, services or organizations associated with those trademarks.
Foreword
This Technical Report (TR) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Reconfigurable Radio Systems (RRS).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "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.
ETSI

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1 Scope
The present document addresses the efficient acquisition and management of context information and suitable
equipment configuration in a heterogeneous radio environment. In particular, an eco-system within the equipment is
defined in order to achieve this objective.
NOTE: An eco-system may comprise entities such as Context Information Acquisition Entity, Context
Management Entity, Configuration Management Entity, Flexible Modulation Entity, and others. Context
information may typically comprise information on the heterogeneous radio environment (e.g. which
RATs are available), location information, etc., including information gathered from sensors.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
Normative references are not applicable in the present document.
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
referenced 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 TR 103 062 (V1.1.1): "Reconfigurable Radio Systems (RRS); Use Cases and Scenarios for
Software Defined Radio (SDR) Reference Architecture for Mobile Device".
[i.2] 3GPP TR 22.891 (V14.2.0): "3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group
Services and System Aspects; Feasibility Study on New Services and Markets Technology
Enablers; Stage 1 (Release 14)".
[i.3] I. Siaud, A.M. Ulmer-Moll, H. Peng, S. Nanba and K. Moriwaki: "C/U-plane splitting
architectures and Inter-RAT management for Radio Reconfigurable Systems", ETSI workshop on
future radio technologies-air interfaces, January 2016.
[i.4] Giuseppe Bianchi, Pierluigi Gallo, Domenico Garlisi, Fabrizio Giuliano, Francesco Gringoli,
Ilenia Tinnirello: "MAClets: active MAC protocols over hard-coded devices", in Proc. of the 8th
international conference on Emerging networking experiments and technologies (CoNEXT '12),
Pages 229-240, Nice, France. December 10 - 13, 2012.
[i.5] Dario Sabella, et al.: "Preliminary PoC evaluation in Flex5Gware", Deliverable D6.1 (section 10),
H2020-ICT-2014-2 project Flex5Gware (Grant agreement no. 671563). June 2016.
NOTE: Available at http://www.flex5gware.eu/deliverables.
[i.6] Dario Sabella, et al.: "Preliminary PoC evaluation in Flex5Gware", Deliverable D6.1 (section 9),
H2020-ICT-2014-2 project Flex5Gware (Grant agreement no. 671563). June 2016.
NOTE: Available at http://www.flex5gware.eu/deliverables.
[i.7] Ronald Raulefs, et al.: "The 5G Localization Waveform".
NOTE: Available at http://elib.dlr.de/102900/2/The_5G_Localization_Waveform_AuthorVersion.pdf.
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[i.8] I. Siaud, A. M. Ulmer-Moll: "Green Oriented Multi-Techno Link Adaptation metrics for 5G
Multi-Techno Heterogeneous Networks", Eurasip Journal, Special Issue on Evolution of Radio
Access Network Technologies towards 5G, April 2016.
3 Definitions, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions apply:
context information: any information that is used to describe:
• the characteristics of the radio signal at given circumstances such as time, frequency, location, and orientation
by a measuring device;
• what impacts the characteristics of the radio signal by the measuring device at a given time, frequency,
location, and orientation;
• the circumstances themselves, such as time frequency, location and orientation.
EXAMPLE 1: Received signal strength of the radio signal.
EXAMPLE 2: Awareness of a rain that hinders the radio signal reception under the potential circumstances.
correlated KPIs: performance indicators having correlation with each other
EXAMPLE: A high spectral efficiency results in a higher throughput of the system.
model based data set: statistical distribution describing a data set consisting of prior measurements e.g. by the mean
and the variance.
2
EXAMPLE: Gaussian distribution (,) with the mean and variance .
uncorrelated KPIs: performance indicators having no correlation with each other
EXAMPLE: The KPI delay of the transmission of a certain data package (latency) is uncorrelated with the KPI
spectral efficiency of a dedicated waveform.
NOTE: The different KPIs could be correlated by considering constraints. Such constraints could be e.g. a certain
SNR that may require repeated transmissions that will lead to a higher delay.
3.2 Symbols
For the purposes of the present document, the following symbols apply:
BS Base Station 1
1
MT Mobile Terminal 1
1
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
D2D Device-to-Device
FEC Forward Error Correction
FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array
GPP General Purpose Processors
HW Hardware
KPI Key Performance Indicator
LAN Local Area Network
LOS Line-of-Sight
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LTE-U Lone-Term Evolution-Unlicensed
MAC Medium Access Control
MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme
MD Mobile Device
NLOS Non-Line-of-Sight
OSI Open Systems Interconnection
PHY Physical Layer
PoC Proof of Concept
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QoS Quality of Service
RAT Radio Access Technology
RIE Radio Interface Engine
SDR Software Defined Radio
SW Software
UE User Equipment
VLC Visible Light Communications
WD Wireless Device
WE Wireless Equipment
4 Eco-System for a Radio Interface Engine (RIE)
4.0 General
The radio interface engine empowers a decision unit to operate in a heterogeneous environment. The unit can be either
located at the mobile device or in the network. The decision relies on the eco-system that comprises multiple entities, as
such as a context information acquisition entity, context management entity, configuration management entity, flexible
modulation entity and others. The radio interface engine enables the efficient acquisition and management of context
information and suitable equipment configuration in a heterogeneous radio environment.
4.1 General description and reference to past work
The present document will address the efficient acquisition and management of context information and suitable
equipment configuration in a heterogeneous radio environment. In particular, an eco-system within the equipment will
be defined in order to achieve this objective. Such an eco-system may comprise entities such as:
• Context Information Acquisition Entity.
• Context Management Entity.
• Configuration Management Entity.
• Flexible Modulation Entity.
• And others.
In [i.1] a set of four use cases is described together with actors and information flows for a proposed SDR Reference
Architecture for MDs. In [i.2] several use cases are classified with potential requirements for future applications. In [i.3]
and [i.8], radio link reliability key performance indicators are described as radio interface engine decision unit for
flexible RAT management as well as flexible modulation entity.
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4.2 Capabilities of a Radio Interface Engine
The purpose of the radio interface engine is to provide a defined method to interchange relevant context information to
a decision unit. The Radio Interface Engine (RIE) provides a standard interface access to model based data that could
represent historical data or relies on typical alternatively characterized scenarios. The predictive decision making relies
on context information which serves as input to the RIE. The reliability of the data is improved by the RIE through
iterative processing including a combination of multiple sources and KPI based decision making.
Figure 1 shows as an example to illustrate how an iterative process in a dynamic scenario using prior knowledge helps
to improve various performance indicators. Assuming a UE moves from network A to network B, the performance of
the vertical handover depends on an accurate location estimate. The location estimate itself relies on the chosen
waveform, which consequently also defines the throughput in the given scenario. The overall throughput benefits from
the current location estimate more than it loses by using a dedicated location waveform. The knowledge that the UE
will remain in network A relieves the need on a precise location estimate and therefore a signal waveform can be
chosen that is better for the communication throughput of a single link.
Context information is
used to adapt the KPIs

Figure 1: Example of an iterative procedure to improve various KPIs
depending on the context information
NOTE: A decision unit can be internal and/or external to the RIE. The overall decision process comprises the
internal and external decision units.
5 Key Scenarios
5.1 Overview
In the following key scenarios, identified in clauses 5.2 to 5.6, that will use the RIE are described. For each scenario, the
following structure is used:
1) general scenario description;
2) usage example; and
3) role and usefulness of the engine.
st
The 1 proposed scenario relates to a mobile device and network centric decision making. This contribution is partly
based on [i.1].
nd
The 2 proposed scenario is related to user circumstance context information management.
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rd
The 3 scenario considers context information to download and install a different PHY/MAC protocol of wireless
devices.
th
The 4 scenario studies the context to decide where the proper processing unit should be executed.
th
The 5 scenario relies on the available context information to adapt PHY and MAC to better estimate the position of the
wireless devices. All the presented scenarios rely on context information, such as location information. In clause 5.6 the
estimated location information as an input will be improved by adapting the wireless configuration and exploiting
device-to-device exchanges between MDs themselves.
5.2 Scenario "Optimized Configuration selection in a
Heterogeneous Radio Context"
5.2.1 General Scenario Description
A Mobile Device (MD) is able to operate in a heterogeneous wireless framework, typically consisting of Cellular
systems, Wireless LAN, Wireless Personal Area Networks, mmWave systems, proprietary communications systems,
etc. Some of these systems may be integrated into a common framework or they may be managed independently. Based
on its reconfiguration capabilities, the MD is maintaining link(s) to a single RAT or a set of multiple RATs
simultaneously (i.e. a data-stream may be optimally split across multiple links), depending on the context in order to
optimize the operational conditions (e.g. optimization of power consumption, interference mitigation and carrier
aggregation, etc.). The final configuration is typically identified subject to network constraints (e.g. ensuring an overall
efficient network configuration) as well as user requirements (e.g. meeting a minimum Quality of Service level at the
best possible power consumption, etc.).
The acquisition of context information will be exploited in order to identify the best possible network configuration.
End users: End Users' MDs accessing internet and other similar mobile data services. Additional stakeholders may be
considered as appropriate.
5.2.2 Usage example
As illustrated in Figure 2, the acquired context information is exploited in order to identify the best possible working
point for a concerned MD, typically taking network and user requirements into account. Depending on the choice of the
decision making entity (e.g. Network centric decision making, MD centric decision making, hybrid decision making
split between Network and MD), the context information needs to be transported (and accumulated from various
sources) to the decision making entity.
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Ma rkus M uec k, Infin eon
Selected links, operated
simultaneously by
considered Mobile
Device
Considered MD
Markus M ueck , Infin eon
Configuration
Example 1
WLAN AP
Ma rkus Mueck, Infin eon
Mobile Devices Configuration
Selected Link
Example 2
mmWave
Considered MD
system
Ma rkus Mueck, Infin eon
Pico Cell
Macro Base
Station
Considered MD
Configuration
Macro Cell
Example 3
Selected links, operated
simultaneously by
considered Mobile
Device
Considered MD

Figure 2: Scenario Illustration "Optimized Configuration selection in
a Heterogeneous Radio Context" - the best combination is identified comprising
of a single link or multiple links being operated simultaneously
While Figure 2 illustrates the configuration options from a MD perspective, a similar exercise can be performed for the
network side. In particular, the most appropriate combination of Base Stations is identified for a target MD with
multiple links possibly being operated simultaneously as illustrated in Figure 3. Signalling headers and mixed data and
signalling information may be exploited to evaluate associated link reliability metrics (power consumption, QoS, link
budget based key performance indicators) in order to make the decision entity for station selection and single:multiple
transmission link.
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11 ETSI TR 103 587 V1.1.1 (2018-02)

Figure 3: Selection of base station and radio link simultaneously in
a time-variant and MD moving configuration
In this scenario, the most appropriate (combination of) base station(s)/access point(s) may be selected for a MD for
establishing a link, depending on MD and base station locations and associated radio link reliability based on available
transmission interfaces and dedicated link reliability metrics.
When Line-of-Sight (LOS) and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) transitions affect the MD in a mobile environment, the
access point switching may provide higher link reliability in connection with environment transitions. The selection is
combined with transmission link and Modulation-and-Coding-Scheme (MCS) selection. As an example, MCS
16-QAM ¾ and 64-QAM ½ exhibit equivalent information data rate. In NLOS, the 64-QAM ½ is more performant than
16-QAM ¾ due to robust FEC coding rate. During the transitions, the MCS switching involves gains up to 3-4 dB on
link budget. In LOS, the 16-QAM ¾ MCS provides better performance, following a lower modulation order compared
to 64-QAM. Examples are detailed in [i.3], using a link budget based link reliability metric.
Furthermore, dynamic PHY/MAC processing and link selection may be applied for each RAT: by computing link
reliability metrics, the MD may modify transmission link based on dynamic carrier/sub-carrier aggregation and Binary
Interleaving Code Modulation process to limit power consumption. Dynamic carrier/sub carrier aggregation may be
simply computed using several interleaving patterns to aggregate carriers in a logical channel.
5.2.3 Role and Usefulness of the Engine
The Radio Interface Engine is supporting the upper reconfiguration framework. In particular, the following features are
provided by the Radio Interface Engine in a unified way:
• Standardized acquisition of context information, depending on the available sensors, such as location
determination, characterization of radio links, interference environment, etc.
• Standardization distribution (and possibly aggregation) of context information provided by one (or multiple)
sources. Provide (processed) context information to decision making entity.
• Link reliability metric definition.
• Procedure to compute link reliability metrics and station/MD location using available information to the MD
and base station.
• HW accelerators for multiple link transmission solutions composed of different processing components.
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12 ETSI TR 103 587 V1.1.1 (2018-02)
5.3 Scenario "User Circumstance Context Information
Management"
5.3.1 General Scenario Description
Wireless Equipment, such as mobile devices, vehicle-to-X communication equipment, Internet-of-Things Devices, etc.
is typically used in various circumstances which are either unique - e.g. a User is for a one-time visit in a foreign city -
or which may occur again (in cycles) - e.g. a User is driving from his home to work, takes kids to schools, etc. This
scenario addresses the case, in which an equipment user finds itself repeatedly in similar User Circumstances. In such a
case, it is proposed to store (averaged) observation of the Context Information, e.g. availability of specific RATs, link
quality metrics, the type of applications being used, etc. in a database. When the concerned User is identified to be in
similar User Circumstances again, the historic information is exploited - typically in combination with instantaneous
context measurements - in order to implement predictive decision making. I.e. future changes in Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) are anticipated and corresponding configuration changes are implemented well in advance, e.g. in
order to avoid call drops occurring repeatedly in a given area or similar.
End users: End users' wireless equipment accessing internet and other similar mobile data services. Additional
stakeholders may be considered as appropriate.
5.3.2 Usage example
As illustrated in Figure 4, the acquired context information is exploited in order to identify the best possible working
point for a concerned Wireless Equipment. For this purpose a combination of instantaneous observations together with
historical (averaged) data is used in order to enable predictive decision making. Depending on the choice of the decision
making entity (e.g. Network centric decision making, Wireless Equipment centric decision making, hybrid decision
making split between Network and Wireless Equipment), the context information needs to be transported (and
accumulated from various sources) to the decision making entity.
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Case 1: NO predictive
Car maintains connection
decision making Call drop
to a specific RAT
occurs
Case 2: Predictive decision
making is used based on
Car maintains connection
to a specific RAT
Link Quality is
historical data
maintained
Call drop is anticipated based on
past observations and a H/O to a
different configuration is enforced

Figure 4: Scenario Illustration "User Circumstance Context Information Management"
- a call drop is avoided by exploiting past observations
5.3.3 Role and Usefulness of the Engine
The Radio
...