Remote - Fall 2016 - 10

Feature Article Remote Control: How Distributed Mobile Networks are Changing Remote Communications Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO Core Network Dynamics When considering what type of communications infrastructure to deploy in a remote communications scenario (whether for a plane, oil rig, private island, remote construction site or ship) the options up until now have been limited and expensive. Expensive satellite-based solutions such as VSAT, have generally been the norm combined with a centrally deployed core network architecture. But there are well-documented problems associated with the status quo for satellite-based communications: high latency, high costs and bottlenecks to name a few. With a centralized core network, all signaling (required to authenticate devices and establish a call or Internet session) is relayed by local base stations over the satellite link and handled by the central core network. Even when two local users call each other, all signaling and traffic is relayed back and forth over the narrow and expensive satellite link to the central core network. As the satellite link is notoriously slow, this means it can take a long time to establish a call as well as generating considerable cost, even for local communications. Fortunately, there is now a new way to tackle these issues. This approach that is based on mobile industry standards and offers greater resilience and more reliable connectivity, as well as local voice and data communications. It also avoids backhaul wherever possible and only uses the satellite network for out and inbound traffic. Instead of deploying a single core network with the EPC (Evolved Packet Core) located at a central location, and backhauling all signaling and even local communications traffic over satellite to the central network, this new approach implements a distributed core network and takes the EPC to the edge. Distributing the EPC using the new concept of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) might at first sound revolutionary, but in fact it's more of an evolution. Basically, MEC aims to apply the Internet topology - a decentralized mesh network combined with a star-of-stars topology - to the architecture of a mobile network. In a distributed core network based on MEC, the local EPCs are handling all signalling and keep local traffic local, minimizing backhaul traffic and all the associated costs and high latency. For example, if two workers on an oil-rig are placing a call to each other, all signalling and voice traffic is handled by the local EPC. No backhaul is required. As a result, calls are established faster due to the radically reduced network latency and expensive backhaul traffic is avoided completely. Another good example for illustrating the benefits of a distributed core network is the airline industry. Airlines could use this model to offer passengers a choice of on-demand video and music served from a local breakout (LBO) over a local LTE network instead of, or in addition to, Wi-Fi while on board. A key advantage would be that passengers would not need to authenticate or login as they are currently required to do to access Wi-Fi based services. Instead, authentication would be handled based on the passenger's SIM cards and the existing operator billing relationships would be used to charge the user for these on-board services. This would obviate the need for passengers to enter credit card information and so remove yet another barrier to usage while providing a seamless user experience. 10 www.RemoteMagazine.com http://www.RemoteMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote - Fall 2016