Researchers in US universities interested in working on wireless networks, both the technology and new applications, are currently unable to conduct national scale experiments. The creation of a National Wireless Test Bed using a public wireless carrier and a mechanism known as Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) may provide a suitable mechanism. A MVNO contracts with a public cellular network operator to gain access and buy time at wholesale rates. The MVNO then handles all the customer related tasks including usage contract, billing, and in some cases, provision of hardware. The concept here is to create a nonprofit MVNO aimed at supporting research. Potential benefits of a nonprofit MVNO for research include: a national scale testbed to experiment with mobile applications. There is also a possibility of the MVNO providing end-user devices, or base stations/femtocells bound to the MVNO's network to enable experimentation at lower layers. The first step to explore this concept is to hold a workshop in Washington DC attended by representatives from all the stake holders in a Wireless National Test Bed (WiNTeB). The purpose of this workshop is to define the research areas, implementation requirements, and to provide the foundation for planning a path toward realization of the concept.
by Mark Cummings, Ph.D. Research Professor of Computer and Information Sciences, Kennesaw State University Researchers in US universities interested in working on wireless networks have few choices available to them. Most are forced to use WiFi. While many interesting experiments can be done with WiFi, the ability to do at-scale experiments on the dominant wireless technology (cellular), in real world situations, is limited. WiNTeB (Wireless National Test Bed) is a proposed solution to this problem. It leverages special arrangements with cellular network operators to provide a test bed to a broad range of networking and non networking researchers. Under the leadership of Dr. Cummings an NSF funded Workshop confirmed both the problem and the solution. The Workshop participants represented a broad cross section of researchers coming from the leading institutions and companies in the field while at the same time including participants from smaller less well known institutions. Three interacting and mutually supportive visions for WiNTeB research community infrastructure services evolved during the Workshop: • Vision I - Applications Research • Vision II - Research On Existing Networks • Vision III - Research on New Modes Vision I focuses on how WiNTeB can enable researchers in Mobile Health, Environmental Science, Social Science, Political Science, etc. to use existing cellular networks. In this vision, WiNTeB acts as an aggregator and "impedance matcher" for and between researchers and cellular network operators to ease access, match billing plans to researcher needs while providing cost effective services to researchers, and protect production networks and the companies that operate them. It also envisions research scenarios which employ heterogeneous networks combining multiple technologies and multiple operators. Vision II focuses on WiNTeB enabling research surrounding improving and evolving current cellular networks. Here WiNTeB provides a deep trusted relationship with network operators surrounded by technical and procedural safeguards to allow researchers access to network internals. Vision III focuses on WiNTeB enabling research on new modes with special consideration of interference issues and security. To do this, the FCC would authorize experimental spectrum near enough to existing commercial bands that available commercial equipment could be tuned to it, and far enough away that research activities in the experimental band could not have a detrimental effect on production networks. In some cases, network operator partnerships would assist in the fielding of equipment. A consensus developed that although these appear to be three separate visions with separate and possibly competing audiences, they are actually interactive and mutually supportive. This realization led to the conclusion that each needs the other two and that all three should be pursued together. The Workshop validated the need for WiNTeB and the approach of partnering with network operators. It resulted in the definition of three interacting sets of research community infrastructure services. As a test bed, WiNTeB’s intellectual merit flows from what is learned about wireless networking and applications, in setting up the test bed, and the research projects conducted on it. These projects span Health, Social, Political, Environmental, Networking, and RF sciences. Early projects illustrate how researchers will be able to advance health and environmental sciences through field monitoring, test theories in Smart Grids, increase understanding of problems and solutions in multimedia on wireless, quality of service measurement on wireless, femtocell networking, wireless security and new modes in advanced wireless networking. The broader impacts that flow from WiNTeB include enabling new educational, new research and new integrated research and education opportunities. By its very nature, WiNTeB will democratize wireless research by opening the doors to significant wireless research to smaller universities, institutions and start-up companies. It will also enable the larger universities which lead wireless research today, to make their work more meaningful. It will enable researchers to provide regulators with the data they need to make the best possible public policy and regulatory decisions. It will enable research results which help NOAA, NASA, DOE and other government agencies to better fulfill their missions. Network operator, and equipment, companies will benefit from WiNTeB in two ways: improved staff availability and improved early research results feeding their pipeline of innovation and R&D efforts. Finally, having more reliable, more secure, more robust networks with advanced services will have a profoundly positive impact on society. In addition, WiNTeB will result in improvements in the US industrial competitiveness of wireless equipment, software, semiconductor, and network operator companies. Please see the following link for more information, including the final report, agenda, attendee list, and presentations: www.kennesaw.edu/ogc/winteb/winteb.html.
