Here is a brief overview of Huawei's new HiCampus architecture, which is based on fully wireless user access, IP + POL, and an intelligent platform on top of the physical infrastructure.
At the beginning of 2020, we introduced two new architectures that were previously used exclusively in China. HiDC, which is designed primarily for deploying data center infrastructure, was already published on Habré in the spring . Now let's take a look at HiCampus in general terms - a broader architecture.
Why HiCampus is needed
The flurry of events that the pandemic and the opposition to it entailed, willy-nilly, prompted many to quickly come to the understanding that campuses are the foundation of a new intellectual world. Under the generalizing word “campus”, not only office areas are combined, but also research institutes, laboratories, universities, along with campuses and more.
In Russia alone, Huawei has over a thousand developers by mid-2020. Moreover, in two or three years there will be approximately five times more of them. And they are concentrated just the same on campuses, where we must provide them with a seamless service on demand, without making them wait.
Actually, for the end user, HiCampus is, first of all, a more convenient working environment than before. It helps businesses to increase production efficiency, in addition, it turns out to be easier for them to operate.
Meanwhile, there are more and more users on campuses, and they have more and more devices. It’s good that not every jacket is yet equipped with a Wi-Fi module: “smart clothes” are still a curiosity, but it is possible that it will soon become widespread. As a result, without radical technological changes, the quality of service in the network is reduced. No wonder: traffic consumption is increasing, power consumption is growing, and new services require more and more resources of various kinds. Meanwhile, business owners and boards of directors, often encouraged by the pace at which digital transformation is taking place around, including competitors, want new opportunities - quickly and cheaply (“How, we don’t have video surveillance with face recognition in our office? Why ?! "). In addition, a synergistic effect is expected from the network infrastructure today: deploying a network for the sake of a network alone is no longer accepted, and not in the spirit of the times.
These problems are designed to solve HiCampus. We distinguish three sections from it, each of which brings its own advantages to the architecture. We list them in order from the lowest to the highest:
- completely wireless;
- fully optical;
- intellectual.
Fully wireless cut
The basis of the all-wireless slice is Huawei's sixth-generation Wi-Fi product solution. Compared to Wi-Fi 5, it allows four times increase the number of simultaneously connected users and relieve the "inhabitants" of the campus from having to connect to the network "by wire" anywhere.
The new AirEngine product line, on which the HiCampus wireless environment is built, includes access points (APs) for a variety of scenarios: you want it for industrial operation with IoT, you want it for outdoor use. The design, dimensions, ways of fastening devices also allow for all conceivable use cases.
Innovations in APs, such as an increased number of antennas per reception (there are now 16 of them), we owe to our development center in Tel Aviv: our colleagues working there brought much of their previous experience in improving WiMAX and 6G networks to Wi-Fi 5, thanks to which they were able to seriously optimize the delays and throughput of the AirEngine points. As a result, we were able to guarantee a bandwidth of at least a given mark for each client: the phrase "100 Mbps everywhere" in our case is not an empty phrase.
How did it happen? Here we briefly turn to theory. According to Shannon's theorem, the throughput of an access point is determined by (a) the number of spatial streams, (b) the bandwidth, and © the signal-to-noise ratio. At Huawei, modifications in comparison with previous products were made on all three counts. So, our TDs are able to form up to 12 spatial streams - one and a half times more than the top models of other vendors. In addition, they can support eight 160 MHz wide spatial streams versus at best eight 80 MHz wide streams from competitors. Finally, thanks to the Smart Antenna technology, our access points show a significantly higher interference tolerance and a higher RSSI level at the reception at the client.
At the end of 2019, our colleagues from Tel Aviv received the highest award within the company precisely because they managed to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) higher than that of another well-known American manufacturer on a chip with Wi-Fi 802.11ax support. The result was achieved both through the use of new materials, and with the help of a more advanced algorithmic base, hardwired into the processor. Hence the other beneficial aspects of Wi-Fi 6 "in the interpretation of Huawei." In particular, a multi-user MIMO mechanism has been implemented, thanks to which up to eight spatial streams can be allocated per user; MU-MIMO is designed to use the entire antenna resource of the access point in transmitting information to clients. Of course, eight streams at once will not be dispatched for any smartphone, but for the latest generation laptop or industrial VR complex - completely.
Thus, with 16 spatial streams at the physical layer, it is possible to reach the bar of 10 Gb / s per point. At the level of application traffic, the efficiency of the data transmission medium will be 78–80%, or about 8 Gbps. Let's make a reservation, this is true in the case of the operation of 160 MHz channels. Of course, Wi-Fi 6 is designed primarily for mass connections, and if there are dozens of them, then each one taken separately will not be so sky-high.
In the laboratory, we repeatedly tested using the iPerf load utility - and fixed that two Huawei hi-end points from the AirEngine line, using eight spatial streams with a width of 160 MHz each, communicate at the application layer at a rate of about 8,37 Gbps. It is necessary to make a remark: yes, they have a special firmware, designed to unlock the potential of the equipment during testing, but the fact remains.
By the way, Huawei has a Joint Validation Lab in Russia with an extensive fleet of Wi-Fi equipment. Previously, we used devices with M.2 chips from other manufacturers in it, but now we show the performance of Wi-Fi 6 on phones of our own production, for example P40.
The illustrations above show that in a single structural unit, of which there are four pieces in the access point, there are also four elements each - a total of 16 transmit-receive antennas operating in dynamic mode. As for beamforming, due to the use of more antennas on the element, it is possible to form a narrower and longer beam and more reliably “lead” the client, providing him with an improved user experience.
Through the use of additional proprietary materials, high electrical performance of the antenna itself is achieved. Hence the lower percentage of losses per signal and the signal reflection parameters are much more advantageous.
In our laboratories, we have repeatedly conducted tests to compare the signal strength of access points at the same coverage distance. In the illustration above, you can see that there are two Wi-Fi 6-capable APs on the tripods: one (red) with smart antennas from Huawei, the other without them. The distance from the point to the phone in both cases is 13 m. Other things being equal - the same frequency range is 5 GHz, the channel frequency is 20 MHz, etc. - the average difference in signal strength between devices is 3 dBm, and the advantage is on the side of the point Huawei.
The second test uses the same Wi-Fi 6 points, the same 20 MHz band, the same 5 GHz cutoff. At a distance of 13 m, there is no significant difference, but as soon as we double the distance, the indicators diverge by almost an order of magnitude (7 dBm) - in favor of our AirEngine.
Using 5G - DynamicTurbo technologies, thanks to which, based on the wireless environment, traffic from VIP users is prioritized, we achieve a service that was not previously available in the Wi-Fi environment (for example, a top manager of a company will not regularly ask you why he has such weak connection). Until now, they have been almost exclusively the property of the wired networking world - either TDM or IP Hard Pipe, with the allocation of MPLS tunnels.
Wi-Fi 6 also brings the concept of seamless roaming to life. This is due to the fact that the migration mechanism between points has been modified: first, the user connects to the new one and only then dissociates from the old one. This innovation has a beneficial effect on the functioning in scenarios such as telephony over Wi-Fi, telemedicine and automotive, namely the work of autonomous robots, drones, etc., for which it is critical to keep an uninterrupted connection with the control center.
In the mini-video above, in a playful way, a completely modern case of using Wi-Fi 6 from Huawei is reflected. The dog in the red jumpsuit has VR glasses hooked up to an AirEngine point that switches quickly and ensures minimal delays in information transfer. Another dog was less fortunate: similar glasses put on his head are connected to the AP of another vendor (for ethical reasons, of course, we won’t name him), and even though interruptions and lags are not fatal, they prevent the virtual environment from being superimposed on the surrounding space in real time.
Inside China, architecture is used with might and main. With the application of its solutions, about 600 campuses have been built, of which a good half correspond to the principles of HiCampus from start to finish.
As practice shows, the most effective use of HiCampus is for collaboration in office spaces, in "smart factories" with their mobile autonomous robots - AGV, as well as in crowded places. For example, at Beijing International Airport, where a Wi-Fi 6 network is deployed, providing wireless services to passengers throughout the territory; among other things, thanks to the campus infrastructure, the airport was able to reduce the waiting time in line by 15% and save 20% on staff.
Full optical cut
Increasingly, we are building campuses according to a new model - IP+POL, and not at all obeying the dictates of the whims of technological fashion. The previously dominant approach, in which, when deploying a network infrastructure in a building, we pulled optics up to a floor, and then made copper wiring, imposed severe restrictions on architecture. It is enough that if an upgrade was necessary, almost the entire environment at the floor level had to be changed. The material itself, copper, is also not ideal: from the point of view of throughput, and from the point of view of the life cycle, and from the point of view of the further development of the environment. Of course, copper was understood by everyone and made it possible to create simple network solutions quickly and inexpensively. At the same time, in terms of total cost of ownership and potential for network upgrades, copper in 2020 loses to optics.
The superiority of optics comes through especially clearly when it is necessary to take into account the long life cycle of the infrastructure (and evaluate the costs for it for a long time), and also when it is waiting for a serious evolution. For example, it is required that 4K cameras and 8K TVs or other high-resolution digital signage are constantly functioning in the environment. In such situations, the most reasonable solution is to use an all-optical - using optical switches - network. Previously, a small number of end terminals - optical network units (ONU) - served as a stop factor when choosing in favor of such a campus construction model. At the present time, not only user machines assume the possibility of connecting via terminals to an optical network. A transceiver that works with the POL network is inserted into the same Wi-Fi point, and we receive a wireless service through a high-speed optical network.
Thus, it is possible to fully implement Wi-Fi 6 with little blood: set up an IP + POL network, connect Wi-Fi to it and quietly increase performance. The only thing is that in the case of Wi-Fi points, a local power supply is required. Otherwise, nothing prevents us from bringing the network up to 10 or 50 Gb / s.
Deployment of all-optical networks is useful in a variety of cases. For example, it is difficult for them to imagine an alternative in old houses with long spans. If you have never rebuilt a building in the center of Moscow, then believe me, you are very lucky: usually all cable passages in such buildings are clogged, and in order to organize a local network in a smart way, sometimes you have to do everything from scratch. In the case of a POL solution, you can lay an optical cable, split it with splitters and create a modern network.
The same applies to educational institutions with buildings of old architecture, hotel complexes and huge buildings, including airports.
Guided by the principle of practice what you preach, in organizing network environments according to the IP LAN + POL model, we started with ourselves. Completed a year and a half ago, the huge, with a total area of more than 1,4 million m², the Huawei campus on Songshan Lake (China) is one of the first cases of implementing the HiCampus architecture; its buildings, by the way, reproduce in their appearance famous monuments of European architecture. Inside, everything, on the contrary, is as modern as possible.
From the central building, optical lines diverge to neighboring, "subject" campuses, where, in turn, they are also separated by floors, etc. Wi-Fi 6 access points covering the entire territory, respectively, "sit" precisely on optics.
The campus has a range of services that require a stable high-speed connection, including video surveillance using high-definition cameras. They serve, however, not only for video surveillance. At the entrance to the campus digital platform through these same cameras, he identifies the employee by his face, then he attaches his RFID badge to the access terminal, and only after successful authentication according to two criteria will the doors be opened and access to the wireless network and digital services of the campus will be provided, it will not be possible to slip inside with someone else's badge . In addition, a VDI service (cloud desktop), a conference call system and many other services tied to Wi-Fi 6 with an optical connection are available throughout the complex.
The use of fully networked optical solutions, among other things, saves a lot of space, and it requires much fewer people to maintain them. Thus, according to our statistics, on average, investments in infrastructure are reduced by 40% due to the optical layer.
Fully intelligent cut
On top of the physical solutions associated with optical and wireless transmission, HiCampus is tightly integrated with the intelligent Horizon platform, which serves the purpose of digital transformation and allows you to get more value from the infrastructure.
For tasks related to the infrastructure itself, the underlying management layer on the platform is used .
Its first purpose is to use machine learning technologies to control the network. In particular, ML algorithms made it possible to implement the CampusInsight O&M 1-3-5 module in iMaster NCE: information about an error is received within a minute, it takes three minutes to process it, and it is eliminated in five minutes (for more details, see our article ""). Thus, no less than 75–90% of the errors that occur are corrected.
The second task is more intelligent - to integrate various services associated with the "smart campus" (the same network control, video surveillance, etc.).
When there are several dozen access points and a couple of controllers in the network infrastructure, nothing prevents you from removing traffic from them and parsing it manually using Wireshark. But when there are thousands of points, dozens of controllers, and all this economy is spread over a large territory, it becomes much more difficult to search for malfunctions. To simplify the task, we developed the iMaster NCE CampusInsight solution (we had a separate ). With its help, by accumulating information from devices - Layer-1 / Layer-4 packets - you can quickly find faults in the network environment.
The process looks like this. The platform, for example, shows us that the user is not getting along with radio authentication. She analyzes and indicates at which step the problem arose. And if it is related to the environment, then the platform will offer us to solve the problem (the Resolve button appears in the interface). The video below shows how the system receives a notification that a RADIUS reject has occurred: most likely, either the user entered the password incorrectly, or the password has changed. Thus, without frantic attempts to figure out what the matter is, it is possible to save a lot of time, since all data is saved and the background of a particular collision is easy to study.
A common story is that the owner of the company or CTO comes up to you and complains about the fact that some important person in your office yesterday was unable to connect to the wireless network. The issue has to be resolved. Perhaps under the threat of losing the quarterly bonus. In a normal situation, you cannot fix the problem without finding the same VIP user. But what if this is some top manager or deputy minister, with whom it is not easy to meet, let alone ask him for a smartphone to sort out the problem? Huawei helps to avoid such situations by using our FusionInsight big data distribution, which stores all the accumulated knowledge about what happened on the network, so that you can get to the root of any problem through retrospective analysis.
Devices and their connectivity is important. But to build a truly “smart” campus, a software add-on is needed.
First of all, HiCampus uses a cloud platform on top of the physical layer. It can be private, public, or hybrid. On it, in turn, services for working with data are layered. All this set of software is a digital platform. From a conceptual point of view, it is based on the principles of Relationship, Open, Multi-Ecosystem, Any-Connect - ROMA for short (there will also be a separate webinar and a post following it about them and the platform as a whole). By providing connectivity between the components of the environment, Horizon makes it more cohesive, which is further confirmed in both business performance and user experience.
In turn, the Huawei IOC (Intelligent Operation Center) intelligent control center is designed to monitor the "health" of the campus, energy efficiency and security, and most importantly, gives an overall view of what is happening on the campus. For example, thanks to a visual visualization scheme (see Fig. ) it will be seen that the camera reacted to some disturbing factor, and you can instantly get a picture from it. If a fire suddenly occurs, it is easy to check using RFID sensors whether all people have left the premises.
And thanks to the fact that additional modules that work via RFID, ZigBee or Bluetooth can be connected to Huawei access points, it is easy to create an environment that will sensitively monitor the situation on the campus and signal a variety of problems. In addition, real-time inventory of assets is convenient with IOC, and in general, working with the campus as an intelligent unit opens up a lot of opportunities.
Of course, individual vendors in the market may provide some of the solutions that are similar to those included in HiCampus, such as all-optical access. However, no one is armed with a holistic architecture, the main advantages of which we tried to reveal in the post.
And finally, we add that you can find out more about our solutions for smart campus, and even try some, on our project website. .
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And do not forget about our numerous webinars, held not only in the Russian-speaking segment, but also at the global level. A list of webinars for the coming weeks is available at .
Source: habr.com