IEEE approves standard for SDNs in wireless networks, crafted at IIT Bombay

28th June 2022
IEEE approves  standard for  SDNs in wireless networks, crafted at IIT Bombay
Image: Gerd Altmann / Pixabay

June 28 2022: IEEE has approved new standard-- IEEE 1930 --  led by a  research group at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay  the first ever IEEE standard coming out of Indian efforts.
Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur, reports in a  LinkedIn post that  a member of his research teamj, Pranav Jha was working group Chair for the standard: "Recommended Practice for SDN based Middleware for Control & Management of Wireless Networks".
He adds: “The wireless networks in the 5G and beyond era are evolving into a heterogeneous network with coexistence of one or more access technologies, e.g., 5G, 4G, Wi-Fi and technologies that may emerge in future. While the 5G system has defined a converged core to manage different access technologies, there is a need for unification of radio access technologies (RAT) at RAN level to better harness diverse RAT in beyond 5G networks. “|
“The recently approved IEEE 1930.1 standard is a step in this direction. It defines an SDN based architecture to facilitate unified control & management of multi-RAT wireless access networks. It also proposes a novel disaggregated architecture for RAN, leading to a modular and flexible multi-RAT RAN that may be better suited for future communications needs. A RAN level unification of multiple RATs would provide an improved support for features like multi-connectivity, data offloading, or load balancing over the existing 5G system.”
Here is the link for the IEEE standard. It reads:
“This recommended practice provides an SDN based architecture for multi-Radio Access Technology (RAT) wireless access networks. It also specifies an SDN based middleware to support unified and vendor independent control and management of the data plane functions belonging to different RATS such as Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs), and other terrestrial radio access systems e.g. those defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). It also recommends a logically unified multi-RAT control plane function. The control plane function is responsible for control and management of the multi-RAT access network with the help of the proposed middleware.”