Traffic-aware Carrier-Grade WiFi SON

近年来，由于物联网（IoT）和实时应用的到来，对提高住宅无线服务质量的需求不断增加，导致了新的基于边缘的配置模型。WiFi是这场运动的核心，因为它主导着室内无线连接。然而，WiFi被设计为尽力而为和公平分享的服务，这不再适合QoS（服务质量）驱动的边缘计算服务。XCellAir公司正在开发屡获殊荣的WiFi SON （Self-OrganizingNetwork）产品，为从住宅到智慧城市的各种应用提供电信级WiFi服务。不幸的是，缺乏QoE（体验质量）测量和使用模式特征可能会导致次优决策和网络资源利用不足，正如在巴黎高等技术学院（ETS）住宅校区实施的试验台所观察到的那样。因此，该项目旨在为XCellAir的WiFi SON平台增加数据和控制层面的流量分析和预测，以捕获流量，监控资源利用率，构建使用模式，并预测几个系统指标的演变趋势。该平台将利用云计算技术，提高运营商级WiFi网络的性能和可靠性，以实现基于频段的业务效率，最大限度地减少资源消耗，并保证QoE/QoS。该项目的结果将大大有助于该产品的成功实现，以及加拿大电信行业，因为该产品正在被该国的主要运营商开发。这项技术将创造一种新型的智慧城市服务，部署在靠近最终用户的最后一英里，从而提供前所未有的QoS。该项目还将为魁北克首个智慧城市项目——蒙特利尔创新区的建立，以及魁北克和加拿大数字化和可持续经济的发展做出重大贡献。

The increasing demand for improving the quality of residential wireless services in recent years, driven by thearrival of the Internet of Things (IoT) and real-time applications, has resulted in new edge-based provisioningmodels. WiFi is at the central of this movement as it is dominating indoor wireless connectivity. However,WiFi has been designed as a best-effort and fair-share service, which is no longer appropriate for QoS (Qualityof Service) -driven edge computing services. XCellAir Inc. is developing WiFi SON (Self-OrganizingNetwork), an award-wining product, to provide carrier-grade WiFi service for a variety of applications, fromresidential usage to smart city. Unfortunately, lacking QoE (Quality of Experience) measurements and usagepattern characterization might result in sub-optimal decisions and under-utilization of network resources, asobserved in the testbed implemented at the residential campus of the Ecole de technologie superieure (ETS).This project is therefore aimed to add traffic analytics and prediction to XCellAir's WiFi SON platform, at bothdata and control planes, to capture traffic, monitor resource utilization, construct usage patterns, and forecastevolution trends of several system metrics. Leveraging on cloud computing technology, the platform willimprove the performance and reliability of carrier-grade WiFi networks, in view of achieving the efficiency ofedge-based services, minimizing resource consumption, and guaranteeing QoE/QoS. The outcome of thisproject will contribute substantially to the successful achievement of the product, as well as to Canadiantelecommunication industry as the product is being exploited by major carriers in this country. This technologywill enable the creation of a new class of smart city services which are deployed at the last-mile close to endusers, thus providing unprecedented QoS. The project will also significantly contribute to the establishment ofthe first smart city project in Quebec - the Montreal Innovation District, and to the development of a digital andsustainable economy of Quebec and Canada.