Building Flexible, Low-Cost Wireless Access Networks With Magma

Shaddi Hasan, Amar Padmanabhan, Bruce Davie, Jennifer Rexford, Ulas Kozat, Hunter Gatewood, Shruti Sanadhya, Nick Yurchenko, Tariq Al-Khasib, Oriol Batalla, Marie Bremner, Andrei Lee, Evgeniy Makeev, Scott Moeller, Alex Rodriguez, Pravin Shelar, Karthik Subraveti, Sudarshan Kandi, Alejandro Xoconostle, Praveen Kumar RamakrishnanXiaochen Tian, Anoop Tomar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Billions of people remain without Internet access due to availability or affordability of service. In this paper, we present Magma, an open and flexible system for building low-cost wireless access networks. Magma aims to connect users where operator economics are difficult due to issues such as low population density or income levels, while preserving features expected in cellular networks such as authentication and billing policies. To achieve this, and in contrast to traditional cellular networks, Magma adopts an approach that extensively leverages Internet design patterns, terminating access network-specific protocols at the edge and abstracting the access network from the core architecture. This decision allows Magma to refactor the wireless core using SDN (software-defined networking) principles and leverage other techniques from modern distributed systems. In doing so, Magma lowers cost and operational complexity for network operators while achieving resilience, scalability, and rich policy support.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2023
PublisherUSENIX Association
Pages1667-1681
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781939133335
StatePublished - 2023
Event20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2023 - Boston, United States
Duration: Apr 17 2023Apr 19 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2023

Conference

Conference20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston
Period4/17/234/19/23

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Control and Systems Engineering

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