Building Flexible, Low-Cost Wireless Access Networks With Magma

TL;DR

Magma is an open, flexible, and low-cost wireless access network system that leverages Internet design principles and SDN to improve connectivity, reduce costs, and simplify operations in challenging environments.

Contribution

The paper introduces Magma, a novel system that applies Internet-inspired design and SDN to create scalable, resilient, and cost-effective wireless networks for underserved areas.

Findings

Magma reduces deployment costs significantly.

It simplifies network management and operation.

The system achieves high resilience and scalability.

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.