An improved multi-agent simulation methodology for modelling and evaluating wireless communication systems resource allocation algorithms

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) constitute a well known approach in modelling dynamical real world systems. Recently, this technology has been applied to Wireless Communication Systems (WCS), where efficient resource allocation is a primary goal, for modelling the physical entities involved, like Base Stations (BS), service providers and network operators. This paper presents a novel approach in applying MAS methodology to WCS resource allocation by modelling more abstract entities involved in WCS operation, and especially the concurrent network procedures (services). Due to the concurrent nature of a WCS, MAS technology presents a suitable modelling solution. Services such as new call admission, handoff, user movement and call termination are independent to one another and may occur at the same time for many different users in the network. Thus, the required network procedures for supporting the above services act autonomously, interact with the network environment (gather information such as interference conditions), take decisions (e.g. call establishment), etc, and can be modelled as agents. Based on this novel simulation approach, the agent cooperation in terms of negotiation and agreement becomes a critical issue. To this end, two negotiation strategies are presented and evaluated in this research effort and among them the distributed negotiation and communication scheme between network agents is presented to be highly efficient in terms of network performance. The multi-agent concept adapted to the concurrent nature of large scale WCS is, also, discussed in this paper

Interference Management Based on RT/nRT Traffic Classification for FFR-Aided Small Cell/Macrocell Heterogeneous Networks

Cellular networks are constantly lagging in terms of the bandwidth needed to support the growing high data rate demands. The system needs to efficiently allocate its frequency spectrum such that the spectrum utilization can be maximized while ensuring the quality of service (QoS) level. Owing to the coexistence of different types of traffic (e.g., real-time (RT) and non-real-time (nRT)) and different types of networks (e.g., small cell and macrocell), ensuring the QoS level for different types of users becomes a challenging issue in wireless networks. Fractional frequency reuse (FFR) is an effective approach for increasing spectrum utilization and reducing interference effects in orthogonal frequency division multiple access networks. In this paper, we propose a new FFR scheme in which bandwidth allocation is based on RT/nRT traffic classification. We consider the coexistence of small cells and macrocells. After applying FFR technique in macrocells, the remaining frequency bands are efficiently allocated among the small cells overlaid by a macrocell. In our proposed scheme, total frequency-band allocations for different macrocells are decided on the basis of the traffic intensity. The transmitted power levels for different frequency bands are controlled based on the level of interference from a nearby frequency band. Frequency bands with a lower level of interference are assigned to the RT traffic to ensure a higher QoS level for the RT traffic. RT traffic calls in macrocell networks are also given a higher priority compared with nRT traffic calls to ensure the low call-blocking rate. Performance analyses show significant improvement under the proposed scheme compared with conventional FFR schemes

Traffic agents for improving QoS in mixed infrastructure and ad hoc modes wireless LAN

As an important complement to infrastructured wireless networks, mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) are more flexible in providing wireless access services, but more difficult in meeting different quality of service (QoS) requirements for mobile customers. Both infrastructure and ad hoc network structures are supported in wireless local area networks (WLAN), which can offer high data-rate wireless multimedia services to the mobile stations (MSs) in a limited geographical area. For those out-of-coverage MSs, how to effectively connect them to the access point (AP) and provide QoS support is a challenging issue. By mixing the infrastructure and the ad hoc modes in WLAN, we propose in this paper a new coverage improvement scheme that can identify suitable idle MSs in good service zones as traffic agents (TAs) to relay traffic from those out-of-coverage MSs to the AP. The service coverage area of WLAN is then expanded. The QoS requirements (e.g., bandwidth) of those MSs are considered in the selection process of corresponding TAs. Mathematical analysis, verified by computer simulations, shows that the proposed TA scheme can effectively reduce blocking probability when traffic load is light