Heterogeneous LTE/ Wi-Fi architecture for intelligent transportation systems

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) make use of advanced technologies to enhance road safety and improve traffic efficiency. It is anticipated that ITS will play a vital future role in improving traffic efficiency, safety, comfort and emissions. In order to assist the passengers to travel safely, efficiently and conveniently, several application requirements have to be met simultaneously. In addition to the delivery of regular traffic and safety information, vehicular networks have been recently required to support infotainment services. Previous vehicular network designs and architectures do not satisfy this increasing traffic demand as they are setup for either voice or data traffic, which is not suitable for the transfer of vehicular traffic. This new requirement is one of the key drivers behind the need for new mobile wireless broadband architectures and technologies. For this purpose, this thesis proposes and investigates a heterogeneous IEEE 802.11 and LTE vehicular system that supports both infotainment and ITS traffic control data. IEEE 802.11g is used for V2V communications and as an on-board access network while, LTE is used for V2I communications. A performance simulation-based study is conducted to validate the feasibility of the proposed system in an urban vehicular environment. The system performance is evaluated in terms of data loss, data rate, delay and jitter. Several simulation scenarios are performed and evaluated. In the V2I-only scenario, the delay, jitter and data drops for both ITS and video traffic are within the acceptable limits, as defined by vehicular application requirements. Although a tendency of increase in video packet drops during handover from one eNodeB to another is observed yet, the attainable data loss rate is still below the defined benchmarks. In the integrated V2V-V2I scenario, data loss in uplink ITS traffic was initially observed so, Burst communication technique is applied to prevent packet losses in the critical uplink ITS traffic. A quantitative analysis is performed to determine the number of packets per burst, the inter-packet and inter-burst intervals. It is found that a substantial improvement is achieved using a two-packet Burst, where no packets are lost in the uplink direction. The delay, jitter and data drops for both uplink and downlink ITS traffic, and video traffic are below the benchmarks of vehicular applications. Thus, the results indicate that the proposed heterogeneous system offers acceptable performance that meets the requirements of the different vehicular applications. All simulations are conducted on OPNET Network Modeler and results are subjected to a 95% confidence analysis

Network planning for the future railway communications

Los Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte están cambiando la forma en que concebimos el futuro de la movilidad. En particular, los ferrocarriles están experimentando un proceso de transformación para modernizar el transporte público y las operaciones ferroviarias. Tecnologías como el 5G, la fibra óptica y la nube han surgido como catalizadores para digitalizar el ferrocarril proporcionando comunicaciones de alta velocidad y baja latencia. Este TFG se centra en la exploración de redes que permitan el control del tren y la transmisión de datos a bordo. El objetivo es planificar la infraestructura de red (dimensionamiento y asignación de recursos) necesaria para las futuras comunicaciones del sistema ferroviario de larga distancia de la Deutsche Bahn en Alemania. En este trabajo, proponemos una arquitectura de red que puede satisfacer los requisitos de rendimiento de las aplicaciones para trenes y pasajeros. Presentamos un método para la colocación de estaciones base 5G a lo largo de las vías del tren para garantizar el rendimiento necesario en el borde de la celda. Por último, presentamos el problema de colocación y asignación de centros de datos. El objetivo es encontrar el número necesario de centros de datos y su ubicación en la red, y asignarlos a cada estación de tren. Realizamos simulaciones en cuatro escenarios diferentes, en los que modificamos parámetros de entrada como la latencia máxima tolerada y el número máximo de centros de datos. Los resultados obtenidos muestran el compromiso entre la latencia alcanzada y el coste de la infraestructura.Els Sistemes Intel·ligents de Transport estan canviant la manera en què concebem el futur de la mobilitat. En particular, els ferrocarrils estan experimentant un procés de transformació per modernitzar el transport públic i les operacions ferroviàries. Tecnologies com el 5G, la fibra òptica i el núvol han sorgit com a catalitzadors per digitalitzar el ferrocarril proporcionant comunicacions d'alta velocitat i baixa latència. Aquest TFG se centra en l'exploració de xarxes que permetin el control dels trens i la transmissió de dades a bord. L'objectiu és planificar la infraestructura de xarxa (dimensionament i assignació de recursos) necessària per a les futures comunicacions del sistema ferroviari de llarga distància de la Deutsche Bahn a Alemanya. En aquest treball, proposem una arquitectura de xarxa que pot satisfer els requisits de rendiment de les aplicacions per a trens i passatgers. Presentem un mètode per a la col·locació d'estacions base 5G al llarg de les vies del tren per garantir el rendiment necessari a la vora de la cel·la. Per últim, presentem el problema de col·locació i assignació de centres de dades. L'objectiu és trobar el nombre necessari de centres de dades i la seva ubicació a la xarxa, i assignar-los a cada estació de tren. Realitzem simulacions en quatre escenaris diferents, on modifiquem paràmetres d'entrada com la latència màxima tolerada i el nombre màxim de centres de dades. Els resultats obtinguts mostren el compromís entre la latència assolida i el cost de la infraestructura.Smart Transportation Systems are changing the way we conceive the future of mobility. In particular, railways are undergoing a transformation process to modernize public transportation and rail operation. Technologies like 5G, optical fiber and the cloud have emerged as catalysts to digitalize the railway by providing high-speed and low-latency communications. This bachelor's thesis focuses on the exploration of networks enabling train control and on-board data communications. The goal is to plan the network infrastructure (dimensioning and resource allocation) needed for the future communications in the train mobility scenario for Deutsche Bahn's long-distance railway system in Germany. In this work, we propose a network architecture that can meet the performance requirements of train and passenger applications. We present an approach for 5G base station placement along the rail tracks to guarantee the necessary throughput at the cell edge. Finally, we introduce the data center placement and assignment problem. The objective is to find the required number of data centers and their location in the network, and to assign them to each train station. We perform simulations in four different scenarios, in which we modify input parameters such as the maximum tolerated latency and the maximum number of data centers. The obtained results show the trade-off between the achieved latency and the infrastructure cost

Analysis of WiFi and WiMAX and Wireless Network Coexistence

Wireless networks are very popular nowadays. Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) that uses the IEEE 802.11 standard and WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) that uses the IEEE 802.16 standard are networks that we want to explore. WiMAX has been developed over 10 years, but it is still unknown to most people. However compared to WLAN, it has many advantages in transmission speed and coverage area. This paper will introduce these two technologies and make comparisons between WiMAX and WiFi. In addition, wireless network coexistence of WLAN and WiMAX will be explored through simulation. Lastly we want to discuss the future of WiMAX in relation to WiFi.Comment: 16 pages. ISSN 0974-932

WiFi and LTE Coexistence in the Unlicensed Spectrum

Today, smart-phones have revolutionized wireless communication industry towards an era of mobile data. To cater for the ever increasing data traffic demand, it is of utmost importance to have more spectrum resources whereby sharing under-utilized spectrum bands is an effective solution. In particular, the 4G broadband Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and its foreseen 5G successor will benefit immensely if their operation can be extended to the under-utilized unlicensed spectrum. In this thesis, first we analyze WiFi 802.11n and LTE coexistence performance in the unlicensed spectrum considering multi-layer cell layouts through system level simulations. We consider a time division duplexing (TDD)-LTE system with an FTP traffic model for performance evaluation. Simulation results show that WiFi performance is more vulnerable to LTE interference, while LTE performance is degraded only slightly. Based on the initial findings, we propose a Q-Learning based dynamic duty cycle selection technique for configuring LTE transmission gaps, so that a satisfactory throughput is maintained both for LTE and WiFi systems. Simulation results show that the proposed approach can enhance the overall capacity performance by 19% and WiFi capacity performance by 77%, hence enabling effective coexistence of LTE and WiFi systems in the unlicensed band

A Scaleable and License Free 5G Internet of Radio Light Architecture for Services in Train Stations

In this paper we present a 5G Internet Radio- Light (IoRL) architecture for underground train stations that can be readily deployed because it utilizes unlicensed visible light and millimeter wave part of the spectrum, which does not require Mobile Network Operator (MNO) permission to deploy and which is used to provide travelers with accurate location, interaction, access to Internet and Cloud based Services, such as high resolution video on a Tablet PC. The paper describes the train station use cases and the IoRL architecture.European Commissio

Interference cancellation and Resource Allocation approaches for Device-to-Device Communications

Network assisted Device-to-Device (D2D) communication as an underlay to cellular spectrum has attracted much attention in mobile network standards for local area connectivity as a means to improve the cellular spectrum utilization and to reduce the energy consumption of User Equipments (UEs). The D2D communication uses resources of the underlying mobile network which results in different interference scenarios. These include interference from cellular to D2D link, D2D to cellular link and interference among D2D links when multiple D2D links share common resources. In this thesis, an orthogonal precoding interference cancellation method is initially presented to reduce the cellular to D2D and D2D to cellular interferences when the cellular channel resources are being shared by a single D2D link. Three different scenarios have been considered when establishing a D2D communication along with a Base Station-to-UE communication. The proposed method is analytically evaluated in comparison with the conventional precoding matrix allocation method in terms of ergodic capacity. This method is then extended for a cluster based multi-link D2D scenario where interference between D2D pairs also exists in addition to the other two interference scenarios. In this work, cluster denotes a group of devices locally communicating through multi-link D2D communications sharing the same radio resources of the Cluster Head. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated and compared for different resource sharing modes. The analyses illustrate the importance of cluster head in each cluster to save the battery life of devices in that cluster. The outage probability is considered as a performance evaluation matrix for guaranteeing QoS constrain of communication links. Hence, the mathematical expressions for outage probability of the proposed method for single-link and multi-link D2D communications are presented and compared with an existing interference cancellation technique. To execute the cluster based interference cancellation approach, a three-step resource allocation scheme is then proposed. It first performs a mode selection procedure to choose the transmission mode of each UEs. Then a clustering scheme is developed to group the links that can share a common resource to improve the spectral efficiency. For the selection of suitable cellular UEs for each cluster whose resource can be shared, a cluster head selection algorithm is also developed. Maximal residual energy and minimal transmit power have been considered as parameters for the cluster head selection scheme. Finally, the expression for maximum number of links that the radio resource of shared UE can support is analytically derived. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated using a WINNER II A1 indoor office model. The performance of D2D communication practically gets limited due to large distance and/or poor channel conditions between the D2D transmitter and receiver. To overcome these issues, a relay-assisted D2D communication is introduced in this thesis where a device relaying is an additional transmission mode along with the existing cellular and D2D transmission modes. A transmission mode assignment algorithm based on the Hungarian algorithm is then proposed to improve the overall system throughput. The proposed algorithm tries to solve two problems: a suitable transmission mode selection for each scheduled transmissions and a device selection for relaying communication between user equipments in the relay transmission mode. Simulation results showed that our proposed algorithm improves the system performance in terms of the overall system throughput and D2D data rate in comparison with traditional D2D communication schemes