Software Defined Applications in Cellular and Optical Networks

abstract: Small wireless cells have the potential to overcome bottlenecks in wireless access through the sharing of spectrum resources. A novel access backhaul network architecture based on a Smart Gateway (Sm-GW) between the small cell base stations, e.g., LTE eNBs, and the conventional backhaul gateways, e.g., LTE Servicing/Packet Gateways (S/P-GWs) has been introduced to address the bottleneck. The Sm-GW flexibly schedules uplink transmissions for the eNBs. Based on software defined networking (SDN) a management mechanism that allows multiple operator to flexibly inter-operate via multiple Sm-GWs with a multitude of small cells has been proposed. This dissertation also comprehensively survey the studies that examine the SDN paradigm in optical networks. Along with the PHY functional split improvements, the performance of Distributed Converged Cable Access Platform (DCCAP) in the cable architectures especially for the Remote-PHY and Remote-MACPHY nodes has been evaluated. In the PHY functional split, in addition to the re-use of infrastructure with a common FFT module for multiple technologies, a novel cross functional split interaction to cache the repetitive QAM symbols across time at the remote node to reduce the transmission rate requirement of the fronthaul link has been proposed.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

Design and Performance Analysis of Functional Split in Virtualized Access Networks

abstract: Emerging modular cable network architectures distribute some cable headend functions to remote nodes that are located close to the broadcast cable links reaching the cable modems (CMs) in the subscriber homes and businesses. In the Remote- PHY (R-PHY) architecture, a Remote PHY Device (RPD) conducts the physical layer processing for the analog cable transmissions, while the headend runs the DOCSIS medium access control (MAC) for the upstream transmissions of the distributed CMs over the shared cable link. In contrast, in the Remote MACPHY (R-MACPHY) ar- chitecture, a Remote MACPHY Device (RMD) conducts both the physical and MAC layer processing. The dissertation objective is to conduct a comprehensive perfor- mance comparison of the R-PHY and R-MACPHY architectures. Also, development of analytical delay models for the polling-based MAC with Gated bandwidth alloca- tion of Poisson traffic in the R-PHY and R-MACPHY architectures and conducting extensive simulations to assess the accuracy of the analytical model and to evaluate the delay-throughput performance of the R-PHY and R-MACPHY architectures for a wide range of deployment and operating scenarios. Performance evaluations ex- tend to the use of Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) as transport network between remote nodes and headend. The results show that for long CIN distances above 100 miles, the R-MACPHY architecture achieves significantly shorter mean up- stream packet delays than the R-PHY architecture, especially for bursty traffic. The extensive comparative R-PHY and R-MACPHY comparative evaluation can serve as a basis for the planning of modular broadcast cable based access networks.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201