Traffic Scheduling in Point-to-Multipoint OFDMA-based Systems

The new generation of wireless networks (e.g., WiMAX, LTE-Advanced, Cognitive Radio) support many high resource-consuming services (e.g., VoIP, video conference, multiplayer interactive gaming, multimedia streaming, digital video broadcasting, mobile commerce). The main problem of such networks is that the bandwidth is limited, besides to be subject to fading process, and shared among multiple users. Therefore, a combination of sophisticated transmission techniques (e.g., OFDMA) and proper packet scheduling algorithms is necessary, in order to provide applications with suitable quality of service. This Thesis addresses the problem of traffic scheduling in Point-to-Multipoint OFDMA-based systems. We formally prove that in such systems, even a simple scheduling problem of a Service Class at a time, is NP-complete, therefore, computationally intractable. An optimal solution is unfeasible in term of time, thus, fast and simple scheduling heuristics are needed. First, we address the Best Effort traffic scheduling issue, in a system adopting variable-length Frames, with the objective of producing a legal schedule (i.e., the one meeting all system constraints) of minimum length. Besides, we present fast and simple heuristics, which generate suboptimal solutions, and evaluate their performance in the average case, as in the worst one. Then, we investigate the scheduling of Real Time traffic, with the objective of meeting as many deadlines as possible, or equivalently, minimizing the packet drop ratio. Specifically, we propose two scheduling heuristics, which apply two different resource allocation mechanisms, and evaluate their average-case performance by means of a simulation experiment

Radio Communications

In the last decades the restless evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) brought to a deep transformation of our habits. The growth of the Internet and the advances in hardware and software implementations modified our way to communicate and to share information. In this book, an overview of the major issues faced today by researchers in the field of radio communications is given through 35 high quality chapters written by specialists working in universities and research centers all over the world. Various aspects will be deeply discussed: channel modeling, beamforming, multiple antennas, cooperative networks, opportunistic scheduling, advanced admission control, handover management, systems performance assessment, routing issues in mobility conditions, localization, web security. Advanced techniques for the radio resource management will be discussed both in single and multiple radio technologies; either in infrastructure, mesh or ad hoc networks

Optimized network dimensioning and planning for WiMAX technology

In order to meet demands in mobile broadband and to bridge the digital divide a new technology, namely WiMAX, was introduced in 2004. However, in order to increase the financial return on the investment inWiMAX, service operators need to make every effort in designing and deploying the most cost-effective networks. This thesis presents a novel dimensioning technique for WiMAX technology which takes the dimensioning problem to a new level and produces more accurate results in comparison to the traditional methods. Furthermore, a novel decomposed optimization framework for the WiMAX network planning is introduced which subdivides the overall problem into three distinct stages consisting of the network dimensioning stage which besides the primary task of evaluating the financial requirements produces a good starting network solution for the subsequent stages (Stage 1), initial sectorization and configuration of the network (Stage 2) and final network configuration (Stage 3). The proposed framework also solves two fundamental problems, which are cell planning and frequency planning, simultaneously. The feasibility of the final network solutions are then evaluated by OPNET simulator.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Resource allocation technique for powerline network using a modified shuffled frog-leaping algorithm

Resource allocation (RA) techniques should be made efficient and optimized in order to enhance the QoS (power & bit, capacity, scalability) of high-speed networking data applications. This research attempts to further increase the efficiency towards near-optimal performance. RA’s problem involves assignment of subcarriers, power and bit amounts for each user efficiently. Several studies conducted by the Federal Communication Commission have proven that conventional RA approaches are becoming insufficient for rapid demand in networking resulted in spectrum underutilization, low capacity and convergence, also low performance of bit error rate, delay of channel feedback, weak scalability as well as computational complexity make real-time solutions intractable. Mainly due to sophisticated, restrictive constraints, multi-objectives, unfairness, channel noise, also unrealistic when assume perfect channel state is available. The main goal of this work is to develop a conceptual framework and mathematical model for resource allocation using Shuffled Frog-Leap Algorithm (SFLA). Thus, a modified SFLA is introduced and integrated in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. Then SFLA generated random population of solutions (power, bit), the fitness of each solution is calculated and improved for each subcarrier and user. The solution is numerically validated and verified by simulation-based powerline channel. The system performance was compared to similar research works in terms of the system’s capacity, scalability, allocated rate/power, and convergence. The resources allocated are constantly optimized and the capacity obtained is constantly higher as compared to Root-finding, Linear, and Hybrid evolutionary algorithms. The proposed algorithm managed to offer fastest convergence given that the number of iterations required to get to the 0.001% error of the global optimum is 75 compared to 92 in the conventional techniques. Finally, joint allocation models for selection of optima resource values are introduced; adaptive power and bit allocators in OFDM system-based Powerline and using modified SFLA-based TLBO and PSO are propose

Advanced Resource Management Techniques for Next Generation Wireless Networks

The increasing penetration of mobile devices in everyday life is posing a broad range of research challenges to meet such a massive data demand. Mobile users seek connectivity "anywhere, at anytime". In addition, killer applications with multimedia contents, like video transmissions, require larger amounts of resources to cope with tight quality constraints. Spectrum scarcity and interference issues represent the key aspects of next generation wireless networks. Consequently, designing proper resource management solutions is critical. To this aim, we first propose a model to better assess the performance of Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)-based simulated cellular networks. A link abstraction of the downlink data transmission can provide an accurate performance metric at a low computational cost. Our model combines Mutual Information-based multi-carrier compression metrics with Link-Level performance profiles, thus expressing the dependency of the transmitted data Block Error Rate (BLER) on the SINR values and on the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) being assigned. In addition, we aim at evaluating the impact of Jumboframes transmission in LTE networks, which are packets breaking the 1500-byte legacy value. A comparative evaluation is performed based on diverse network configuration criteria, thus highlighting specific limitations. In particular, we observed rapid buffer saturation under certain circumstances, due to the transmission of oversized packets with scarce radio resources. A novel cross-layer approach is proposed to prevent saturation, and thus tune the transmitted packet size with the instantaneous channel conditions, fed back through standard CQI-based procedures. Recent advances in wireless networking introduce the concept of resource sharing as one promising way to enhance the performance of radio communications. As the wireless spectrum is a scarce resource, and its usage is often found to be inefficient, it may be meaningful to design solutions where multiple operators join their efforts, so that wireless access takes place on shared, rather than proprietary to a single operator, frequency bands. In spite of the conceptual simplicity of this idea, the resulting mathematical analysis may be very complex, since it involves analytical representation of multiple wireless channels. Thus, we propose an evaluative tool for spectrum sharing techniques in OFDMA-based wireless networks, where multiple sharing policies can be easily integrated and, consequently, evaluated. On the other hand, relatively to contention-based broadband wireless access, we target an important issue in mobile ad hoc networks: the intrinsic inefficiency of the standard transmission control protocol (TCP), which presents degraded performance mainly due to mechanisms such as congestion control and avoidance. In fact, TCP was originally designed for wired networks, where packet losses indicate congestion. Conversely, channels in wireless networks might vary rapidly, thus most loss events are due to channel errors or link layer contention. We aim at designing a light-weight cross-layer framework which, differently from many other works in the literature, is based on the cognitive network paradigm. It includes an observation phase, i.e., a training set in which the network parameters are collected; a learning phase, in which the information to be used is extracted from the data; a planning phase, in which we define the strategies to trigger; an acting phase, which corresponds to dynamically applying such strategies during network simulations. The next generation mobile infrastructure frontier relies on the concept of heterogeneous networks. However, the existence of multiple types of access nodes poses new challenges such as more stringent interference constraints due to node densification and self-deployed access. Here, we propose methods that aim at extending femto cells coverage range by enabling idle User Equipments (UE) to serve as relays. This way, UEs otherwise connected to macro cells can be offloaded to femto cells through UE relays. A joint resource allocation and user association scheme based on the solutions of a convex optimization problem is proposed. Another challenging issue to be addressed in such scenarios is admission control, which is in charge of ensuring that, when a new resource reservation is accepted, previously connected users continue having their QoS guarantees honored. Thus, we consider different approaches to compute the aggregate projected capacity in OFDMA-based networks, and propose the E-Diophantine solution, whose mathematical foundation is provided along with the performance improvements to be expected, both in accuracy and computational terms

Code-aided iterative techniques in OFDM systems

Inspired by the 'turbo principle', this thesis deals with two iterative technologies in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems: iterative interference cancelation in space-frequency block coded OFDM (SFBC-OFDM) and iterative channel estimation/ tracking in OFDM Access (OFDMA) with particular application to Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) systems. The linear matched filter (MF) decoding in SFBC-OFDM is simple yet obtains maximumlikelihood (ML) performance based on the assumption that the channel frequency response remains constant within a block. However, frequency response variations gives rise to inter-channel interference (lCI). In this thesis, a parallel interference cancelation (PIC) approach with soft iterations will be proposed to iteratively eliminate ICI in G4 SFBC-OFDM. Furthermore, the information from outer convolutional decoder is exploited and fed back to aid the inner PIC process to generate more accurate coded bits for the convolutional decoder. Therefore, inner and outer iterations work in a collaborative way to enhance the performance of interference cancelation. Code-aided iterative channel estimation/tracking has the ability of efficiently improving the quality of estimation/tracking without using additional pilots/training symbols. This technique is particularly applied to OFDMA physical layer ofWiMAX systems according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard. It will be demonstrated that the performance of the pilot-based channel estimation in uplink (UL) transmission and the channel tracking based on the preamble symbol in downlink (DL) transmission can be improved by iterating between the estimator and the detector the useful information from the outer convolutional codes. The above two issues will be discussed in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, and before this, Chapter 2 to Chapter 4 will introduce some background techniques that are used throughout the thesis

Optimized network dimensioning and planning for WiMAX technology

In order to meet demands in mobile broadband and to bridge the digital divide a new technology, namely WiMAX, was introduced in 2004. However, in order to increase the financial return on the investment inWiMAX, service operators need to make every effort in designing and deploying the most cost-effective networks. This thesis presents a novel dimensioning technique for WiMAX technology which takes the dimensioning problem to a new level and produces more accurate results in comparison to the traditional methods. Furthermore, a novel decomposed optimization framework for the WiMAX network planning is introduced which subdivides the overall problem into three distinct stages consisting of the network dimensioning stage which besides the primary task of evaluating the financial requirements produces a good starting network solution for the subsequent stages (Stage 1), initial sectorization and configuration of the network (Stage 2) and final network configuration (Stage 3). The proposed framework also solves two fundamental problems, which are cell planning and frequency planning, simultaneously. The feasibility of the final network solutions are then evaluated by OPNET simulator

Optimizing LDPC codes for a mobile WiMAX system with a saturated transmission amplifier

In mobile communication, the user’s information is transmitted through a wireless communication link that is subjected to a range of deteriorating effects. The quality of the transmission can be presented by the rate of transfer and the reliability of the received stream. The capacity of the communication link can be reached through the use of channel coding. Channel coding is the method of adding redundant information to the user’s information to mitigate the deteriorating effects of the communication link. Mobile WiMAX is a technology that makes use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation to transmit information over a wireless communication channel. The OFDM physical layer has a high peak average to power ratio (PAPR) characteristic that saturates the transmitter’s amplifier quite easily when proper backoff is not made in the transmission power. In this dissertation an optimized graph code was used as an alternative solution to improve the system’s performance in the presence of a saturated transmission’s amplifier. The graph code was derived from a degree distribution given by the density evolution algorithm and provided no extra network overhead to implement. The performance analysis resulted in a factor of 10 improvement in the error floor and a coding gain of 1.5 dB. This was all accomplished with impairments provided by the mobile WiMAX standard in the construction of the graph code.Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2009.Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineeringunrestricte