Final report on the evaluation of RRM/CRRM algorithms

Deliverable public del projecte EVERESTThis deliverable provides a definition and a complete evaluation of the RRM/CRRM algorithms selected in D11 and D15, and evolved and refined on an iterative process. The evaluation will be carried out by means of simulations using the simulators provided at D07, and D14.Preprin

Multi-hop relaying networks in TDD-CDMA systems

The communications phenomena at the end of the 20th century were the Internet and mobile telephony. Now, entering the new millennium, an effective combination of the two should become a similarly everyday experience. Current limitations include scarce, exorbitantly priced bandwidth and considerable power consumption at higher data rates. Relaying systems use several shorter communications links instead of the conventional point-to-point transmission. This can allow for a lower power requirement and, due to the shorter broadcast range, bandwidth re-use may be more efficiently exploited. Code division multiple access (CDMA) is emerging as one of the most common methods for multi user access. Combining CDMA with time division duplexing (TDD) provides a system that supports asymmetric communications and relaying cost-effectively. The capacity of CDMA may be reduced by interference from other users, hence it is important that the routing of relays is performed to minimise interference at receivers. This thesis analyses relaying within the context of TDD-CDMA systems. Such a system was included in the initial draft of the European 3G specifications as opportunity driven multiple access (ODMA). Results are presented which demonstrate that ODMA allows for a more flexible capacity coverage trade-off than non-relaying systems. An investigation into the interference characteristics of ODMA shows that most interference occurs close to the base station (BS). Hence it is possible that in-cell routing to avoid the BS may increase capacity. As a result, a novel hybrid network topology is presented. ODMA uses path loss as a metric for routing. This technique does not avoid interference, and hence ODMA shows no capacity increase with the hybrid network. Consequently, a novel interference based routing algorithm and admission control are developed. When at least half the network is engaged in in-cell transmission, the interference based system allows for a higher capacity than a conventional cellular system. In an attempt to reduce transmitted power, a novel congestion based routing algorithm is introduced. This system is shown to have lower power requirement than any other analysed system and, when more than 2 hops are allowed, the highest capacity. The allocation of time slots affects system performance through co-channel interference. To attempt to minimise this, a novel dynamic channel allocation (DCA) algorithm is developed based on the congestion routing algorithm. By combining the global minimisation of system congestion in both time slots and routing, the DCA further increases throughput. Implementing congestion routed relaying, especially with DCA, in any TDD-CDMA system with in-cell calls can show significant performance improvements over conventional cellular systems

CROSS-LAYER RESOURCE ALLOCATION ALGORITHMS IN WIRELESS NETWORKS WITH ANTENNA ARRAYS

The application of antenna array is a promising approach to improving the capacity of a wireless network. In this dissertation, we study the application of antenna arrays at the base stations (BSs) in a wireless cellular network. We focus on the downlink transmission. This application requires the BSs be aware of the locations and channel conditions of the mobile users. Towards this end, we propose a family of MAC layer protocols that enable a base station to learn the locations and channel conditions of a number of intended users. Our simulation results demonstrate that the inter-cell interference significantly degrades the system performance of the previously proposed beamforming algorithms in terms of packet loss probability (PLP) in a multi-cell environment. To cope with inter-cell interference, we propose beamforming algorithms that achieve target PLP in the presence of random inter-cell interference. The application of antenna array on the physical layer has great impact on the protocols of higher layers. Novel MAC algorithms and protocols need to be designed to take advantage of the capacity enhancement provided by antenna array on the physical layer. In this dissertation, the issue of designing a downlink scheduling policy with base station antenna arrays is studied. We derive an optimal scheduling policy that achieves the throughput region. Then, based on the structure of the derived optimal policy, we propose two heuristic scheduling algorithms. The interference experienced by each node in an ad-hoc network exhibits stochastic nature similar to the inter-cell interference in a cellular network. We propose a power control algorithm in a distributed scheme to achieve target PLP. Furthermore, the proposed power control algorithm is shown to minimize the aggregate transmission power given the PLP constraint. In the above problems, we mainly consider the non-real-time traffic where throughput is the QoS parameter of concern. On the other hand, delay is an important QoS parameter for real time traffic. In this dissertation, we also consider the scheduling of real time packets by a BS with awareness of physical layer channel conditions of different users

Resource Allocation in Relay-based Satellite and Wireless Communication Networks

A two-level bandwidth allocation scheme is proposed for a slotted Time-Division Multiple Access high data rate relay satellite communication link to provide efficient and fair channel utilization. The long-term allocation is implemented to provide per-flow/per-user Quality-of-Service guarantees and shape the average behavior. The time-varying short-term allocation is determined by solving an optimal timeslot scheduling problem based on the requests and other parameters. Through extensive simulations, the performance of a suitable MAC protocol with two-level bandwidth allocation is analyzed and compared with that of the existing static fixed-assignment scheme in terms of end-to-end delay and successful throughput. It is also shown that pseudo-proportional fairness is achieved for our hybrid protocol. We study rate control systems with heterogeneous time-varying propagation delays, based on analytic fluid flow models composed of first-order delay-differential equations. Both single-flow and multi-flow system models are analyzed, with special attention paid to the Mitra-Seery algorithm. The stationary solutions are investigated. For the fluctuating solutions, their dynamic behavior is analyzed in detail, analytically and numerically, in terms of amplitude, transient behavior, fairness and adaptability, etc.. Especially the effects of heterogeneous time-varying delays are investigated. It is shown that with proper parameter design the system can achieve stable behavior with close to pointwise proportional fairness among flows. Finally we investigate the resource allocation in 802.16j multi-hop relay systems with rate fairness constraints for two mutually exclusive options: transparent and non-transparent relay systems (T-RS and NT-RS). Single-Input Single-Output and Multi-Input Multi-Output antenna systems are considered in the links between the Base Station (BS) and Relay Stations (RS). 1 and 3 RSs per sector are considered. The Mobile Station (MS) association rule, which determines the access station (BS or RS) for each MS, is also studied. Two rules: Highest MCS scheme with the highest modulation and coding rate, and Highest (Mod) ESE scheme with the highest (modified) effective spectrum efficiency, are studied along with the optimal rule that maximizes system capacity with rate fairness constraints. Our simulation results show that the highest capacity is always achieved by NT-RS with 3 RSs per sector in distributed scheduling mode, and that the Highest (Mod) ESE scheme performs closely to the optimal rule in terms of system capacity

QoS Scheduling in IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access Networks

With the exploding increase of mobile users and the release of new wireless applications, the high bandwidth requirement has been taking as a main concern for the design and development of the wireless techniques. There is no doubt that broadband wireless access with the support of heterogeneous kinds of applications is the trend in the next generation wireless networks. As a promising broadband wireless access standard, IEEE 802.16 has attracted extensive attentions from both industry and academia due to its high data rate and the inherent media access control (MAC) mechanism, which takes the service differentiation and quality of service (QoS) provisioning into account. To achieve service differentiation and QoS satisfaction for heterogenous applications is a very complicated issue. It refers to many fields, such as connection admission control (CAC), congestion control, routing algorithm, MAC protocol, and scheduling scheme. Among these fields, packet scheduling plays one of the most important roles in fulfilling service differentiation and QoS provisioning. It decides the order of packet transmissions, and provides mechanisms for the resource allocation and multiplexing at the packet level to ensure that different types of applications meet their service requirements and the network maintains a high resource utilization. In this thesis, we focus on the packet scheduling for difficult types of services in IEEE 802.16 networks, where unicast and mulitcast scheduling are investigated. For unicast scheduling, two types of services are considered: non-real-time polling service (nrtPS) and best effort (BE) service. We propose a flexible and efficient resource allocation and scheduling framework for nrtPS applications to achieve a tradeoff between the delivery delay and resource utilization, where automatic repeat request (ARQ) mechanisms and the adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) technique are jointly considered. For BE service, considering the heterogeneity of subscriber stations (SSs) in IEEE 802.16 networks, we propose the weighted proportional fairness scheduling scheme to achieve the flexible scheduling and resource allocation among SSs based on their traffic demands/patterns. For multicast scheduling, a cooperative multicast scheduling is proposed to achieve high throughput and reliable transmission. By using the two-phase transmission model to exploit the spatial diversity gain in the multicast scenario, the proposed scheduling scheme can significantly improve the throughput not only for all multicast groups, but also for each group member. Analytical models are developed to investigate the performance of the proposed schemes in terms of some important performance measurements, such as throughput, resource utilization, and service probability. Extensive simulations are conducted to illustrate the efficient of the proposed schemes and the accuracy of the analytical models. The research work should provide meaningful guidelines for the system design and the selection of operational parameters, such as the number of TV channels supported by the network, the achieved video quality of each SS in the network, and the setting of weights for SSs under different BE traffic demands

Resource Allocation and Service Management in Next Generation 5G Wireless Networks

The accelerated evolution towards next generation networks is expected to dramatically increase mobile data traffic, posing challenging requirements for future radio cellular communications. User connections are multiplying, whilst data hungry content is dominating wireless services putting significant pressure on network's available spectrum. Ensuring energy-efficient and low latency transmissions, while maintaining advanced Quality of Service (QoS) and high standards of user experience are of profound importance in order to address diversifying user prerequisites and ensure superior and sustainable network performance. At the same time, the rise of 5G networks and the Internet of Things (IoT) evolution is transforming wireless infrastructure towards enhanced heterogeneity, multi-tier architectures and standards, as well as new disruptive telecommunication technologies. The above developments require a rethinking of how wireless networks are designed and operate, in conjunction with the need to understand more holistically how users interact with the network and with each other. In this dissertation, we tackle the problem of efficient resource allocation and service management in various network topologies under a user-centric approach. In the direction of ad-hoc and self-organizing networks where the decision making process lies at the user level, we develop a novel and generic enough framework capable of solving a wide array of problems with regards to resource distribution in an adaptable and multi-disciplinary manner. Aiming at maximizing user satisfaction and also achieve high performance - low power resource utilization, the theory of network utility maximization is adopted, with the examined problems being formulated as non-cooperative games. The considered games are solved via the principles of Game Theory and Optimization, while iterative and low complexity algorithms establish their convergence to steady operational outcomes, i.e., Nash Equilibrium points. This thesis consists a meaningful contribution to the current state of the art research in the field of wireless network optimization, by allowing users to control multiple degrees of freedom with regards to their transmission, considering mobile customers and their strategies as the key elements for the amelioration of network's performance, while also adopting novel technologies in the resource management problems. First, multi-variable resource allocation problems are studied for multi-tier architectures with the use of femtocells, addressing the topic of efficient power and/or rate control, while also the topic is examined in Visible Light Communication (VLC) networks under various access technologies. Next, the problem of customized resource pricing is considered as a separate and bounded resource to be optimized under distinct scenarios, which expresses users' willingness to pay instead of being commonly implemented by a central administrator in the form of penalties. The investigation is further expanded by examining the case of service provider selection in competitive telecommunication markets which aim to increase their market share by applying different pricing policies, while the users model the selection process by behaving as learning automata under a Machine Learning framework. Additionally, the problem of resource allocation is examined for heterogeneous services where users are enabled to dynamically pick the modules needed for their transmission based on their preferences, via the concept of Service Bundling. Moreover, in this thesis we examine the correlation of users' energy requirements with their transmission needs, by allowing the adaptive energy harvesting to reflect the consumed power in the subsequent information transmission in Wireless Powered Communication Networks (WPCNs). Furthermore, in this thesis a fresh perspective with respect to resource allocation is provided assuming real life conditions, by modeling user behavior under Prospect Theory. Subjectivity in decisions of users is introduced in situations of high uncertainty in a more pragmatic manner compared to the literature, where they behave as blind utility maximizers. In addition, network spectrum is considered as a fragile resource which might collapse if over-exploited under the principles of the Tragedy of the Commons, allowing hence users to sense risk and redefine their strategies accordingly. The above framework is applied in different cases where users have to select between a safe and a common pool of resources (CPR) i.e., licensed and unlicensed bands, different access technologies, etc., while also the impact of pricing in protecting resource fragility is studied. Additionally, the above resource allocation problems are expanded in Public Safety Networks (PSNs) assisted by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), while also aspects related to network security against malign user behaviors are examined. Finally, all the above problems are thoroughly evaluated and tested via a series of arithmetic simulations with regards to the main characteristics of their operation, as well as against other approaches from the literature. In each case, important performance gains are identified with respect to the overall energy savings and increased spectrum utilization, while also the advantages of the proposed framework are mirrored in the improvement of the satisfaction and the superior Quality of Service of each user within the network. Lastly, the flexibility and scalability of this work allow for interesting applications in other domains related to resource allocation in wireless networks and beyond

Proceedings of the Third International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1993)

Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial cellular communications services. While the first and second International Mobile Satellite Conferences (IMSC) mostly concentrated on technical advances, this Third IMSC also focuses on the increasing worldwide commercial activities in Mobile Satellite Services. Because of the large service areas provided by such systems, it is important to consider political and regulatory issues in addition to technical and user requirements issues. Topics covered include: the direct broadcast of audio programming from satellites; spacecraft technology; regulatory and policy considerations; advanced system concepts and analysis; propagation; and user requirements and applications

Interference management in wireless cellular networks

In wireless networks, there is an ever-increasing demand for higher system throughputs, along with growing expectation for all users to be available to multimedia and Internet services. This is especially difficult to maintain at the cell-edge. Therefore, a key challenge for future orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based networks is inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC). With full frequency reuse, small inter-site distances (ISDs), and heterogeneous architectures, coping with co-channel interference (CCI) in such networks has become paramount. Further, the needs for more energy efficient, or “green,” technologies is growing. In this light, Uplink Interference Protection (ULIP), a technique to combat CCI via power reduction, is investigated. By reducing the transmit power on a subset of resource blocks (RBs), the uplink interference to neighbouring cells can be controlled. Utilisation of existing reference signals limits additional signalling. Furthermore, cell-edge performance can be significantly improved through a priority class scheduler, enhancing the throughput fairness of the system. Finally, analytic derivations reveal ULIP guarantees enhanced energy efficiency for all mobile stations (MSs), with the added benefit that overall system throughput gains are also achievable. Following this, a novel scheduler that enhances both network spectral and energy efficiency is proposed. In order to facilitate the application of Pareto optimal power control (POPC) in cellular networks, a simple feasibility condition based on path gains and signal-to-noise-plus- interference ratio (SINR) targets is derived. Power Control Scheduling (PCS) maximises the number of concurrently transmitting MSs and minimises their transmit powers. In addition, cell/link removal is extended to OFDMA operation. Subsequently, an SINR variation technique, Power SINR Scheduling (PSS), is employed in femto-cell networks where full bandwidth users prohibit orthogonal resource allocation. Extensive simulation results show substantial gains in system throughput and energy efficiency over conventional power control schemes. Finally, the evolution of future systems to heterogeneous networks (HetNets), and the consequently enhanced network management difficulties necessitate the need for a distributed and autonomous ICIC approach. Using a fuzzy logic system, locally available information is utilised to allocate time-frequency resources and transmit powers such that requested rates are satisfied. An empirical investigation indicates close-to-optimal system performance at significantly reduced complexity (and signalling). Additionally, base station (BS) reference signals are appropriated to provide autonomous cell association amongst multiple co-located BSs. Detailed analytical signal modelling of the femto-cell and macro/pico-cell layouts reveal high correlation to experimentally gathered statistics. Further, superior performance to benchmarks in terms of system throughput, energy efficiency, availability and fairness indicate enormous potential for future wireless networks

Analysis of MAC Strategies for Underwater Acoustic Networks

En esta tesis presentamos los protocolos MAC diseñados para redes acústicas subacuáticas, clasificándolos en amplias categorías, proporcionando técnicas de medición de rendimiento y análisis comparativo para seleccionar el mejor algoritmo MAC para aplicaciones específicas. Floor Acquisition Multiple Access (FAMA) es un protocolo MAC que se propuso para redes acústicas submarinas como medio para resolver los problemas de terminales ocultos y expuestos. Una versión modificada, Slotted FAMA, tenía como objetivo proporcionar ahorros de energía mediante el uso de ranuras de tiempo, eliminando así la necesidad de paquetes de control excesivamente largos en FAMA. Sin embargo, se ha observado que, debido al alto retraso de propagación en estas redes, el coste de perder un ACK es muy alto y tiene un impacto significativo en el rendimiento. Los mecanismos MultiACK y EarlyACK han sido analizados para el protocolo MACA, para mejorar su eficiencia. El mecanismo MultiACK aumenta la probabilidad de recibir al menos un paquete ACK al responder con un tren de paquetes ACK, mientras que el mecanismo EarlyACK evita la repetición de todo el ciclo de contención y transmisión de datos RTS / CTS enviando un ACK temprano. En esta investigación se presenta un análisis matemático de las dos variantes, los mecanismos MultiACK y EarlyACK, en Slotted FAMA. La investigación incluye las expresiones analíticas modificadas así como los resultados numéricos. Las simulaciones se llevaron a cabo utilizando ns-3. Los resultados han sido probados y validados utilizando Excel y MATLAB. La evaluación del rendimiento de S-FAMA con dos variantes mostró un factor de mejora del 65,05% en la probabilidad de recibir un ACK correctamente utilizando el mecanismo MultiACK y del 60,58% en la prevención de la repetición del ciclo completo, con EarlyACK. El impacto de este factor de mejora en el retardo, el tamaño del paquete de datos y el rendimiento también se analiza. La energía de transmisión desperdiciada y consumida en los mecanismos MultiACK y EarlyACK se analizan y comparan con S-FAMA. El rendimiento se ha evaluado, alcanzando una mejora en ambos casos, en comparación con S-FAMA. Estos mecanismos tendrán una utilidad práctica en caso de pérdida de ACK, al ahorrar energía y tiempo en períodos críticos. Fecha de lectura de Tesis Doctoral: 28 septiembre 2018.Esta tesis presenta una investigación sobre los protocolos MAC utilizados en la comunicación subacuática para explorar el mundo submarino. Los protocolos MAC ayudan en el acceso al medio compartido y la recopilación de datos de los océanos, para monitorizar el clima y la contaminación, la prevención de catástrofes, la navegación asistida, la vigilancia estratégica y la exploración de los recursos minerales. Esta investigación beneficiará a sectores como las industrias militares, de petróleo y gas, pesquerías, compañías de instrumentación subacuática, organismos de investigación, etc. El protocolo MAC afecta la vida útil de las redes inalámbricas de sensores. La eficiencia energética de las redes acústicas submarinas se ve gravemente afectada por las propiedades típicas de la propagación de las ondas acústicas. Los largos retrasos de propagación y las colisiones de paquetes de datos dificultan la transmisión de los paquetes de datos, que contienen información útil para que los usuarios realicen tareas de supervisión colectivas. El objetivo de este estudio es proponer nuevos mecanismos para protocolos MAC diseñados para funcionar en redes acústicas submarinas, con el propósito de mejorar su rendimiento. Para alcanzar ese objetivo es necesario realizar un análisis comparativo de los protocolos existentes. Lo que además sienta un procedimiento metodológicamente correcto para realizar esa comparación. Como la comunicación subacuática depende de ondas acústicas, en el diseño de los protocolos de MAC submarinos surgen varios desafíos como latencia prolongada, ancho de banda limitado, largas demoras en la propagación, grandes tasas de error de bit, pérdidas momentáneas en las conexiones, severo efecto multicamino y desvanecimientos. Los protocolos MAC terrestres, si se implementan directamente, funcionarán de manera ineficiente