Energy efficiency in next generation wireless networks: methodologies, solutions and algorithms

Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) networks will offer in the forthcoming years multiple and differentiated services to users with high mobility requirements, connecting via portable or wearable devices which rely on the use of batteries by necessity. Since such devices consume a relatively large fraction of energy for transmitting/receiving data over-the-air, mechanisms are needed to reduce power consumption, in order to increase the lifetime of devices and hence improve user’s satisfaction. Next generation wireless network standards define power saving functions at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, which allow user terminals to switch off the radio transceiver during open traffic sessions for greatest energy consumption reduction. However, enabling power saving usually increases the transmission latency, which can negatively affect the Quality of Service (QoS) experienced by users. On the other hand, imposing stringent QoS requirements may limit the amount of energy that can be saved. The IEEE 802.16e standard defines the sleep mode is power saving mechanism with the purpose of reducing energy consumption. Three different operation classes are provided, each one to serve different class of traffic: class I, best effort traffic, class II real time traffic and class III multicast traffic. Several aspects of the sleep mode are left unspecified, as it is usually done in standards, allowing manufacturers to implement their own proprietary solutions, thus gaining a competitive advantage over the rivals. The work of this thesis is aimed at verifying, the effectiveness of the power saving mechanism proposed into IEEE 802.16e standard, focusing on the mutual interaction between power saving and QoS support. Two types of delay constrained applications with different requirements are considered, i.e., Web and Voice over IP (VoIP). The performance is assessed via detailed packet-level simulation, with respect to several system parameters. To capture the relative contribution of all the factors on the energy- and QoS-related metrics, part of the evaluation is carried out by means of 2k · r! analysis. Our study shows that the sleep mode can achieve significant power consumption reduction, however, when real time traffic is considered a wise configuration of the parameters is mandatory in order to avoid unacceptable degradation of the QoS. Finally, based on the guidelines drawn through the analysis, we extend our contribution beyond a simple evaluation, proposing a power saving aware scheduling framework aimed at reducing further the energy consumption. Our framework integrates with existing scheduling policies that can pursue their original goals, e.g. maximizing throughput or fairness, while improving the energy efficiency of the user terminals. Its effectiveness is assessed through an extensive packet level simulation campaign

Mobile Networks

The growth in the use of mobile networks has come mainly with the third generation systems and voice traffic. With the current third generation and the arrival of the 4G, the number of mobile users in the world will exceed the number of landlines users. Audio and video streaming have had a significant increase, parallel to the requirements of bandwidth and quality of service demanded by those applications. Mobile networks require that the applications and protocols that have worked successfully in fixed networks can be used with the same level of quality in mobile scenarios. Until the third generation of mobile networks, the need to ensure reliable handovers was still an important issue. On the eve of a new generation of access networks (4G) and increased connectivity between networks of different characteristics commonly called hybrid (satellite, ad-hoc, sensors, wired, WIMAX, LAN, etc.), it is necessary to transfer mechanisms of mobility to future generations of networks. In order to achieve this, it is essential to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of current protocols and the diverse topologies to suit the new mobility conditions

On the Merits of Deploying TDM-based Next-Generation PON Solutions in the Access Arena As Multiservice, All Packet-Based 4G Mobile Backhaul RAN Architecture

The phenomenal growth of mobile backhaul capacity required to support the emerging fourth-generation (4G) traffic including mobile WiMAX, cellular Long-Term Evolution (LTE), and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) requires rapid migration from today\u27s legacy circuit switched T1/E1 wireline and microwave backhaul technologies to a new fiber-supported, all-packet-based mobile backhaul infrastructure. Clearly, a cost effective fiber supported all-packet-based mobile backhaul radio access network (RAN) architecture that is compatible with these inherently distributed 4G RAN architectures is needed to efficiently scale current mobile backhaul networks. However, deploying a green fiber-based mobile backhaul infrastructure is a costly proposition mainly due to the significant cost associated with digging the trenches in which the fiber is to be laid. These, along with the inevitable trend towards all-IP/Ethernet transport protocols and packet switched networks, have prompted many carriers around the world to consider the potential of utilizing the existing fiber-based Passive Optical Network (PON) access infrastructure as an all-packet-based converged fixed-mobile optical access networking transport architecture to backhaul both mobile and typical wireline traffic. Passive Optical Network (PON)-based fiber-to-the-curb/home (FTTC/FTTH) access networks are being deployed around the globe based on two Time-Division Multiplexed (TDM) standards: ITU G.984 Gigabit PON (GPON) and IEEE 802.ah Ethernet PON (EPON). A PON connects a group of Optical Network Units (ONUs) located at the subscriber premises to an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) located at the service provider\u27s facility. It is the purpose of this thesis to examine the technological requirements and assess the performance analysis and feasibility for deploying TDM-based next-generation (NG) PON solutions in the access arena as multiservice, all packet-based 4G mobile backhaul RAN and/or converged fixed-mobile optical networking architecture. Specifically, this work proposes and devises a simple and cost-effective 10G-EPON-based 4G mobile backhaul RAN architecture that efficiently transports and supports a wide range of existing and emerging fixed-mobile advanced multimedia applications and services along with the diverse quality of service (QoS), rate, and reliability requirements set by these services. The techno-economics merits of utilizing PON-based 4G RAN architecture versus that of traditional 4G (mobile WiMAX and LTE) RAN will be thoroughly examine and quantified. To achieve our objective, we utilize the existing fiber-based PON access infrastructure with novel ring-based distribution access network and wireless-enabled OLT and ONUs as the multiservice packet-based 4G mobile backhaul RAN infrastructure. Specifically, to simplify the implementation of such a complex undertaking, this work is divided into two sequential phases. In the first phase, we examine and quantify the overall performance of the standalone ring-based 10G-EPON architecture (just the wireline part without overlaying/incorporating the wireless part (4G RAN)) via modeling and simulations. We then assemble the basic building blocks, components, and sub-systems required to build up a proof-of-concept prototype testbed for the standalone ring-based EPON architecture. The testbed will be used to verify and demonstrate the performance of the standalone architecture, specifically, in terms of power budget, scalability, and reach. In the second phase, we develop an integrated framework for the efficient interworking between the two wireline PON and 4G mobile access technologies, particularly, in terms of unified network control and management (NCM) operations. Specifically, we address the key technical challenges associated with tailoring a typically centralized PON-based access architecture to interwork with and support a distributed 4G RAN architecture and associated radio NCM operations. This is achieved via introducing and developing several salient-networking innovations that collectively enable the standalone EPON architecture to support a fully distributed 4G mobile backhaul RAN and/or a truly unified NG-PON-4G access networking architecture. These include a fully distributed control plane that enables intercommunication among the access nodes (ONUs/BSs) as well as signaling, scheduling algorithms, and handoff procedures that operate in a distributed manner. Overall, the proposed NG-PON architecture constitutes a complete networking paradigm shift from the typically centralized PON\u27s architecture and OLT-based NCM operations to a new disruptive fully distributed PON\u27s architecture and NCM operations in which all the typically centralized OLT-based PON\u27s NCM operations are migrated to and independently implemented by the access nodes (ONUs) in a distributed manner. This requires migrating most of the typically centralized wireline and radio control and user-plane functionalities such as dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA), queue management and packet scheduling, handover control, radio resource management, admission control, etc., typically implemented in today\u27s OLT/RNC, to the access nodes (ONUs/4G BSs). It is shown that the overall performance of the proposed EPON-based 4G backhaul including both the RAN and Mobile Packet Core (MPC) {Evolved Packet Core (EPC) per 3GPP LTE\u27s standard} is significantly augmented compared to that of the typical 4G RAN, specifically, in terms of handoff capability, signaling overhead, overall network throughput and latency, and QoS support. Furthermore, the proposed architecture enables redistributing some of the intelligence and NCM operations currently centralized in the MPC platform out into the access nodes of the mobile RAN. Specifically, as this work will show, it enables offloading sizable fraction of the mobile signaling as well as actual local upstream traffic transport and processing (LTE bearers switch/set-up, retain, and tear-down and associated signaling commands from the BSs to the EPC and vice-versa) from the EPC to the access nodes (ONUs/BSs). This has a significant impact on the performance of the EPC. First, it frees up a sizable fraction of the badly needed network resources as well as processing on the overloaded centralized serving nodes (AGW) in the MPC. Second, it frees up capacity and sessions on the typically congested mobile backhaul from the BSs to the EPC and vice-versa

이동통신 네트워크에서의 QoS 패킷 스케줄러 설계 및 고정 릴레이 관련 주파수 재사용 관리 기법 연구

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 공과대학 전기·컴퓨터공학부, 2017. 8. 박세웅.The main interest of this paper is to understand a basic approach to provide more efficient method to allocate radio resources in the mobile communication systems, especially in which radio resources could be allocated by both frequency and time division multiple access. So, we consider OFDMA system and the ideas described in this paper could be easily applied to the current and next generation mobile communication systems. This paper studies two basic research themesa QoS packet scheduler design and fixed relay resource management policies based on frequency reuse in mobile networks. This paper considers novel scheduler structures that are executable in the environments of multiple traffic classes and multiple frequency channels. To design a scheduler structure for multiple traffic classes, we first propose a scheduler selection rule that uses the priority of traffic class and the urgency level of each packet. Then we relax the barrier of traffic class priority when a high priority packet has some room in waiting time. This gives us a chance to exploit multiuser diversity, thereby giving more flexibility in scheduling. Our considered scheduler can achieve higher throughput compared to the simple extension of conventional modified largest weighted delay first (MLWDF) scheduler while maintaining the delay performance for QoS class traffic. We also design a scheduler structure for multiple frequency channels that chooses a good channel for each user whenever possible to exploit frequency diversity. The simulation results show that our proposed scheduler increases the total system throughput by up to 50% without degrading the delay performance. This paper also introduces radio resource management schemes based on frequency reuse for fixed relay stations in mobile cellular networks. Mobile stations in the cell boundary experience poor spectral efficiency due to the path loss and interference from adjacent cells. Therefore, satisfying QoS requirements of each MS at the cell boundary has been an important issue. To resolve this spectral efficiency problem at the cell boundary, deploying fixed relay stations has been actively considered. In this paper, we consider radio resource management policies based on frequency reuse for fixed relays that include path selection rules, frequency reuse pattern matching, and frame transmission pattern matching among cells. We evaluate performance of each policy by varying parameter values such as relay stations position and frequency reuse factor. Through Monte Carlo simulations and mathematical analysis, we suggest some optimal parameter values for each policy and discuss some implementation issues that need to be considered in practical deployment of relay stations. We also surveyed further works that many researchers have been studied to tackle the similar problems of QoS scheduling and resource management for relay with our proposed work. We expect that there would be more future works by priority-based approach and energy-aware approach for QoS scheduling. Also current trends such as the rising interest in IoT system, discussion of densification of cells and D2D communications in 5G systems make us expect that the researches in these topics related with relays would be popular in the future. We also think that there are many interesting problems regarding QoS support and resource management still waiting to be tackled, especially combined with recent key topics in mobile communication systems such as 5G standardization, AI and NFV/SDN.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 QoS Packet Scheduler 4 1.2 Fixed Relay Frequency Reuse Policies 6 Chapter 2 Scheduler Design for Multiple Traffic Classes in OFDMA Networks 10 2.1 Proposed Schedulers 10 2.1.1 Scheduler Structures 12 2.1.2 MLWDF scheduler for Multiple Traffic Classes 13 2.1.3 Joint Scheduler 13 2.2 System Model 18 2.3 Performance Evaluation 19 2.3.1 Schedulers for Multiple Traffic Classes 20 2.3.2 Impact of Scheduler Selection Rule 25 2.3.3 Frame Based Schedulers 27 2.3.4 Impact of Partial Feedback 30 2.3.5 Adaptive Threshold Version Schedulers 33 2.4 Conclusion 36 Chapter 3 Frequency Reuse Policies for Fixed Relays in Cellular Networks 40 3.1 System Model 40 3.1.1 Frame Transmission and Frequency Reuse Patterns among RSs 42 3.1.2 Positioning of RSs and Channel Capacity 44 3.1.3 Area Spectral Efficiency 45 3.2 Radio Resource Management Policies Based on Frequency Reuse 46 3.2.1 Path Selection Rule 46 3.2.2 Frequency Reuse and Frame Transmission Pattern Matchings among Cells 52 3.3 Monte Carlo Simulation and Results 53 3.4 Consideration of Practical Issues 80 3.5 Conclusion 81 Chapter 4 Surveys of Further Works 83 4.1 Further Works on QoS Schedulers 83 4.1.1 WiMAX Schedulers 85 4.1.2 LTE Schedulers 92 4.2 Further Works on Radio Resource Management in Relay Systems 98 4.3 Future Challenges 100 Chapter 5 Conclusion 104 Bibliography 107 초록 127Docto