Heterogeneous Wireless Networks QoE Framework

With the appearance of small cells and the move of mobile networks towards an all-IP 4G network, the convergence of these with Wi-Fi becomes a possibility which at the same time opens the path to achieve what will become 5G connectivity. This thesis describes the evolution of the different mainstream wireless technologies deployed around the world and how they can interact, and provides tools to use this convergence to achieve the foreseen requirements expected in a 5G environment and the ideal user experience. Several topics were identified as needing attention: handover between heterogeneous networks, security of large numbers of small cells connected via a variety of backhaul technologies to the core networks, edge content distribution to improve latency, improvement of the service provided in challenging radio environments and interference between licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Within these topics a contribution was made to improve the current status by analysing the unaddressed issues and coming up with potential improvements that were tested in trials or lab environment. The main contributions from the study have been: 1. A patent in the wireless security domain that reuses the fact that overlapping coverage is and will be available and protects against man in the middle attacks (Section 5.3). 2. A patent in the content distribution domain that manages to reduce the cost to deliver content within a mobile network by looking for the shortest path to the requested content (Section 6.3). 3. Improvements and interoperability test of 802.21 standard which improves the seamlessness of handovers (Section 4.2). 4. 2 infill trials which focus on how to improve the user experience in those challenging conditions (Sections 7.2 and 7.3). 5. An interference study with Wi-Fi 2.4GHz for the newly allocated spectrum for 4G (Section 8.2). This thesis demonstrates some of the improvements required in current wireless networks to evolve towards 5G and achieve the coverage, service, user experience, latency and security requirements expected from the next generation mobile technology

Proposal of C4MS and inherent technical challenges – D3.1

Deliverable D3.1 del projecte Europeu OneFIT (ICT-2009-257385)The scope of OneFIT is on Opportunistic etworks and Cognitive Management Systems for Efficient Application Provision in the uture Internet. This document contains a proposal of Control Channels for Coordination of Cognitive Management Systems (C4MS) which enables delivery of guidance/assistance information from infrastructure towards the Opportunistic Networks and provides means for the management of Opportunistic Networks. This document defines first messages and elementary procedures for the C4MS as well as it identifies a preliminary set of information which is to be conveyed over C4MS. The document introduces also the inherent technical challenges related to the C4MS proposal.Postprint (published version

OneFIT functional and system architecture - D2.2

Deliverable D2.2 del projecte Europeu OneFIT (ICT-2009-257385)This document presents the OneFIT functional and system architecture for the management and control of infrastructure coordinated opportunistic networks (ONs). The most relevant building blocks "Cognitive management System for the Coordination of the Infrastructure" (CSCI) and the "Cognitive Management system for the Opportunistic Network" (CMON) are described.Postprint (published version

Network-driven handover in 5G

Currently, users’ expectations regarding technological performance are constantly increasing. An example of this is the growing consumption of multimedia content via the Internet. Multimedia applications with a variable number of users/requests have variable demand over time that may expose the limitation of the network channels. This may cause a problem of demand mobility generated by the service/application. Each generation of mobile networks has specific handover processes, which in the case of 4G can be controlled according to the applications requirements, with the possibility of multiconnectivity. This process was massified in 5G. The main contribution of this dissertation is the development and analysis of decision models for controlling the video streaming and user association to a BS in the network architecture. The scenario considered refers to a football stadium with multiple points of view – video streams – that each spectator can request to view on their cell phone or tablet. The developed simulator models the stadium scenario using a combination of services, which occur on the 5G network. Vertical handover generated by the network is used,aidedbynetworkslicing. Thenetworkslicingactsinthepartofthebandwidthdivision between the different antennas and allows the throughput of the different broadcast (FeMBMS)channelsto becontrolledbytheservice -theradionetworkcapacitylimitsthe throughput. The results obtained in a case of 80000 spectators who select different beams over time, considering8basestations(BS),showthatthequalityofexperienceishighonlywhenthe handover and the control of beam diffusion by BS are managed according to the application requirements. The network recovers from huge peaks by handling as many requests at once as possible. Instead of the user only getting the steam in a good quality or not getting it at all, the network performs a best-effort solution of downgrading the quality of multicasting in order to expend less resources with the same quantity of requests. The network state is taken into consideration. Although there are load peaks on the network, it is never congested.Atualmente, as expectativas dos utilizadores em relação à capacidade tecnológica não param de aumentar. Exemplo disso é o crescente consumo de conteúdo multimédia através da Internet. Aplicações multimédia com número variável de utilizadores e pedidos têm um fluxo de serviço variável ao longo do tempo. Esta variância pode expor a limitação de canais de rede, que consequentemente pode causar um problema de mobilidade gerado pelo serviço/aplicação. Cada geração de redes móveis possui processos de handover de utilizadores específicos, que no caso da geração 4G passou a ser controlado em função das aplicações, com a possibilidade de multiconectividade. Este processo foi massificado no 5G. A principal contribuição desta dissertação é o desenvolvimento e análise de modelos de decisão para controlar a difusão de vídeo e a associação de utilizadores à rede rádio na arquitetura da rede. O cenário considerado reflete um estádio de futebol com vários pontos de vista - diferentes feixes de vídeo - que cada espectador pode solicitar e visualizar no seu telemóvel ou tablet. O simulador desenvolvido modela o cenário do estádio usando uma combinação de serviços, que ocorrem na rede 5G. É usado handover vertical gerado pela rede auxiliado por network slicing que atua na parte da divisão da largura de banda entre as diferentes antenas e permite que a taxa de débito dos diferentes canais de difusão (FeMBMS) seja controlada pelo serviço - a capacidade da rede rádio limita a taxa de transferência. Os resultados obtidos no caso de 80000 espectadores que selecionam diferentes feixes ao longo do tempo, considerando 8 estações base (BS), mostram que a qualidade de experiência somente é elevada quando o handover e o controlo da difusão de feixes pelas BS são geridos de acordo com os requisitos da aplicação. A rede recupera a estabilidade após enormes picos de transferência gerindo os seus recursos. Em vez do utilizador ser prejudicado na totalidade quando a rede não tem recursos e ser privado de obter serviço, é utilizado um processo alternativo em que a rede diminui a qualidade de multicasting, gastando menos recursos com a mesma quantidade de pedidos. O estado da rede é sempre tido em consideração - embora hajam picos de carga na rede, esta nunca fica congestionada

Optimisation of Traffic Steering for Heterogeneous Mobile Networks

Mobile networks have changed from circuit switched to IP-based mobile wireless packet switched networks. This paradigm shift led to new possibilities and challenges. The development of new capabilities based on IP-based networks is ongoing and raises new problems that have to be tackled, for example, the heterogeneity of current radio access networks and the wide range of data rates, coupled with user requirements and behaviour. A typical example of this shift is the nature of traffic, which is currently mostly data-based; further, forecasts based on market and usage trends indicate a data traffic increase of nearly 11 times between 2013 and 2018. The majority of this data traffic is predicted to be multimedia traffic, such as video streaming and live video streaming combined with voice traffic, all prone to delay, jitter, and packet loss and demanding high data rates and a high Quality of Service (QoS) to enable the provision of valuable service to the end-user. While the demands on the network are increasing, the end-user devices become more mobile and end-user demand for the capability of being always on, anytime and anywhere. The combination of end-user devices mobility, the required services, and the significant traffic loads generated by all the end-users leads to a pressing demand for adequate measures to enable the fulfilment of these requirements. The aim of this research is to propose an architecture which provides smart, intelligent and per end-user device individualised traffic steering for heterogeneous mobile networks to cope with the traffic volume and to fulfil the new requirements on QoS, mobility, and real-time capabilities. The proposed architecture provides traffic steering mechanisms based on individual context data per end-user device enabling the generation of individual commands and recommendations. In order to provide valuable services for the end-user, the commands and recommendations are distributed to the end-user devices in real-time. The proposed architecture does not require any proprietary protocols to facilitate its integration into the existing network infrastructure of a mobile network operator. The proposed architecture has been evaluated through a number of use cases. A proof-of-concept of the proposed architecture, including its core functionality, was implemented using the ns-3 network simulator. The simulation results have shown that the proposed architecture achieves improvements for traffic steering including traffic offload and handover. Further use cases have demonstrated that it is possible to achieve benefits in multiple other areas, such as for example improving the energy efficiency, improving frequency interference management, and providing additional or more accurate data to 3rd party to improve their services

Protocols, performance assessment and consolidation on interfaces for standardization – D3.3

The following document presents a detailed description of the protocol for the “ Control Channels for the Cooperation of the Cognitive Management System ” (C4MS) which provides the necessary means to enable proper management of Opportunistic Networks. Additionally, the document defines the methodology that was applied for the purpose of signalling evaluation. The protocol overview presented in section 2 of the main document, provides the C4MS principles. The section includes, among others, the description of the protocol identifiers, procedures, protocol state machines and message format as well as the security asp ects. Section 3 provides a high-level description of the data structures defined within the scope of OneFIT project. The data structures are classified into five categories, i.e.: Profiles, Context, Decisions,Knowledge and Policies. The high level description is complemented by some detailed data structures in the Appendix to D3.3 Section 3[10]. Section 4 provides details on the evaluation methodology applied for the purpose of C4MS performance assessment. The section presents the evaluation plan along with a description of metrics that are to be exploited in the scope of WP3. Section 5 and Section 6 are composed of the signalling evaluation results. Section 5 focuses on the estimation of the signalling load imposed by ON management in different ON phases. Additionally some results for the initialization phase (not explicitly mentioned in the previous phases of the project)and security related aspects are also depicted. Section 6 on the other hand is focused on the evaluation of the signalling traffic generated by different ON related algorithms. Conclusions to the document are drawn in section 7. Detailed description of the C4MS procedures, implementation options based on IEEE 802.21, DIAMTER and 3GPP are depicted in the appendix to the D3.3[10] . Additionally, the appendix incorporates the detailed definition of the information data structures and final set of Message Sequence Charts (MSCs) provided for the OneFIT project.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Security-centric analysis and performance investigation of IEEE 802.16 WiMAX

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Implementazione cloud del piano di controllo della rete 5G

Il 5G non è esclusivamente sinonimo di connettività wireless più veloce, ma promette di trasformare i processi di consumo aziendali e industriali esistenti, guidando la prossima ondata di crescita economica globale. Per questo motivo, ci si aspetta che i nuovi paradigmi di progettazione dell'architettura di rete 5G facciano la differenza rispetto alle generazioni precedenti, introducendo importanti cambiamenti per quanto riguarda flessibilità e scalabilità. La programmabilità di rete rappresenta un elemento chiave per la progettazione, l'implementazione, la distribuzione, la gestione e la manutenzione di apparecchiature e componenti di rete mediante la programmazione del software. Ai concetti di Cloud e servizi si affiancano quelli di Software Defined Network, Network Function Virtualization e Multi-access Edge Computing. Tramite Software Defined Network, il piano di controllo è separato dal piano dati. Le funzionalità di controllo sono incapsulate in un'entità, controller SDN, logicamente separata da quella che si occupa dell'inoltro dei dati. NFV prevede di virtualizzare i componenti di rete in modo che possano essere eseguiti su hardware di comodità. NFV abilita il Network Slicing permettendo di costruire reti logiche differenti sulla stessa infrastruttura comune. Tramite MEC le capacità di calcolo e archiviazione e i servizi vengono portati il più vicino possibile all'utente: nella parte edge del Cloud. La combinazione di tutti questi paradigmi dovrebbe portare il 5G a essere una trasformazione radicale dei principali segmenti dell'economia. Il presente elaborato ha l'obiettivo di virtualizzare e orchestrare i componenti del core di rete 5G e 4G utilizzando l'approccio NFV. In particolare, lo scenario progettato prevede di mettere in esecuzione e configurare dinamicamente i componenti dei core tramite il framework ETSI NFV Management and Orchestration