Enabling Disaster Resilient 4G Mobile Communication Networks

The 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the cellular technology expected to outperform the previous generations and to some extent revolutionize the experience of the users by taking advantage of the most advanced radio access techniques (i.e. OFDMA, SC-FDMA, MIMO). However, the strong dependencies between user equipments (UEs), base stations (eNBs) and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) limit the flexibility, manageability and resiliency in such networks. In case the communication links between UEs-eNB or eNB-EPC are disrupted, UEs are in fact unable to communicate. In this article, we reshape the 4G mobile network to move towards more virtual and distributed architectures for improving disaster resilience, drastically reducing the dependency between UEs, eNBs and EPC. The contribution of this work is twofold. We firstly present the Flexible Management Entity (FME), a distributed entity which leverages on virtualized EPC functionalities in 4G cellular systems. Second, we introduce a simple and novel device-todevice (D2D) communication scheme allowing the UEs in physical proximity to communicate directly without resorting to the coordination with an eNB.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Magazin

Optimisation of Mobile Communication Networks - OMCO NET

The mini conference “Optimisation of Mobile Communication Networks” focuses on advanced methods for search and optimisation applied to wireless communication networks. It is sponsored by Research & Enterprise Fund Southampton Solent University. The conference strives to widen knowledge on advanced search methods capable of optimisation of wireless communications networks. The aim is to provide a forum for exchange of recent knowledge, new ideas and trends in this progressive and challenging area. The conference will popularise new successful approaches on resolving hard tasks such as minimisation of transmit power, cooperative and optimal routing

Traffic Modeling in Mobile Communication Networks

This paper is focused on traffic modeling in Mobile Communication networks. This research is aimed at developing a traffic model that will predict a blocking probability for voice calls and handover calls blocking probability in mobile communication networks (GSM). The high number of block calls experience in mobile network, especially during the busy- hour as leads to poor Quality of Service (QOS) delivering in mobile network. The block calls experience in mobile network should be reduced (in line with NCC recommended value 2%) to a certain low values, to ensure good QOS. The developed traffic model is focused on new voice calls and handover calls in a cell. The developed traffic models are designed based on the number of channels resource available; these numbers of channels are partition into two segments in a cell network. The cell technology is homogenous in nature; therefore it is applicable to the entire mobile communication system. The analytical method is deployed, and the collection traffic data with equipment know as the Operation and Maintenance Center (OMC-counter) which is in built in the mobile communication network. The OMC-counter runs on Linux operation software, which helps to capture the number of arrival calls and service time in a specified interval. The arrival rate is assumed to be Poisson and the interarrival rate (the different between two arrival points or more) is also, assumed to be exponentially distributed and independence identical distributed. These parameters were assumed in the developed traffic model. The developed traffic models are blocking probability for voice calls and handover calls are shown in Equation (3) and (4). These traffic models are used to manage, a balance relationship between cost incurred in mobile communication by operators and service render to the mobile subscribers. Keywords: Arrival rate, service time, exponential distribution, channels rate and traffic load in erlang

Geographical dispersal of mobile communication networks

In this paper, we analyze statistical properties of a communication network constructed from the records of a mobile phone company. The network consists of 2.5 million customers that have placed 810 millions of communications (phone calls and text messages) over a period of 6 months and for whom we have geographical home localization information. It is shown that the degree distribution in this network has a power-law degree distribution $k^{-5}$ and that the probability that two customers are connected by a link follows a gravity model, i.e. decreases like $d^{-2}$, where $d$ is the distance between the customers. We also consider the geographical extension of communication triangles and we show that communication triangles are not only composed of geographically adjacent nodes but that they may extend over large distances. This last property is not captured by the existing models of geographical networks and in a last section we propose a new model that reproduces the observed property. Our model, which is based on the migration and on the local adaptation of agents, is then studied analytically and the resulting predictions are confirmed by computer simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Constraint-based planning of mobile communication networks: optimisation models and constraint algorithms

The constraint-based approach is effective at solving complex problems with many parameters and constraints. It is fast, practical and significantly different from existing research in mobile network planning. An in-depth investigation is needed to enable the full potential of this approach to be explored and applied in mobile telecommunication network planning. The key ideas created in this project are also expected to be useful to the 4th generation wireless network design

The spatial structure of mobile communication networks

There has been a recent surge of interest in the relationship between the spatial and topological structure of communication networks with the availability of large scale anonymous datasets on the communication and mobility patterns of individuals. These datasets, captured as a by-product of modern communications technology, provide a detailed view of the daily interpersonal interactions of millions of people. Mobile phone call logs in particular offer an unparalleled source of information given their personal portable nature and ubiquity in modern society. The use of mobile phones has become so common that these datasets are no longer merely communication logs but close approximations of the network of interpersonal relationships that forms society. The analysis of these proxy networks has the potential to uncover knowledge about society at a scale never previously possible. Networks, and social networks in particular, have been the subject of investigation for more than a century with a rich corpus of theory and methods now available to researchers. Computational approaches to the study of networks are more recent but there are now a wide variety of structural analysis methods that have been developed and applied across many different disciplines and subject areas. The study of interactions across space has developed in parallel with theory, methods, models and a variety of applications. Recent studies of these proxy networks have tended to use computational approaches for analysing community structure and modelling spatial interacitions without much regard for the theory upon which they were built. The underlying assumption has been that all phenomena that can be represented as networks can be analysed with the same methods. In this thesis we demonstrate that this is not the case and identify a number of problems and misinterpretations that can arise when inappropriate methods or network representations are employed. Through a detailed theoretical and empirical analysis we identify appropriate combinations of network representation, spatial scale, and analysis methods for studying the spatial structure of communication networks. Using these findings we demonstrate the potential of such analysis when the appropriate methodology is employed

Energy Consumption Optimization in Mobile Communication Networks

This work addresses the challenge of minimizing the energy consumption of a wireless communication network by joint optimization of the base station transmit power and the cell activity. A mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problem is formulated, for which a computationally tractable linear inner approximation algorithm is provided. The proposed method offers great flexibility in optimizing the network operation by considering multiple system parameters jointly, which mitigates a major drawback of existing state-of-the-art schemes that are mostly based on heuristics. Simulation results show that the proposed method exhibits high performance in decreasing the energy consumption, and provides implicit load balancing in difficult high demand scenarios.Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Scenario driven requirement engineering for design and deployment of mobile communication networks

The numbers of users and usage of mobile data service are increasing dramatically due to the introduction of smartphones and mobile broadband dongles. For the next decade the mobile broadband market is expected to grow and reach a level where the average data consumption per user is orders of magnitude greater than today. For the telecom industry it is a magnificent challenge to design and deploy these s high-capacity wireless networks taking into account limitations in cost, energy and radio spectrum. The objective of this paper is to highlight the need to consider a multitude of scenarios for the requirements, design and deployment of mobile broad band networks. The R&D has for many years been targeting high peak data rates enabled by improved spectral efficiency, adding more spectrum bands, aggregation of frequency bands and offloading to local wireless networks connected via public fixed phones or broadband. However, many of these features driving the technology development are representative for the conditions in US and Western Europe. The wireless networks also need to be designed assuming deployment in regions in the world where both the availability of spectrum as well as the penetration of fixed phones and broadband are limited. --Mobile broadband networks,cost and capacity,spectrum,deployment strategies,telecommunications,management of technology and R&D,economic development of natural resources

The design and development of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Wireless (and hence mobile) communication networks have become an integral part of our society, significantly enhancing communication capabilities; mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) extend this capability to any time/anywhere, providing connectivity without the need of an underlying infrastructure. This work aims to investigate the newcoming area of mobile ad hoc networks, focusing on research problems related to the design and development of routing protocols, both from a formal and technical point of view.