Learning-Based Optimization of Cache Content in a Small Cell Base Station

Optimal cache content placement in a wireless small cell base station (sBS) with limited backhaul capacity is studied. The sBS has a large cache memory and provides content-level selective offloading by delivering high data rate contents to users in its coverage area. The goal of the sBS content controller (CC) is to store the most popular contents in the sBS cache memory such that the maximum amount of data can be fetched directly form the sBS, not relying on the limited backhaul resources during peak traffic periods. If the popularity profile is known in advance, the problem reduces to a knapsack problem. However, it is assumed in this work that, the popularity profile of the files is not known by the CC, and it can only observe the instantaneous demand for the cached content. Hence, the cache content placement is optimised based on the demand history. By refreshing the cache content at regular time intervals, the CC tries to learn the popularity profile, while exploiting the limited cache capacity in the best way possible. Three algorithms are studied for this cache content placement problem, leading to different exploitation-exploration trade-offs. We provide extensive numerical simulations in order to study the time-evolution of these algorithms, and the impact of the system parameters, such as the number of files, the number of users, the cache size, and the skewness of the popularity profile, on the performance. It is shown that the proposed algorithms quickly learn the popularity profile for a wide range of system parameters.Comment: Accepted to IEEE ICC 2014, Sydney, Australia. Minor typos corrected. Algorithm MCUCB correcte

Advanced Technologies for Device-to-device Communications Underlaying Cellular Networks

The past few years have seen a major change in cellular networks, as explosive growth in data demands requires more and more network capacity and backhaul capability. New wireless technologies have been proposed to tackle these challenges. One of the emerging technologies is device-to-device (D2D) communications. It enables two cellular user equip- ment (UEs) in proximity to communicate with each other directly reusing cellular radio resources. In this case, D2D is able to of oad data traf c from central base stations (BSs) and signi cantly improve the spectrum ef ciency of a cellular network, and thus is one of the key technologies for the next generation cellular systems. Radio resource management (RRM) for D2D communications and how to effectively exploit the potential bene ts of D2D are two paramount challenges to D2D communications underlaying cellular networks. In this thesis, we focus on four problems related to these two challenges. In Chapter 2, we utilise the mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) to model and solve the RRM optimisation problems for D2D communications. Firstly we consider the RRM optimisation problem for D2D communications underlaying the single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) system and devise a heuristic sub- optimal solution to it. Then we propose an optimised RRM mechanism for multi-hop D2D communications with network coding (NC). NC has been proven as an ef cient technique to improve the throughput of ad-hoc networks and thus we apply it to multi-hop D2D communications. We devise an optimal solution to the RRM optimisation problem for multi-hop D2D communications with NC. In Chapter 3, we investigate how the location of the D2D transmitter in a cell may affect the RRM mechanism and the performance of D2D communications. We propose two optimised location-based RRM mechanisms for D2D, which maximise the throughput and the energy ef ciency of D2D, respectively. We show that, by considering the location information of the D2D transmitter, the MINLP problem of RRM for D2D communications can be transformed into a convex optimisation problem, which can be ef ciently solved by the method of Lagrangian multipliers. In Chapter 4, we propose a D2D-based P2P le sharing system, which is called Iunius. The Iunius system features: 1) a wireless P2P protocol based on Bittorrent protocol in the application layer; 2) a simple centralised routing mechanism for multi-hop D2D communications; 3) an interference cancellation technique for conventional cellular (CC) uplink communications; and 4) a radio resource management scheme to mitigate the interference between CC and D2D communications that share the cellular uplink radio resources while maximising the throughput of D2D communications. We show that with the properly designed application layer protocol and the optimised RRM for D2D communications, Iunius can signi cantly improve the quality of experience (QoE) of users and of oad local traf c from the base station. In Chapter 5, we combine LTE-unlicensed with D2D communications. We utilise LTE-unlicensed to enable the operation of D2D in unlicensed bands. We show that not only can this improve the throughput of D2D communications, but also allow D2D to work in the cell central area, which normally regarded as a “forbidden area” for D2D in existing works. We achieve these results mainly through numerical optimisation and simulations. We utilise a wide range of numerical optimisation theories in our works. Instead of utilising the general numerical optimisation algorithms to solve the optimisation problems, we modify them to be suitable for the speci c problems, thereby reducing the computational complexity. Finally, we evaluate our proposed algorithms and systems through sophisticated numer- ical simulations. We have developed a complete system-level simulation framework for D2D communications and we open-source it in Github: https://github.com/mathwuyue/py- wireless-sys-sim

How do I design a location-dependent application?

The generalisation of the Internet and the recent technological developments in embedded systems and wireless networks contribute to the realisation of a vision where access to information is possible at any moment and from anywhere. This is particularly attractive with information that is relevant to a specific geographic location. Applications that rely on location-based services to provide information to mobile users, or that support interaction with real devices in the user neighbourhood, are called location-dependent applications and enhance the relationship between mobile users and a specific geographic location. However, the design of such applications breaks with the existing paradigms and methodologies as the mobile devices and the wireless communication infrastructures have characteristics that are very different from those of desktop computers and wired communication systems. The Around architecture is an open and extensible framework for location-based services that allows network services to be associated with specific geographic locations. By using this architecture applications can select services that are relevant for specific locations. Within the context of the Around project we have developed a prototype system with multiple location-based services and an application that accesses these services to provide information related to a town transportation system. This paper reports on the design and development of this location-based application. Its design raised several new issues, going from the computational model to the interface paradigm, which are also discussed in this paper. The developed application is composed of several modules: a set of agents which are autonomous units with the knowledge necessary to select and use location-based services in a specific thematic area (e.g. transportation); an HTML output area based on a browser metaphor; and a location-context module responsible for determining the user context. The results show that an application architecture based on a modular approach turns to be very flexible as it becomes very easy to extend its functionality by simply adding or changing the agents that deal with each location-based service.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - (PRAXIS/P/EEI/14267/1998)

Mobile IP movement detection optimisations in 802.11 wireless LANs

The IEEE 802.11 standard was developed to support the establishment of highly flexible wireless local area networks (wireless LANs). However, when an 802.11 mobile node moves from a wireless LAN on one IP network to a wireless LAN on a different network, an IP layer handoff occurs. During the handoff, the mobile node's IP settings must be updated in order to re-establish its IP connectivity at the new point of attachment. The Mobile IP protocol allows a mobile node to perform an IP handoff without breaking its active upper-layer sessions. Unfortunately, these handoffs introduce large latencies into a mobile node's traffic, during which packets are lost. As a result, the mobile node's upper-layer sessions and applications suffer significant disruptions due to this handoff latency. One of the main components of a Mobile IP handoff is the movement detection process, whereby a mobile node senses that it is attached to a new IP network. This procedure contributes significantly to the total Mobile IP handover latency and resulting disruption. This study investigates different mechanisms that aim to lower movement detection delays and thereby improve Mobile IP performance. These mechanisms are considered specifically within the context of 802.11 wireless LANs. In general, a mobile node detects attachment to a new network when a periodic IP level broadcast (advertisement) is received from that network. It will be shown that the elimination of this dependence on periodic advertisements, and the reliance instead on external information from the 802.11 link layer, results in both faster and more efficient movement detection. Furthermore, a hybrid system is proposed that incorporates several techniques to ensure that movement detection performs reliably within a variety of different network configurations. An evaluation framework is designed and implemented that supports the assessment of a wide range of movement detection mechanisms. This test bed allows Mobile IP handoffs to be analysed in detail, with specific focus on the movement detection process. The performance of several movement detection optimisations is compared using handoff latency and packet loss as metrics. The evaluation framework also supports real-time Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic. This is used to ascertain the effects that different movement detection techniques have on the output voice quality. These evaluations not only provide a quantitative performance analysis of these movement detection mechanisms, but also a qualitative assessment based on a VoIP application

MIPv6 Experimental Evaluation using Overlay Networks

The commercial deployment of Mobile IPv6 has been hastened by the concepts of Integrated Wireless Networks and Overlay Networks, which are present in the notion of the forthcoming generation of wireless communications. Individual wireless access networks show limitations that can be overcome through the integration of different technologies into a single unified platform (i.e., 4G systems). This paper summarises practical experiments performed to evaluate the impact of inter-networking (i.e. vertical handovers) on the Network and Transport layers. Based on our observations, we propose and evaluate a number of inter-technology handover optimisation techniques, e.g., Router Advertisements frequency values, Binding Update simulcasting, Router Advertisement caching, and Soft Handovers. The paper concludes with the description of a policy-based mobility support middleware (PROTON) that hides 4G networking complexities from mobile users, provides informed handover-related decisions, and enables the application of different vertical handover methods and optimisations according to context.Publicad

Ultra-Dense Mobile Networks: Optimal Design and Communications Strategies

This thesis conducts an extensive analysis within the mobile telecommunications sub-field of the ultra-dense mobile networks, in which a massive deployment of network’s pieces of equipment is assumed. Future cache-enabled mobile networks are expected to meet most of the generated content demands directly at the edge, where each node has the availability to proactively store a set of contents in a local memory. This thesis makes several important contributions. The research being presented in this thesis proposes new analytical expressions to modeling the performance associated to the network’s edge. Base-stations’ idling technologies are also investigated to temporarily turn off some network nodes, saving energy and, in some circumstances, improving the overall performance by contributing less interference at the network’s edge. On the other hand, making use of fewer base-stations however reduces the amount of available resources at the network’s edge. A trade-off is investigated, which balances among interference saturation and available resources to increase the average user’s quality of experience. In this work, we treat the edge node density as a variable of the problem. This greatly increases the difficulty of obtaining analytical expressions, but also offers a direct access for optimizing the users’ average performance and network’s energy consumptions. An energy-focused performance metric is subsequently proposed, with the intention to highlight an interesting duality within the same network’s tier, which can transition from a better efficient to a more performing state, according to the energy expenses from the operators. Nonetheless, under an ultra-dense scenario, line-of-sight wireless links between the user and the nodes become more likely. The introduction of a main component of the multi-path propagated copies of a signal involves analytical complications. A feasible approximation is proposed and validated through a set of computer simulations. The scalability of the proposed technique allows to generalise existing results in the literature

Energy Efficient Network Function Virtualisation in 5G Networks

Once the dust settled around 4G, 5G mobile networks become the buzz word in the world of communication systems. The recent surge of bandwidth-greedy applications and the proliferation of smart phones and other wireless connected devices has led to an enormous increase in mobile traffic. Therefore, 5G networks have to deal with a huge number of connected devices of different types and applications, including devices running life-critical applications, and facilitate access to mobile resources easily. Therefore given the increase in traffic and number of connected devices, intelligent and energy efficient architectures are needed to adequately and sustainably meet these requirements. In this thesis network function virtualisation is investigated as a promising paradigm that can contribute to energy consumption reduction in 5G networks. The work carried out in this thesis considers the energy efficiency mainly in terms of processing power consumption and network power consumption. Furthermore, it considers the energy consumption reduction that can be achieved by optimising the locations of virtual machines running the mobile 5G network functions. It also evaluates the consolidation and pooling of the mobile resources. A framework was introduced to virtualise the mobile core network functions and baseband processing functions. Mixed integer linear programming optimisation models and heuristics were developed minimise the total power consumption. The impact of virtualisation in the 5G front haul and back haul passive optical network was investigated by developing MILP models to optimise the location of virtual machines. A further consideration is caching the contents close to the user and its impact on the total power consumption. The impact of a number of factor on the power consumption were investigated such as the total number of active users, the backhaul to the fronthaul traffic ratio, reduction/expansion in the traffic due to baseband processing, and the communication between virtual machines. Finally, the integration of network function virtualisation and content caching were introduced and their impact on improving the energy efficiency was investigated

User experience of mobile cloud applications - current state and future directions

The increasing penetration rate of feature rich mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets in the global population has resulted in a large number of applications and services being created or modified to support mobile devices. Mobile cloud computing is a proposed paradigm to address the resource scarcity of mobile devices in the face of demand for more computing intensive tasks. Several approaches have been proposed to confront the challenges of mobile cloud computing, but none has used the user experience as the primary focus point. In this paper we evaluate these approaches in respect of the user experience, propose what future research directions in this area require to provide for this crucial aspect, and introduce our own solution