Modelling and performance evaluation of wireless and mobile communication systems in heterogeneous environments

It is widely expected that next generation wireless communication systems will be heterogeneous, integrating a wide variety of wireless access networks. Of particular interest recently is the integration of cellular networks (GSM, GPRS, UMTS, EDGE and LTE) and wireless local area networks (WLANs) to provide complementary features in terms of coverage, capacity and mobility support. These different networks will work together using vertical handover techniques and hence understanding how well these mechanisms perform is a significant issue. In this thesis, these networks are modelled to yield performance results such as mean queue lengths and blocking probabilities over a range of different conditions. The results are then analysed using network constraints to yield operational graphs based on handover probabilities to different networks. Firstly, individual networks with horizontal handover are analysed using performability techniques. The thesis moves on to look at vertical handovers between cellular networks using pure performance models. Then the integration of cellular networks and WLAN is considered. While analysing these results it became clear that the common models that were being used were subjected to handover hysteresis resulting from feedback loops in the model. A new analytical model was developed which addressed this issue but was shown to be problematic in developing state probabilities for more complicated scenarios. Guard channels analysis, which is normally used to give priority to handover traffic in mobile networks, was employed as a practical solution to the observed handover hysteresis. Overall, using different analytical techniques as well as simulation, the results of this work form an important part in the design and development of future mobile systems

An analytical approach for performance analysis of handoffs in the next generation integrated cellular networks and WLANs

The main feature of the next generation wireless communication systems is the ability to establish ubiquitous and seamless access to various radio access technologies (RATs) and standards. For this reason the integration of cellular and wireless local area networks (WLANs) and performance evaluation of the interaction between these technologies is now an important research area. Modelling such systems for performance evaluation is essential to improve the architecture according to the quality ofbservice (QoS) requirements and performance characteristics. In this paper, an analytical model for performance evaluation of an integrated cellular network and a WLAN is considered. WLAN is deployed inside of the cellular network to support handoffs between cellular networks with higher bandwidth. Such an integrated system can be modelled as a two stage open network. An analytical model is proposed together with an exact solution technique in order to evaluate the performance of an integrated system consisting of a cellular network and a WLAN. A two stage queuing system is considered for this purpose. Numerical results are presented for mean queue length values of cellular system as well as the WLAN

Impacts of buffering voice calls in integrated voice and data services

In this study, we aim to analyse the relationship between various characteristics of a communication system with data and voice call requests. Queuing theory and Markov chain analysis are effectively used for this purpose. Such a study is useful for understanding how the proposed mathematical models behave which represents a system with integrated voice and data calls in homogenous wireless networks. We also propose to optimise the system characteristics in an attempt to provide better Quality of Service (QoS) for systems with integrated voice and data calls. The proposed models have two dimensions; one for voice calls and one for data calls. A channel is assigned for two input traffic call, namely, voice and data calls. The incoming voice and data calls are queued when the channel is busy. Since voice calls are delay-sensitive, priority is given to voice calls. Also, since there is only one channel, data calls are only serviced if there are no voice calls in the system. For such systems, it is important to analyse the impact of buffering the voice calls as well as data calls for various mean rates of call requests, and mean service times. The analytical models presented are generic which is applicable for various systems with similar characteristics. Numerical results are also provided. The results show that the proposed models can be used for optimisation of the performance of a given network

Modelling and performability evaluation of Wireless Sensor Networks

This thesis presents generic analytical models of homogeneous clustered Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) with a centrally located Cluster Head (CH) coordinating cluster communication with the sink directly or through other intermediate nodes. The focus is to integrate performance and availability studies of WSNs in the presence of sensor nodes and channel failures and repair/replacement. The main purpose is to enhance improvement of WSN Quality of Service (QoS). Other research works also considered in this thesis include modelling of packet arrival distribution at the CH and intermediate nodes, and modelling of energy consumption at the sensor nodes. An investigation and critical analysis of wireless sensor network architectures, energy conservation techniques and QoS requirements are performed in order to improve performance and availability of the network. Existing techniques used for performance evaluation of single and multi-server systems with several operative states are investigated and analysed in details. To begin with, existing approaches for independent (pure) performance modelling are critically analysed with highlights on merits and drawbacks. Similarly, pure availability modelling approaches are also analysed. Considering that pure performance models tend to be too optimistic and pure availability models are too conservative, performability, which is the integration of performance and availability studies is used for the evaluation of the WSN models developed in this study. Two-dimensional Markov state space representations of the systems are used for performability modelling. Following critical analysis of the existing solution techniques, spectral expansion method and system of simultaneous linear equations are developed and used to solving the proposed models. To validate the results obtained with the two techniques, a discrete event simulation tool is explored. In this research, open queuing networks are used to model the behaviour of the CH when subjected to streams of traffic from cluster nodes in addition to dynamics of operating in the various states. The research begins with a model of a CH with an infinite queue capacity subject to failures and repair/replacement. The model is developed progressively to consider bounded queue capacity systems, channel failures and sleep scheduling mechanisms for performability evaluation of WSNs. Using the developed models, various performance measures of the considered system including mean queue length, throughput, response time and blocking probability are evaluated. Finally, energy models considering mean power consumption in each of the possible operative states is developed. The resulting models are in turn employed for the evaluation of energy saving for the proposed case study model. Numerical solutions and discussions are presented for all the queuing models developed. Simulation is also performed in order to validate the accuracy of the results obtained. In order to address issues of performance and availability of WSNs, current research present independent performance and availability studies. The concerns resulting from such studies have therefore remained unresolved over the years hence persistence poor system performance. The novelty of this research is a proposed integrated performance and availability modelling approach for WSNs meant to address challenges of independent studies. In addition, a novel methodology for modelling and evaluation of power consumption is also offered. Proposed model results provide remarkable improvement on system performance and availability in addition to providing tools for further optimisation studies. A significant power saving is also observed from the proposed model results. In order to improve QoS for WSN, it is possible to improve the proposed models by incorporating priority queuing in a mixed traffic environment. A model of multi-server system is also appropriate for addressing traffic routing. It is also possible to extend the proposed energy model to consider other sleep scheduling mechanisms other than On-demand proposed herein. Analysis and classification of possible arrival distribution of WSN packets for various application environments would be a great idea for enabling robust scientific research

Modelling and Analysis of Resource Management Schemes in Wireless Networks. Analytical Models and Performance Evaluation of Handoff Schemes and Resource Re-Allocation in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Wireless Cellular Networks.

Over recent years, wireless communication systems have been experiencing a dramatic and continuous growth in the number of subscribers, thus placing extra demands on system capacity. At the same time, keeping Quality of Service (QoS) at an acceptable level is a critical concern and a challenge to the wireless network designer. In this sense, performance analysis must be the first step in designing or improving a network. Thus, powerful mathematical tools for analysing most of the performance metrics in the network are required. A good modelling and analysis of the wireless cellular networks will lead to a high level of QoS. In this thesis, different analytical models of various handoff schemes and resource re-allocation in homogeneous and heterogeneous wireless cellular networks are developed and investigated. The sustained increase in users and the request for advanced services are some of the key motivations for considering the designing of Hierarchical Cellular Networks (HCN). In this type of system, calls can be blocked in a microcell flow over to an overlay macrocell. Microcells in the HCN can be replaced by WLANs as this can provide high bandwidth and its users have limited mobility features. Efficient sharing of resources between wireless cellular networks and WLANs will improve the capacity as well as QoS metrics. This thesis first presents an analytical model for priority handoff mechanisms, where new calls and handoff calls are captured by two different traffic arrival processes, respectively. Using this analytical model, the optimised number of channels assigned to II handover calls, with the aim of minimising the drop probability under given network scenarios, has been investigated. Also, an analytical model of a network containing two cells has been developed to measure the different performance parameters for each of the cells in the network, as well as altogether as one network system. Secondly, a new solution is proposed to manage the bandwidth and re-allocate it in a proper way to maintain the QoS for all types of calls. Thirdly, performance models for microcells and macrocells in hierarchical cellular networks have been developed by using a combination of different handoff schemes. Finally, the microcell in HCN is replaced by WLANs and a prioritised vertical handoff scheme in an integrated UMTS/WLAN network has been developed. Simulation experiments have been conducted to validate the accuracy of these analytical models. The models have then been used to investigate the performance of the networks under different scenarios

Queueing models for capacity changes in cellular networks

With the rapid development of cellular communication techniques, many recent studies have focused on improving the quality of service (QoS) in cellular networks. One characteristic of the systems in cellular networks, which can have direct impact on the system QoS, is the fluctuation of the system capacity. In this thesis, the QoS of systems with capacity fluctuations is studied from two perspectives: (1) priority queueing systems with preemption, and (2) the M/M/~C/~C system. In the first part, we propose two models with controlled preemption and analyze their performance in the context of a single reference cell that supports two kinds of traffic (new calls and handoff calls). The formulae for calculating the performance measures of interest (i.e., handoff call blocking probability, new call blocking and dropping probabilities) are developed, and the procedures for solving optimization problems for the optimal number of channels required for each proposed model are established. The proposed controlled preemption models are then compared to existing non-preemption and full preemption models from the following three perspectives: (i) channel utilization, (ii) low priority call (i.e., new calls) performance, and (iii) flexibility to meet various constraints. The results showed that the proposed controlled preemption models are the best models overall. In the second part, the loss system with stochastic capacity, denoted by M/M/~C/~C, is analyzed using the Markov regenerative process (MRGP) method. Three different distributions of capacity interchange times (exponential, gamma, and Pareto) and three different capacity variation patterns (skip-free, distance-based, and uniform-based) are considered. Analytic expressions are derived to calculate call blocking and dropping probabilities and are verified by call level simulations. Finally, numerical examples are provided to determine the impact of different distributions of capacity interchange times and different capacity variation patterns on system performance

SIGMA: A mobility architecture for terrestrial and space networks.

Internet Protocol (IP) mobility can be handled at different layers of the protocol stack. Mobile IP has been developed to handle mobility of Internet hosts at the network layer. Mobile IP suffers from a number of drawbacks such as the requirement for infrastructure change, high handover latency, high packet loss rate, and conflict with network security solutions. As an alternative solution, a few transport layer mobility protocols have been proposed in the context of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), for example, MSOCKS and TCP connection migration. In this dissertation, a S&barbelow; eamless I&barbelow; P-diversity-based G&barbelow; eneralized M&barbelow; obility Architecture (SIGMA) is described. SIGMA works at the transport layer and utilizes IP diversity to achieve seamless handover, and is designed to solve many of the drawbacks of Mobile IP. It can also cooperate with normal IPv4 or IPv6 infrastructure without the support of Mobile IP. The handover performance, signaling cost, and survivability issues of SIGMA are evaluated and compared with those of Mobile IP. A hierarchical location management scheme for SIGMA is developed to reduce the signaling cost of SIGMA, which is also useful to other transport layer mobility solutions. SIGMA is shown to be also applicable to managing satellite handovers in space. Finally, the interoperability between SIGMA and existing Internet security mechanisms is discussed

Phase-Type Approximations for Wear Processes in A Semi-Markov Environment

The reliability of a single-unit system experiencing degradation (wear) due to the influence of a general, observable environment process is considered. In particular, the failure time distribution is evaluated using only observations of the unit\u27s current operating environment which is characterized as a finite semi-Markov process (SMP). In order to impose the Markov property, generally distributed environment state sojourn times are approximated as phase-type (PH) random variables using observations of state holding times and transition rates. The use of PH distributions facilitates the use of existing analytical results for reliability evaluation of units subject to an environment process that evolves as a continuous-time Markov chain. The procedure is illustrated through three numerical examples, and results are compared with those obtained via Monte Carlo simulation. The maximum absolute deviation in probability for failure time distributions was on the order of 0.004. The results of this thesis provide a novel approach to the reliability analysis of units operating in randomly evolving environments for which degradation or failure time observations are difficult or impossible to obtain