Convergence of packet communications over the evolved mobile networks; signal processing and protocol performance

In this thesis, the convergence of packet communications over the evolved mobile networks is studied. The Long Term Evolution (LTE) process is dominating the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in order to bring technologies to the markets in the spirit of continuous innovation. The global markets of mobile information services are growing towards the Mobile Information Society. The thesis begins with the principles and theories of the multiple-access transmission schemes, transmitter receiver techniques and signal processing algorithms. Next, packet communications and Internet protocols are referred from the IETF standards with the characteristics of mobile communications in the focus. The mobile network architecture and protocols bind together the evolved packet system of Internet communications to the radio access network technologies. Specifics of the traffic models are shortly visited for their statistical meaning in the radio performance analysis. Radio resource management algorithms and protocols, also procedures, are covered addressing their relevance for the system performance. Throughout these Chapters, the commonalities and differentiators of the WCDMA, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE are covered. The main outcome of the thesis is the performance analysis of the LTE technology beginning from the early discoveries to the analysis of various system features and finally converging to an extensive system analysis campaign. The system performance is analysed with the characteristics of voice over the Internet and best effort traffic of the Internet. These traffic classes represent the majority of the mobile traffic in the converged packet networks, and yet they are simple enough for a fair and generic analysis of technologies. The thesis consists of publications and inventions created by the author that proposed several improvements to the 3G technologies towards the LTE. In the system analysis, the LTE showed by the factor of at least 2.5 to 3 times higher system measures compared to the WCDMA/HSPA reference. The WCDMA/HSPA networks are currently available with over 400 million subscribers and showing increasing growth, in the meanwhile the first LTE roll-outs are scheduled to begin in 2010. Sophisticated 3G LTE mobile devices are expected to appear fluently for all consumer segments in the following years

LTE Advanced: Technology and Performance Analysis

Wireless data usage is increasing at a phenomenal rate and driving the need for continued innovations in wireless data technologies to provide more capacity and higher quality of service. In October 2009, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) submitted LTE-Advanced to the ITU as a proposed candidate IMT-Advanced technology for which specifications could become available in 2011 through Release-10 . The aim of “LTE-Advanced” is to further enhance LTE radio access in terms of system performance and capabilities compared to current cellular systems, including the first release of LTE, with a specific goal to ensure that LTE fulfills and even surpass the requirements of “IMT-Advanced” as defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) . This thesis offers an introduction to the mobile communication standard known as LTE Advanced, depicting the evolution of the standard from its roots and discussing several important technologies that help it evolve to accomplishing the IMT-Advanced requirements. A short history of the LTE standard is offered, along with a discussion of its standards and performance. LTE-Advanced details include analysis on the physical layer by investigating the performance of SC-FDMA and OFDMA of LTE physical layer. The investigation is done by considering different modulation schemes (QPSK, 16QAM and 64QAM) on the basis of PAPR, BER, power spectral density (PSD) and error probability by simulating the model of SC-FDMA & OFDMA. To evaluate the performance in presence of noise, an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel was introduced. A set of conclusions is derived from our results describing the effect of higher order modulation schemes on BER and error probability for both OFDMA and SC-FDMA. The power spectral densities of both the multiple access techniques (OFDMA and SC-FDMA) are calculated and result shows that the OFDMA has higher power spectral density.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Esquemas de cooperação entre estações base para o LTE no sentido descendente

The explosive growth in wireless traffic and in the number of connected devices as smart phones or computers, are causing a dramatic increase in the levels of interference, which significantly degrades the capacity gains promised by the point-to-point multi input, multi output (MIMO) based techniques. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly clear that major new improvements in spectral efficiency of wireless networks will have to entail addressing intercell interference. So, there is a need for a new cellular architecture that can take these factors under consideration. It is in this context that LTE-Advanced arises. One of the most promising LTE-Advanced technology is Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP), which allows base stations to cooperate among them, in order to mitigate or eliminate the intercell interference and, by doing so, increase the system’s capacity. This thesis intends to study this concept, implementing some schemes that fall under the CoMP concept. In this thesis we consider a distributed precoded multicell approach, where the precoders are computed locally at each BS to mitigate the intercell interference. Two precoder are considered: distributed zero forcing (DZF) and distributed virtual signal-to-interference noise ratio (DVSINR) recently proposed. Then the system is further optimized by computing a power allocation algorithm over the subcarriers that minimizes the average bit error rate (BER). The considered algorithms are also evaluated under imperfect channel state information. A quantized version of the CSI associated to the different links between the BS and the UT is feedback from the UT to the BS. This information is then employed by the different BSs to perform the precoding design. A new DVSINR precoder explicitly designed under imperfect CSI is proposed. The proposed schemes were implemented considering the LTE specifications, and the results show that the considered precoders are efficiently to remove the interference even under imperfect CSI.O crescimento exponencial no tráfego de comunicações sem-fios e no número de dispositivos utilizados (smart phones, computadores portáteis, etc.) está a causar um aumento significativo nos níveis de interferência, que prejudicam significativamente os ganhos de capacidade assegurados pelas tecnologias baseadas em ligações ponto-a-ponto MIMO. Deste modo, torna-se cada vez mais necessário que os grandes aperfeiçoamentos na eficiência espectral de sistemas de comunicações sem-fios tenham em consideração a interferência entre células. De forma a tomar em consideração estes aspectos, uma nova arquitectura celular terá de ser desenvolvida. É assim, neste contexto, que surge o LTE-Advanced. Uma das tecnologias mais promissoras do LTE-Advanced é a Coordenação Multi-Ponto (CoMP), que permite que as estações base cooperem de modo a mitigar a interferência entre células e, deste modo, aumentar a capacidade do sistema. Esta dissertação pretende estudar este conceito, implementando para isso algumas técnicas que se enquadram no conceito do CoMP. Nesta dissertação iremos considerar a implementação de um sistema de pré-codificação em múltiplas células, em que os pré-codificadores são calculados em cada BS, de modo a mitigar a interferência entre células. São considerados dois pré-codificadores: Distributed Zero Forcing (DZF) e Distributed Virtual Signal-to-Interferance Noise Ratio (DVSINR), recentemente proposto. De seguida o sistema é optimizado com a introdução de algoritmos de alocação de potência entre as sub-portadoras com o objectivo de minimizar a taxa média de erros (BER). Os algoritmos considerados são também avaliados em situações em que a informação do estado do canal é imperfeita. Uma versão quantizada da CSI associada a cada uma das diferentes ligações entre as BS e os UT é assim enviada do UT para a BS. Esta informação é então utilizada para calcular os diferentes pré-codificadores em cada BS. Uma nova versão do pré-codificador DVSINR é proposta de modo a lidar com CSI imperfeito. Os esquemas propostos foram implementados considerandos especificações do LTE, e os resultados obtidos demonstram que os pré-codificadores removem de uma forma eficiente a interferência, mesmo em situações em que a CSI é imperfeita

Uplink MIMO schemes in local area time division duplex system

One of 3rd Generation Partnership Projects's release 9 research areas is deployment and improvement of Long Term Evolutions's Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access interface in local area cells, using time division duplex and 100MHz available bandwidth. For uplink part of this system, we revise and study MIMO algorithms considered in release 8's downlink (Cyclic Delay Diversity and Space-Frequency Block Codes open-loop schemes, Singular Value Decomposition and codebook-based closed-loop schemes), look for new alternatives, and simulate impacts of given scenario - reciprocity, correlated MIMO channels, slow fading etc. As a result, we draw conclusions about advantages of having multiple transmit antennas in User Equipment in contrast with higher price and power consumption

Studies on 6-sector-site deployment in downlink LTE

Mobile data traffic is expected to increase massively in the following years. Consequently, service operators are induced to increase the capacity of their networks continually to attract more subscribers and maximize their revenues. At the same time, they want to minimize operational costs and capital expenditures. Among the alternatives that aim to increase the network capacity, higher order sectorization, and in particular a six sectorized configuration, is nowadays attracting a lot of attention for LTE macro-cell deployments since a higher number of sectors per site results in improved site capacity and coverage. A six sectorized configuration is attractive for both roll-out phase and growth phase of the network. In the roll-out phase, the radio access network is planned with 6-sector sites instead of 3-sector sites with the advantage that less sites are needed for the same capacity and coverage requirements. In the growth phase, the six sectorized configuration can be used to upgrade existing 3-sector sites where the traffic grows beyond the current sites' capabilities. Therefore, no additional expensive and time consuming contracts need to be signed for the locations of the new sites, while the existing sites are used more efficiently. However, although potentially a 6-sector site can offer a double capacity than a 3-sector site, several factors prevent the capacity from growing proportionately to the number of sectors. Consequently, there is an uncertainty on whether the capacity gain is high enough to justify the extra costs of the additional equipment and, more specifically, whether the 6-sector-site deployment is more economically attractive than a 3-sector-site deployment. The aim of this report is to solve this uncertainty. First, we present the main factors that affect the capacity gain. Next, we quantify the impact of these factors on the capacity gain in downlink LTE with the use of a system level simulator. Finally, we use the results of the simulation study as inputs for an economic study to access the reasons for a possible deployment of 6-sector sites instead of 3-sector sites for LTE

3G migration in Pakistan

The telecommunication industry in Pakistan has come a long way since the country\u27s independence in 1947. The initial era could be fairly termed as the PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited) monopoly, for it was the sole provider of all telecommunication services across the country. It was not until four decades later that the region embarked into the new world of wireless communication, hence ending the decades old PTCL monopoly. By the end of the late 1990\u27s, government support and international investment in the region opened new doors to innovation and better quality, low cost, healthy competition. Wireless licenses for the private sector in the telecommunication industry triggered a promising chain of events that resulted in a drastic change in the telecommunication infrastructure and service profile. The newly introduced wireless (GSM) technology received enormous support from all stakeholders (consumers, regulatory body, and market) and caused a vital boost in Pakistan\u27s economy. Numerous tangential elements had triggered this vital move in the history of telecommunications in Pakistan. Entrepreneurs intended to test the idea of global joint ventures in the East and hence the idea of international business became a reality. The technology had proven to be a great success in the West, while Pakistan\u27s telecom consumer had lived under the shadow of PTCL dominance for decades and needed more flexibility. At last the world was moving from wired to wireless! Analysts termed this move as the beginning of a new era. The investors, telecommunication businesses, and Pakistani treasury prospered. It was a win-win situation for all involved. The learning curve was steep for both operators and consumers but certainly improved over time. In essence, the principle of deploying the right technology in the right market at the right time led to this remarkable success. The industry today stands on the brink of a similar crossroads via transition from second generation to something beyond. With the partial success of 3G in Europe and the USA, the government has announced the release of three 3G licenses by mid 2009. This decision is not yet fully supported by all but still initiated parallel efforts by the operators and the vendors to integrate this next move into their existing infrastructure

DERIVING TECHNOLOGY ROADMAPS WITH TECH MINING TECHNIQUES

Technology monitoring has been a knowledge intensive and time-consuming task for IT managers or domain experts. Tech mining techniques can be used to mitigate these efforts. This paper proposes a technology monitoring framework based on tech mining techniques to facilitate the derivative of information and communication technology (ICT) roadmaps. With this framework, a tech mining engine is able to allocate the most relevant documents which describe a category of technologies. Domain experts were participated in a scan meeting to verify the generated roadmaps based on the selected cluster of documents. The draft roadmaps can be further articulated with domain experts\u27 judgment for technology forecasting and assessment