Protocol parameter selection for fiber-supported IEEE 802.16m networks

In this paper we investigate protocol issues that might arise due to the extra fiber propagation delay in fiber-fed IEEE 802.16m networks. Our study indicates that although the fiber delay might affect network performance, an informed choice of protocol parameters, such as the guard times and the ranging channel structure, can minimize the reduction in efficiency and allow for relaxation of some of the constraints imposed on the optical distribution network architecture

Future Trends and Challenges for Mobile and Convergent Networks

Some traffic characteristics like real-time, location-based, and community-inspired, as well as the exponential increase on the data traffic in mobile networks, are challenging the academia and standardization communities to manage these networks in completely novel and intelligent ways, otherwise, current network infrastructures can not offer a connection service with an acceptable quality for both emergent traffic demand and application requisites. In this way, a very relevant research problem that needs to be addressed is how a heterogeneous wireless access infrastructure should be controlled to offer a network access with a proper level of quality for diverse flows ending at multi-mode devices in mobile scenarios. The current chapter reviews recent research and standardization work developed under the most used wireless access technologies and mobile access proposals. It comprehensively outlines the impact on the deployment of those technologies in future networking environments, not only on the network performance but also in how the most important requirements of several relevant players, such as, content providers, network operators, and users/terminals can be addressed. Finally, the chapter concludes referring the most notable aspects in how the environment of future networks are expected to evolve like technology convergence, service convergence, terminal convergence, market convergence, environmental awareness, energy-efficiency, self-organized and intelligent infrastructure, as well as the most important functional requisites to be addressed through that infrastructure such as flow mobility, data offloading, load balancing and vertical multihoming.Comment: In book 4G & Beyond: The Convergence of Networks, Devices and Services, Nova Science Publishers, 201

Bit error rate estimation in WiMAX communications at vehicular speeds using Nakagami-m fading model

The wireless communication industry has experienced a rapid technological evolution from its basic first generation (1G) wireless systems to the latest fourth generation (4G) wireless broadband systems. Wireless broadband systems are becoming increasingly popular with consumers and the technological strength of 4G has played a major role behind the success of wireless broadband systems. The IEEE 802.16m standard of the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) has been accepted as a 4G standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2011. The IEEE 802.16m is fully optimised for wireless communications in fixed environments and can deliver very high throughput and excellent quality of service. In mobile communication environments however, WiMAX consumers experience a graceful degradation of service as a direct function of vehicular speeds. At high vehicular speeds, the throughput drops in WiMAX systems and unless proactive measures such as forward error control and packet size optimisation are adopted and properly adjusted, many applications cannot be facilitated at high vehicular speeds in WiMAX communications. For any proactive measure, bit error rate estimation as a function of vehicular speed, serves as a useful tool. In this thesis, we present an analytical model for bit error rate estimation in WiMAX communications using the Nakagami-m fading model. We also show, through an analysis of the data collected from a practical WiMAX system, that the Nakagami-m model can be made adaptive as a function of speed, to represent fading in fixed environments as well as mobile environments

DragonNet: a robust mobile internet services system for long distance trains

Wide range wireless networks often suffer from annoying service deterioration due to ever-changing wireless environments. This is especially the case with passengers on long-distance trains (LDT, such as intercity, interprovincial, and international commuter trains) connecting to the Internet. To improve the service quality of wide-area wireless networks, we present the DragonNet system and protocol with practical implementations. The DragonNet system is a chained gateway that consists of a group of interlinked DragonNet routers running the DragonNet protocol for node failure amortization across the long stretching router chain. The protocol makes use of the spatial diversity of wireless signals when not all spots on a surface see the same level of radio frequency radiation. In the case of an LDT of around 500 meters, it is highly possible that some of the DragonNet routers in the gateway chain still see sound signal quality when the LDT is partially blocked from the wireless Internet. The DragonNet protocol fully utilizes this feature to amortize single-point router failure over the whole router chain by intelligently rerouting traffic on failed ones to sound ones. We have implemented the DragonNet system and tested it in real railways over a period of three months. Our results have pinpointed two fundamental contributions of the DragonNet protocol. First, DragonNet significantly reduces the average temporary communication blackout (i.e., no Internet connection) to 1.5 seconds compared with 6 seconds without the DragonNet protocol. Second, DragonNet nearly doubles the aggregate system throughput compared with gateway without running the DragonNet protocol

A Technical and Market study for WiMAX

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a broadband wireless technology based on IEEE 802.16-2004 and IEEE 802.16e-2005. This thesis is a study of WiMAX technology and market. The background of WiMAX development is introduced and opportunities and challenges for WiMAX are analyzed in the beginning. Then the thesis focuses on an overview of WiMAX technology, which addresses the physical layer, MAC layer and WiMAX network architecture. The deployment status is investigated in the fourth chapter. Both product development situation and market status are discussed in this section. In the last chapter, the future development trend of WiMAX is addressed

Multi-cell Coordination Techniques for DL OFDMA Multi-hop Cellular Networks

The main objective of this project is to design coordinated spectrum sharing and reuse techniques among cells with the goal of mitigating interference at the cell edge and enhance the overall system capacity. The performance of the developed algorithm will be evaluated in an 802.16m (WiMAX) environment. In conventional cellular networks, frequency planning is usually considered to keep an acceptable signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR) level, especially at cell boundaries. Frequency assignations are done under a cell-by-cell basis, without any coordination between them to manage interference. Particularly this approach, however, hampers the system spectral efficiency at low reuse rates. For a specific reuse factor, the system throughput depends highly on the mobile station (MS) distribution and the channel conditions of the users to be served. If users served from different base stations (BS) experience a low level of interference, radio resources may be reused, applying a high reuse factor and thus, increasing the system spectral efficiency. On the other side, if the served users experience large interference, orthogonal transmissions are better and therefore a lower frequency reuse factor should be used. As a consequence, a dynamic reuse factor is preferable over a fixed one. This work addresses the design of joint multi-cell resource allocation and scheduling with coordination among neighbouring base stations (outer coordination) or sectors belonging to the same one (inner coordination) as a way to achieve flexible reuse factors. We propose a convex optimization framework to address the problem of coordinating bandwidth allocation in BS coordination problems. The proposed framework allows for different scheduling policies, which have an impact on the suitability of the reuse factor, since they determine which users have to be served. Therefore, it makes sense to consider the reuse factor as a result of the scheduling decision. To support the proposed techniques the BSs shall be capable of exchanging information with each other (decentralized approach) or with some control element in the back-haul network as an ASN gateway or some self-organization control entity (centralized approach)