Smart Television Services Using NFV/SDN Network Management

International audienceIntegrating joint network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networks (SDNs) with digital televisions (TVs) into home environments, has the potential to provide smart TV services to users, and improve their quality of experience (QoE). In this regard, this paper focuses on one of the next generation services so-called follow me service (FMS). FMS is a service offered by 5gNB to user equipments (UEs) in indoor environments (e.g., home), it enables its clients to use their smart phones to select media content from content servers, then cast it on the nearest TV set (e.g., living room) and continue watching on the next TV set (e.g., kitchen) while moving around the indoor coverage area. FMS can be provisioned by utilizing UEs geoloca-tion information and robust mechanisms for switching between multiple 5G radio access technologies (RATs), based on the intelligence of the SDN/NFV intelligent home IP gateway of the Internet of Radio Light (IoRL) project paradigm. In view that the actual IoRL system is at its early development stage, we step forward by using Mininet platform to integrate SDN/NFV virtualization into 5G multi-RAT scenario and provide performance monitoring with measurements for the identified service. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposal under various use case scenarios by means of minimizing the packet loss rate and improving QoE of the home users. Index Terms-Software defined networks, network function virtualisation, quality of experience, Internet of radio light, intelligent home IP gateway

Mobile Edge Cloud: Intelligent deployment and services for 5G Indoor Network

This thesis was submitted for the award of doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonFifth-Generation (5G) mobile networks are expected to perform according to the stringent performance targets assigned by standardization committees. Therefore, significant changes are proposed to the network infrastructure to achieve the expected performance levels. Network Function Virtualization, cloud computing and Software Defined Networks are some of the main technologies being utilised to ensure flexible network design, with optimum performance and efficient resource utilization. The aforementioned technologies are shifting the network architecture into service-based rather device-based architecture. In this regard, this thesis provides experimental investigation, design, implementation and evaluation of various multimedia services along with integration design and caching solution for 5G indoor network. The multimedia services are targeting the enhancement of UEs’ Quality of Experience, by exploiting the intelligence offered by the synergy between SDN and NFV technologies, to design and develop new multimedia solutions with improved QoE. The caching solution is designed to achieve a good trade-off between latency reduction and resource utilization that satisfies efficient network performance and resource utilization. The proposed network integration design targets deploying IoRL gNB with its innovative intelligent services. It have successfully achieved lower overhead signalling compared to the traditional network architectures. Whilst all of the proposed solutions have proven to provide enhancement to the system performance, the testing results for the multimedia services showed high QoS performance parameters in the form of zero packet loss due to route switching, very high throughput and 0.03 ms jitter. The caching solution test results provided up to 300% server utilization improvement (based on the deployed scenario) with negligible extra delay cost (0.5ms). As for the proposed integration design, the quantification of the performance enhancement is represented by the amount of the reduced overhead signalling. In the case of Intra-secondary gNB handover within the same Main eNB, the back-haul signalling for the AMF was reduced 100% while the overall overhead signalling is reduced by 50% compared to traditional deployment architecture.European Union’s Horizon 2020 research progra

Contextually and identity aware 5G services

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonThe fifth generation (5G) mobile networks aim to be ten times faster than the existing 4G connection, whilst providing low latency, and flexibility. Hence, various alterations are planned to the existing network infrastructure to be able to reach the 5G expected performance levels. The main technologies that were used, to ensure high performance, flexible network, and efficient resource allocation, are Software Defined Network and Network Function Virtualization. As these technologies are replacing the device-based architecture with, a service-based architecture. This thesis provides a design of location database interactive web interface and interactive mobile application. The implementation of real time video streaming location server, the streaming system's performance parameters demonstrated a high level of QoS (0.07ms jitter and 9.53ms delay). In regard to experimental examination, it measured the localisation coverage, accuracy measurements and a highly scalable security solution. The localisation coverage and accuracy measurements were achieved through the mmWave and VLC link transmitters. The proposed simulated annealing algorithm aimed at data optimisation for location measurements accuracy showed results of the average location error of x and y which showed significant improvement from x= 22.5 and y=21.6 to x=11.09 and y= 11.63. The proposed indoor location security solution showed significant results, as it provides a high scalability solution using the VNF. The solution showed that it was not 100% effective, as some of the fake discover packets still reached the DHCP server. This was due to the high load of traffic passing through the network. Nonetheless, 90% of the fake DHCP discover packets never reached the DHCP server because the scripts began blocking all fake discover packets after realising it was an attack. This conveys that the proposed system was able to run successfully without crashing or overloading the controller. Overall, the main challenges facing 5G have been addressed with their proposed solutions, which showed promising results. Conclusively showing that there is a lot more space for technological advancements to support the future of mobile networks.European Union’s Horizon 2020 research program - the Internet of Radio-Light (IoRL) project H2020-ICT 761992

Wireless Friendliness Evaluation of Building Materials as Reflectors

The enormous popularity of wireless devices has prompted a rapid growth of indoor wireless traffic. To meet the high data demand and avoid inconvenient usages of a room, indoor base stations (BSs) and Wi-Fi access points (APs) with large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna arrays are likely to be deployed in the vicinity of a wall, which therefore results in non-negligible interactions between indoor electromagnetic (EM) wave propagations and building materials. The reflection characteristics of building materials, which depend on their intrinsic EM and physical properties, play a crucial role in indoor wireless communications. However, the relationship between the material properties and the indoor wireless performance has not been sufficiently studied. In this thesis, wireless friendliness is proposed as a new metric to measure the impact of a building material on indoor wireless performance as a function of its EM and physical properties. The main objectives are to develop wireless friendliness evaluation schemes for building materials as reflectors on indoor line-of-sight (LOS) MIMO communications, and to provide insights into the appropriate design and/or selection of building materials according to their wireless friendliness. To achieve these objectives, the thesis presents four major contributions. The first contribution is to propose a new two-ray channel model and a new multipath channel model that incorporate both the LOS path and the wall reflection (WR) path for indoor LOS MIMO downlink transmissions. For the first time, the relative permittivity (EM property) and thickness (physical property) of a building material are encapsulated into the channel models through the reflection coefficient of the building material, which provides theoretical prerequisites for the subsequent tractable analysis. The second contribution is to reveal the analytical relationship between the relative permittivity and thickness of building materials and the MIMO channel capacity. By exploiting the expressions of indoor wireless capacity and their asymptotic forms, four effective metrics for evaluating the wireless friendliness of building materials are proposed, i.e., the spatially averaged capacity, the spatially averaged logarithmic eigenvalue sum (LES), the spatially averaged logarithmic eigenvalue product (LEP), and the upper-bound outage probability, which are all over the room of interest. The third contribution is to develop the evaluation schemes for the wireless friendliness of building materials. The optimal values of the relative permittivity and thickness of a building material that maximise the indoor wireless capacity are obtained, shedding light on the selection and/or design of a building material accordingly, and thus paving the way for wireless friendly architectural design. The fourth contribution is to analyse the effects of the WR from building materials on the per-antenna power distribution across a precoded antenna array at a BS or an AP deployed near a wall. An uneven power distribution across antenna elements may reduce the efficiencies of their corresponding radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers. How the per-antenna power distribution changes with the building material’s relative permittivity and thickness is investigated, providing guidelines on the selection and/or design of a building material that alleviates the unevenness of per-antenna power distribution. Simulation results validate the correctness of analytical results as well as the effectiveness of the four proposed evaluation metrics, and demonstrate that the EM and physical properties of building materials have to be delicately selected or designed to avoid the risk of reducing indoor wireless capacity and RF power amplifier efficiency. More specifically, the inappropriate choices of relative permittivity and thickness of a building material may reduce the indoor wireless capacity by up to 13.5% or cause severe unevenness as large as 8 dB in the per-antenna power distribution across a precoded antenna array. The outcomes of this thesis would enable appropriate design and/or selection of building materials for building designers, e.g., civil engineers and architects, and provide wireless-friendliness information for communications engineers

Smart Television Services Using NFV/SDN Network Management

Integrating joint network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networks (SDNs) with digital televisions (TVs) into home environments, has the potential to provide smart TV services to users, and improve their quality of experience (QoE). In this regard, this paper focuses on one of the next generation services so-called follow me service (FMS). FMS is a service offered by 5gNB to user equipments (UEs) in indoor environments (e.g., home), it enables its clients to use their smart phones to select media content from content servers, then cast it on the nearest TV set (e.g., living room) and continue watching on the next TV set (e.g., kitchen) while moving around the indoor coverage area. FMS can be provisioned by utilizing UEs geolocation information and robust mechanisms for switching between multiple 5G radio access technologies (RATs), based on the intelligence of the SDN/NFV intelligent home IP gateway of the Internet of Radio Light (IoRL) project paradigm. In view that the actual IoRL system is at its early development stage, we step forward by using Mininet platform to integrate SDN/NFV virtualization into 5G multi-RAT scenario and provide performance monitoring with measurements for the identified service. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposal under various use case scenarios by means of minimizing the packet loss rate and improving QoE of the home users