Location Awareness in Beyond 5G Networks

Location awareness is essential for enabling contextual services and for improving network management in 5th generation (5G) and beyond 5G (B5G) networks. This paper provides an overview of the expanding opportunities offered by location awareness in wireless networks, discusses soft information (SI)-based approaches for improved location awareness, and presents case studies in conformity to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Results show that SI-based approaches can provide a new level of location awareness in 5G and B5G networks

Automated Network Service Scaling in NFV: Concepts, Mechanisms and Scaling Workflow

Next-generation systems are anticipated to be digital platforms supporting innovative services with rapidly changing traffic patterns. To cope with this dynamicity in a cost-efficient manner, operators need advanced service management capabilities such as those provided by NFV. NFV enables operators to scale network services with higher granularity and agility than today. For this end, automation is key. In search of this automation, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has defined a reference NFV framework that make use of model-driven templates called Network Service Descriptors (NSDs) to operate network services through their lifecycle. For the scaling operation, an NSD defines a discrete set of instantiation levels among which a network service instance can be resized throughout its lifecycle. Thus, the design of these levels is key for ensuring an effective scaling. In this article, we provide an overview of the automation of the network service scaling operation in NFV, addressing the options and boundaries introduced by ETSI normative specifications. We start by providing a description of the NSD structure, focusing on how instantiation levels are constructed. For illustrative purposes, we propose an NSD for a representative NS. This NSD includes different instantiation levels that enable different ways to automatically scale this NS. Then, we show the different scaling procedures the NFV framework has available, and how it may automate their triggering. Finally, we propose an ETSI-compliant workflow to describe in detail a representative scaling procedure. This workflow clarifies the interactions and information exchanges between the functional blocks in the NFV framework when performing the scaling operation.Comment: This work has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Communications Magazin

Emergency response ICT systems

This audit assessed how Information and Communications Technology systems and processes are used to deliver an emergency service response. Overview Victorians rely on emergency services organisations during emergencies and crisis incidents, and expect a prompt and efficient response to any emergency. This audit assessed how Information and Communications Technology systems and processes are used to deliver an emergency service response. The Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) plays a critical role by taking calls for emergency assistance and dispatching emergency service resources to an incident. Performance is measured against Inspector-General for Emergency Management determined standards. The audit found that when all systems are working, ESTA is meeting call-taking standards but is consistently failing to meet its emergency ambulance dispatch standards. A computer aided dispatch system (CAD) is central to ESTA’s operations. However, when CAD fails, the backup manual card-based process is inadequate. The audit also found that, except for the StateNet Mobile Radio rural communications network, radio systems are modern with up to date technology. However, police channels on the Metropolitan Mobile Radio network can become congested at peak times and when Protective Service Officers are on duty at railway stations. A modern data network is installed in all metropolitan ambulances, but only 30 per cent of operational police vehicles. A new digital radio network for the Country Fire Authority is operating satisfactorily, but should be extended to all other emergency service organisations to overcome the limitations of the analogue rural network.&nbsp

Investigating the Feasibility of Open Development of Operations Support Solutions

The telecommunications Operations Support Systems supply chain must address many stakeholders: R&D, Product and Requirements Management, Purchasing, Systems Integration, Systems Administration and Users. While the management of next generation networks and services poses significant technical challenges, the present supply chain, market configuration, and business practices of the OSS community are an obstacle to rapid innovation. Forums for open development could potentially provide a medium to shorten this supply chain for the deployment of workable systems. This paper discusses the potential benefits and barriers to the open development of OSS for the telecommunications industry. It proposes the use of action research to execute a feasibility study into the open development of OSS software solutions within an industry wide Open OSS project

The history of WiMAX: a complete survey of the evolution in certification and standarization for IEEE 802.16 and WiMAX

Most researchers are familiar with the technical features of WiMAX technology but the evolution that WiMAX went through, in terms of standardization and certification, is missing and unknown to most people. Knowledge of this historical process would however aid to understand how WiMAX has become the widespread technology that it is today. Furthermore, it would give insight in the steps to undertake for anyone aiming at introducing a new wireless technology on a worldwide scale. Therefore, this article presents a survey on all relevant activities that took place within three important organizations: the 802.16 Working Group of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for technology development and standardization, the WiMAX Forum for product certification and the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) for international recognition. An elaborated and comprehensive overview of all those activities is given, which reveals the importance of the willingness to innovate and to continuously incorporate new ideas in the IEEE standardization process and the importance of the WiMAX Forum certification label granting process to ensure interoperability. We also emphasize the steps that were taken in cooperating with the ITU to improve the international esteem of the technology. Finally, a WiMAX trend analysis is made. We showed how industry interest has fluctuated over time and quantified the evolution in WiMAX product certification and deployments. It is shown that most interest went to the 2.5 GHz and 3.5GHz frequencies, that most deployments are in geographic regions with a lot of developing countries and that the highest people coverage is achieved in Asia Pacific. This elaborated description of all standardization and certification activities, from the very start up to now, will make the reader comprehend how past and future steps are taken in the development process of new WiMAX features

Power Systems Monitoring and Control using Telecom Network Management Standards

Historically, different solutions have been developed for power systems control and telecommunications network management environments. The former was characterized by proprietary solutions, while the latter has been involved for years in a strong standardization process guided by criteria of openness. Today, power systems control standardization is in progress, but it is at an early stage compared to the telecommunications management area, especially in terms of information modeling. Today, control equipment tends to exhibit more computational power, and communication lines have increased their performance. These trends hint at some conceptual convergence between power systems and telecommunications networks from a management perspective. This convergence leads us to suggest the application of well-established telecommunications management standards for power systems control. This paper shows that this is a real medium-to-long term possibility

Australian commercial-critical infrastructure management protection

Secure management of Australia\u27s commercial critical infrastructure presents ongoing challenges to owners and the government. Although managed via a high-level information sharing collaboration of government and business, critical infrastructure protection is further complicated by the lack of a lower-level scalable model exhibiting its various levels, sectors and sub-sectors. This research builds on the work of Marasea (2003) to establish a descriptive critical infrastructure model and also considers the influence and proposed modelling of critical infrastructure dependency inter-relationships.<br /

A study of a Java based framework for telecommunications services : a dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science, Massey University, New Zealand

Additional content held on disk with print copy in Library.In this report, we study some of the general issues surrounding the area of telecommunications service development including the history of telecommunications services, current service creation techniques and the network used by services. We also discuss the lack of service portability and reasons for it. The JAIN framework – a set of Java APIs for integrated networks – is introduced as an approach that elegantly addresses this. We present a survey of recent work in telecommunications services that relate to JAIN. This includes a discussion of the feature interaction problem, an overview of the Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture, in particular, its relationship with JAIN, and the rapidly advancing field of Internet Telephony. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the JAIN approach we present designs for two advanced services that use the JAIN framework. These services are Internet Call Waiting and Click-to-Dial. Finally, areas for future research are introduced

State-of-the-art in Power Line Communications: from the Applications to the Medium

In recent decades, power line communication has attracted considerable attention from the research community and industry, as well as from regulatory and standardization bodies. In this article we provide an overview of both narrowband and broadband systems, covering potential applications, regulatory and standardization efforts and recent research advancements in channel characterization, physical layer performance, medium access and higher layer specifications and evaluations. We also identify areas of current and further study that will enable the continued success of power line communication technology.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. Special Issue on Power Line Communications and its Integration with the Networking Ecosystem. 201