5,682 research outputs found
Techno-economic viability of integrating satellite communication in 4G networks to bridge the broadband digital divide
Bridging the broadband digital divide between urban and rural areas in Europe is one of the main targets of the Digital Agenda for Europe. Though many technological options are proposed in literature, satellite communication has been identified as the only possible solution for the most rural areas, due to its global coverage. However, deploying an end-to-end satellite solution might, in some cases, not be cost-effective. The aim of this study is to give insights into the economic effectiveness of integrating satellite communications into 4G networks in order to connect the most rural areas (also referred to as white areas) in Europe. To this end, this paper proposes a converged solution that combines satellite communication as a backhaul network with 4G as a fronthaul network to bring enhanced broadband connectivity to European rural areas, along with a techno-economic model to analyse the economic viability of this integration. The model is based on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model for 5 years, taking into account both capital and operational expenditures, and aims to calculate the TCO as well as the Average Cost Per User (ACPU) for the studied scenarios. We evaluate the suggested model by simulating a hypothetical use case for two scenarios. The first scenario is based on a radio access network connecting to the 4G core network via a satellite link. Results for this scenario show high operational costs. In order to reduce these costs, we propose a second scenario, consisting of caching the popular content on the edge to reduce the traffic carried over the satellite link. This scenario demonstrates a significant operational cost decrease (more than 60%), which also means a significant ACPU decrease. We evaluate the robustness of the results by simulating for a range of population densities, hereby also providing an indication of the economic viability of our proposed solution across a wider range of areas
Will 5G See its Blind Side? Evolving 5G for Universal Internet Access
Internet has shown itself to be a catalyst for economic growth and social
equity but its potency is thwarted by the fact that the Internet is off limits
for the vast majority of human beings. Mobile phones---the fastest growing
technology in the world that now reaches around 80\% of humanity---can enable
universal Internet access if it can resolve coverage problems that have
historically plagued previous cellular architectures (2G, 3G, and 4G). These
conventional architectures have not been able to sustain universal service
provisioning since these architectures depend on having enough users per cell
for their economic viability and thus are not well suited to rural areas (which
are by definition sparsely populated). The new generation of mobile cellular
technology (5G), currently in a formative phase and expected to be finalized
around 2020, is aimed at orders of magnitude performance enhancement. 5G offers
a clean slate to network designers and can be molded into an architecture also
amenable to universal Internet provisioning. Keeping in mind the great social
benefits of democratizing Internet and connectivity, we believe that the time
is ripe for emphasizing universal Internet provisioning as an important goal on
the 5G research agenda. In this paper, we investigate the opportunities and
challenges in utilizing 5G for global access to the Internet for all (GAIA). We
have also identified the major technical issues involved in a 5G-based GAIA
solution and have set up a future research agenda by defining open research
problems
Backscatter from the Data Plane --- Threats to Stability and Security in Information-Centric Networking
Information-centric networking proposals attract much attention in the
ongoing search for a future communication paradigm of the Internet. Replacing
the host-to-host connectivity by a data-oriented publish/subscribe service
eases content distribution and authentication by concept, while eliminating
threats from unwanted traffic at an end host as are common in today's Internet.
However, current approaches to content routing heavily rely on data-driven
protocol events and thereby introduce a strong coupling of the control to the
data plane in the underlying routing infrastructure. In this paper, threats to
the stability and security of the content distribution system are analyzed in
theory and practical experiments. We derive relations between state resources
and the performance of routers and demonstrate how this coupling can be misused
in practice. We discuss new attack vectors present in its current state of
development, as well as possibilities and limitations to mitigate them.Comment: 15 page
Content Delivery Latency of Caching Strategies for Information-Centric IoT
In-network caching is a central aspect of Information-Centric Networking
(ICN). It enables the rapid distribution of content across the network,
alleviating strain on content producers and reducing content delivery
latencies. ICN has emerged as a promising candidate for use in the Internet of
Things (IoT). However, IoT devices operate under severe constraints, most
notably limited memory. This means that nodes cannot indiscriminately cache all
content; instead, there is a need for a caching strategy that decides what
content to cache. Furthermore, many applications in the IoT space are
timesensitive; therefore, finding a caching strategy that minimises the latency
between content request and delivery is desirable. In this paper, we evaluate a
number of ICN caching strategies in regards to latency and hop count reduction
using IoT devices in a physical testbed. We find that the topology of the
network, and thus the routing algorithm used to generate forwarding
information, has a significant impact on the performance of a given caching
strategy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that focuses on
latency effects in ICN-IoT caching while using real IoT hardware, and the first
to explicitly discuss the link between routing algorithm, network topology, and
caching effects.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, journal pape
Random Linear Network Coding for 5G Mobile Video Delivery
An exponential increase in mobile video delivery will continue with the
demand for higher resolution, multi-view and large-scale multicast video
services. Novel fifth generation (5G) 3GPP New Radio (NR) standard will bring a
number of new opportunities for optimizing video delivery across both 5G core
and radio access networks. One of the promising approaches for video quality
adaptation, throughput enhancement and erasure protection is the use of
packet-level random linear network coding (RLNC). In this review paper, we
discuss the integration of RLNC into the 5G NR standard, building upon the
ideas and opportunities identified in 4G LTE. We explicitly identify and
discuss in detail novel 5G NR features that provide support for RLNC-based
video delivery in 5G, thus pointing out to the promising avenues for future
research.Comment: Invited paper for Special Issue "Network and Rateless Coding for
Video Streaming" - MDPI Informatio
Separation Framework: An Enabler for Cooperative and D2D Communication for Future 5G Networks
Soaring capacity and coverage demands dictate that future cellular networks
need to soon migrate towards ultra-dense networks. However, network
densification comes with a host of challenges that include compromised energy
efficiency, complex interference management, cumbersome mobility management,
burdensome signaling overheads and higher backhaul costs. Interestingly, most
of the problems, that beleaguer network densification, stem from legacy
networks' one common feature i.e., tight coupling between the control and data
planes regardless of their degree of heterogeneity and cell density.
Consequently, in wake of 5G, control and data planes separation architecture
(SARC) has recently been conceived as a promising paradigm that has potential
to address most of aforementioned challenges. In this article, we review
various proposals that have been presented in literature so far to enable SARC.
More specifically, we analyze how and to what degree various SARC proposals
address the four main challenges in network densification namely: energy
efficiency, system level capacity maximization, interference management and
mobility management. We then focus on two salient features of future cellular
networks that have not yet been adapted in legacy networks at wide scale and
thus remain a hallmark of 5G, i.e., coordinated multipoint (CoMP), and
device-to-device (D2D) communications. After providing necessary background on
CoMP and D2D, we analyze how SARC can particularly act as a major enabler for
CoMP and D2D in context of 5G. This article thus serves as both a tutorial as
well as an up to date survey on SARC, CoMP and D2D. Most importantly, the
article provides an extensive outlook of challenges and opportunities that lie
at the crossroads of these three mutually entangled emerging technologies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 201
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