4G Technology Features and Evolution towards IMT-Advanced

Kiinteiden- ja mobiilipalveluiden kysyntä kasvaa nopeasti ympäri maailmaa. Älykkäiden päätelaitteiden, kuten iPhone:n ja Nokia N900:n markkinoilletulo yhdistettynä näiden korkeaan markkinapenetraatioon ja korkealuokkaiseen käyttäjäkokemukseen lisäävät entisestään palveluiden kysyntää ja luovat tarpeen jatkuvalle innovoinnille langattomien teknologioiden alalla tavoitteena lisäkapasiteetin ja paremman palvelunlaadun tarjoaminen. Termi 4G (4th Generation) viittaa tuleviin neljännen sukupolven mobiileihin langattomiin palveluihin, jotka International Telecommunications Union:in Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) on määritellyt ja nimennyt International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced). Nämä ovat järjestelmiä, jotka pitävät sisällään IMT:n ne uudet ominaisuudet, jotka ylittävät IMT-2000:n vaatimukset. Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) ja IEEE 802.16m ovat IMT-A sertifiointiin lähetetyt kaksi pääasiallista kandidaattiteknologiaa. Tässä diplomityössä esitellään kolmannen sukupolven järjestelmien kehityspolku LTE:hen ja IEEE 802.16e-2005 asti. Lisäksi työssä esitetään LTE-Advanced:n ja IEEE 802.16m:n uudet vaatimukset ja ominaisuudet sekä vertaillaan näiden lähestymistapoja IMT-A vaatimusten täyttämiseksi. Lopuksi työssä luodaan katsaus LTE ja IEEE 802.16e-2005 (markkinointinimeltään Mobile WiMAX) -järjestelmien markkinatilanteeseen.The demand for affordable bandwidth in fixed and mobile services is growing rapidly around the world. The emergence of smart devices like the iPhone and Nokia N900, coupled with their high market penetration and superior user experience is behind this increased demand, inevitably driving the need for continued innovations in the wireless data technologies industry to provide more capacity and higher quality of service. The term "4G" meaning the 4th Generation of wireless technology describes mobile wireless services which have been defined by the ITU's Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) and titled International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced). These are mobile systems that include the new capabilities of IMT that go beyond those of IMT-2000. Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) and IEEE 802.16m are the two main candidate technologies submitted for IMT-Advanced certification. This thesis reviews the technology roadmap up to and including current 3G systems LTE from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and IEEE 802.16e-2005 from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Furthermore, new requirements and features for LTE-Advanced and IEEE 802.16m as well as a comparative approach towards IMT-Advanced certification are presented. Finally, the thesis concludes with a discussion on the market status and deployment strategies of LTE and IEEE 802.16e-2005, or Mobile WiMAX as it is being marketed

Handover analysis over mobile WiMAX technology.

As new mobile devices and mobile applications continue to growth, so does the data traffic demand for broadband services access and the user needs toward mobility, thereby, wireless application became today the fastest solution and lowest cost implementation unlike traditional wired deployment such as optical fibers and digital lines. WiMAX technology satisfies this gap through its high network performance over the air interface and high data rates based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 standards, this original specification does not support mobility. Therefore, the IEEE introduces a new standard that enables mobility profiles under 802.16e-2005, from which three different types of handovers process are introduced as hard handover (HHO), macro diversity handover (MDHO) and fast base station switching (FBSS) handover. The objective of this master thesis is to analyze how the handover process affects network performance. The analysis propose three scenarios, built over OPNET simulator to measure the most critical wireless parameter and performance indicator such as throughput, handover success rate, packet drop, delay and network usage.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Inteligência nas decisões de mobilidade

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesActualmente existe uma vasta gama de tecnologias de acesso sem fios como Wi-Fi, GPRS, UMTS, HSDPA and WiMAX. No futuro estas diferentes tecnologias complementar-se-ão convergindo numa infra-estrutura heterogénea capaz de fornecer um melhor serviço aos utilizadores, 4G. A evolução dos terminais móveis também permitirá que estes se liguem simultaneamente às redes de acesso. Assim, o conceito existente de “always connected” dará lugar a um novo paradigma, “always best connected”, que basicamente consiste em que o terminal esteja ligado às redes de acesso mais apropriadas num determinado instante e para serviços específicos. Devido ao aumento da complexidade nas decisões de handover das redes de próxima geração, o objectivo desta dissertação consiste no desenvolvimento de uma arquitectura de suporte a mobilidade inteligente. Este mecanismo deve, dependendo do cenário e do contexto, decidir a melhor distribuição dos serviços dos utilizadores pelas diferentes redes de acesso disponíveis. Para implementá-lo, foi usada uma abordagem simples baseada num protocolo responsável pela troca da informação necessária entre os pontos de acesso, terminais móveis e o elemento inteligente. Este último deverá então, através de informação actualizada, decidir a melhor rede de acesso para cada um dos terminais. De forma a simular a resposta do mecanismo perante várias situações, diferentes cenários foram criados para avaliar o desempenho da rede. Da avaliação dos resultados é possível concluir que a introdução de uma entidade inteligente na rede melhora o seu desempenho e experiência do utilizador. ABSTRACT: Currently there is a wide range of wireless access technologies such as Wi-Fi, GPRS, UMTS, HSDPA and WiMAX. In the future these different technologies will converge in a complementary manner forming a heterogeneous infrastructure able to offer a better service to its users, 4G. The evolution of mobile terminals will also allow them to connect simultaneously to several access networks. Thus, the existing concept of “always connected” becomes “always best connected”, consisting in a terminal connected to the most suitable access networks at a certain moment in time and for specific services. Due to the increase of the complexity in handover decisions on the next generation networks, this Thesis has as main goal the development of an architecture capable of supporting intelligent mobility. This mechanism, depending on the scenario and the context, must decide the best distribution of user’s services through the different access networks. To implement it, a simple approach was used based on a protocol responsible for exchanging the necessary information between access points, mobile terminals and the intelligent element. The latter, through updated information, decides the better access network for each terminal. In order to simulate the response of the mechanism in several situations, different scenarios were built to evaluate the performance of the network. From the evaluation it was possible to conclude that the introduction of an intelligent entity in the network improves its performance and the experience of the user