A survey of handover algorithms in DVB-H

Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H) is a standard for broadcasting IP Datacast (IPDC) services to mobile handheld terminals. Based on the DVB-T standard, DVB-H adds new features such as time slicing, MPE-FEC, in-depth interleavers, mandatory cell id identifier, optional 4K-modulation mode and the use of 5 MHz bandwidth in addition to the usually used 6, 7, or 8 MHz raster. IPDC over DVB-H is proposed for ETSI to complement the DVB-H standard by combining IPDC and DVB-H in an end-to-end system. Handover in such unidirectional broadcasting networks is a novel issue. In the last few years since the birth of DVB-H technology, great attention has been given to the performance analysis of DVB-H mobile terminals. Handover is one of the main research topics for DVB-H in mobile scenarios. Better reception quality and greater power efficiency are considered to be the main targets of handover research for DVB-H. New algorithms for different handover stages in DVB-H have been the subject of recent research and are currently being studied. Further novel algorithms need to be designed to improve the mobile reception quality. This article provides a comprehensive survey of the handover algorithms in DVB-H. A systematic evaluation and categorization approach is proposed based on the problems the algorithms solve and the handover stages being focused on. Criteria are proposed and analyzed to facilitate designing better handover algorithms for DVB-H that have been identified from the research conducted by the author

Advanced mobile network monitoring and automated optimization methods

The operation of mobile networks is a complex task with the networks serving a large amount of subscribers with both voice and data services, containing extensive sets of elements, generating extensive amounts of measurement data and being controlled by a large amount of parameters. The objective of this thesis was to ease the operation of mobile networks by introducing advanced monitoring and automated optimization methods. In the monitoring domain the thesis introduced visualization and anomaly detection methods that were applied to detect intrusions, mal-functioning network elements and cluster network elements to do parameter optimization on network-element-cluster level. A key component in the monitoring methods was the Self-Organizing Map. In the automated optimization domain several rule-based Wideband CDMA radio access parameter optimization methods were introduced. The methods tackled automated optimization in areas such as admission control, handover control and mobile base station cell size setting. The results from test usage of the monitoring methods indicated good performance and simulations indicated that the automated optimization methods enable significant improvements in mobile network performance. The presented methods constitute promising feature candidates for the mobile network management system.reviewe

Soft handover issues in radio resource management for 3G WCDMA networks

PhDMobile terminals allow users to access services while on the move. This unique feature has driven the rapid growth in the mobile network industry, changing it from a new technology into a massive industry within less than two decades. Handover is the essential functionality for dealing with the mobility of the mobile users. Compared with the conventional hard handover employed in the GSM mobile networks, the soft handover used in IS-95 and being proposed for 3G has better performance on both link and system level. Previous work on soft handover has led to several algorithms being proposed and extensive research has been conducted on the performance analysis and parameters optimisation of these algorithms. Most of the previous analysis focused on the uplink direction. However, in future mobile networks, the downlink is more likely to be the bottleneck of the system capacity because of the asymmetric nature of new services, such as Internet traffic. In this thesis, an in-depth study of the soft handover effects on the downlink direction of WCDMA networks is carried out, leading to a new method of optimising soft handover for maximising the downlink capacity and a new power control approach

Outdoor location tracking of mobile devices in cellular networks

This paper presents a technique and experimental validation for anonymous outdoor location tracking of all users residing on a mobile cellular network. The proposed technique does not require any intervention or cooperation on the mobile side but runs completely on the network side, which is useful to automatically monitor traffic, estimate population movements, or detect criminal activity. The proposed technique exploits the topology of a mobile cellular network, enriched open map data, mode of transportation, and advanced route filtering. Current tracking algorithms for cellular networks are validated in optimal or controlled environments on a small dataset or are merely validated by simulations. In this work, validation data consisting of millions of parallel location estimations from over a million users are collected and processed in real time, in cooperation with a major network operator in Belgium. Experiments are conducted in urban and rural environments near Ghent and Antwerp, with trajectories on foot, by bike, and by car, in the months May and September 2017. It is shown that the mode of transportation, smartphone usage, and environment impact the accuracy and that the proposed AMT location tracking algorithm is more robust and outperforms existing techniques with relative improvements up to 88%. Best performances were obtained in urban environments with median accuracies up to 112 m

Using Software Engineering Approach in Mitigating QoS Challenges in Mobile Communication Networks in Nigeria

As a result of telecommunication poor Quality of Service (QoS) in Nigeria with respect to voice ,data and video services, several works have been carried out using approaches such as drive test, survey design with statistical computation techniques, modeling simulation, etc. These have been employed to carry out comprehensive evaluation and optimization of Quality of Service (QoS) of Mobile Cellular Networks in Nigeria. In this context, there are five major Key Performance Indices (KPIs) which are usually considered for the evaluation, viz: Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Call Completion Rate (CCR), Call Drop Rate (CDR), Call Handover Success Rate (CHSR) and Standalone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH). In this paper, following data collated from a recently conducted drive test KPIs, we leveraged software engineering SDLC concepts, particularly using JAVA programming language to develop an optimization drive test plant for improving QoS thresholds by service providers. A test dataset for the months of April and March 2012 was used in the drive test plant design. In this regard, the raw data set, the optimized dataset and the normalized data sets were shown in the drive test plant. Relevant flowcharts were developed and discussed in the context of the drive test plant. This work argued that with the drive test plant properly integrated into the vendors Mobile Switching Centers (MSC), the QoS thresholds by NCC will be satisfied. Consequently, this work calls for a mobile community driven responses while future work will focus on integration validations necessary to boost the performance of the KPIs in order to guarantee a better Quality of Service.Keywords: Quality of Service, Cellular, Networks, Software Engineering, Thresholds, Validations, Optimization

On the Minimization of Handover Decision Instability in Wireless Local Area Networks

This paper addresses handover decision instability which impacts negatively on both user perception and network performances. To this aim, a new technique called The HandOver Decision STAbility Technique (HODSTAT) is proposed for horizontal handover in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) based on IEEE 802.11standard. HODSTAT is based on a hysteresis margin analysis that, combined with a utilitybased function, evaluates the need for the handover and determines if the handover is needed or avoided. Indeed, if a Mobile Terminal (MT) only transiently hands over to a better network, the gain from using this new network may be diminished by the handover overhead and short usage duration. The approach that we adopt throughout this article aims at reducing the minimum handover occurrence that leads to the interruption of network connectivity (this is due to the nature of handover in WLAN which is a break before make which causes additional delay and packet loss). To this end, MT rather performs a handover only if the connectivity of the current network is threatened or if the performance of a neighboring network is really better comparing the current one with a hysteresis margin. This hysteresis should make a tradeoff between handover occurrence and the necessity to change the current network of attachment. Our extensive simulation results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms other decision stability approaches for handover decision algorithm.Comment: 13 Pages, IJWM

Performance measurements and analysis of the existing wireless communication technology in Iraq.

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityIraq may be considered as the largest wireless market in the Gulf region. A key driving factor in the market of wireless communication, it has seen enormous growth in the mobile phone market over the last five years leading to almost 24 million subscribers in 2011. Moreover, there are several technologies and services working in Iraq; three GSM Operators, three CDMA national operators and three CDMA provinces operators. The recent growth in the mobile phone market is based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standards creating the next-generation wireless technologies in the Iraqi Wireless Communication market. One of the essential issues of this research is to investigate the performance of the decreased Quality Of Service (QoS) caused by interferences in the services on GSM/CDMA operators in Iraq. Many issues should be studied and taken into consideration, such as; does the Multi-Coalition Forces cause the interferences, jamming, higher rate of calls drop and false ringing; or are they caused by bad design and planning? Do we need to optimise our network due to the large number of users? All these factors are investigated and the measurements of most service providers and government agencies will be gathered. A detailed analysis was included from the providers with measurements of performance and the reasons for the deterioration of wireless services. The novel contributions of this thesis is the extensive radio measurement campaign over the three mobile an CDMA operator networks and the analysis and recommendations that were drawn to suggest the best approach to improve the QoS of Wireless communication technologies. Awareness of actual reasons behind the deterioration of services will be raised to the Iraqi Government, CMC and the wireless service providers