Mobile WiMAX Performance Investigation

Although the Mobile-WiMAX technology is being deployed in the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and in the Mideast, there are still ongoing discussions about the potential of this technology. What is really remarkable, in fact, with regard to the Mobile-WiMAX profile, is the high number of degrees of freedom that are left to manufacturers. The final decision on a lot of very basic and crucial aspects, such as, just to cite few of them, the bandwidth, the frame duration, the duplexing scheme and the up/downlink traffic asymmetry, are left to implementers. It follows that the performance of this technology is not clear yet, even to network operators. This consideration motivated our work, which is focused on the derivation of an analytical framework that, starting from system parameters and implementation choices, allows to evaluate the performance level provided by this technology, carefully taking all aspects of IEEE802.16e into account. In particular, the analysis starts from the choices to be made at the physical layer, among those admitted by the specification, and "goes up" through the protocol pillar to finally express the application layer throughput and the number of supported voice over IP (VoIP) users, carefully considering "along the way" all characteristics of the the medium access control (MAC) layer, the resource allocation strategies, the overhead introduced, the inherent inefficiencies, etc

Mobile Networks

The growth in the use of mobile networks has come mainly with the third generation systems and voice traffic. With the current third generation and the arrival of the 4G, the number of mobile users in the world will exceed the number of landlines users. Audio and video streaming have had a significant increase, parallel to the requirements of bandwidth and quality of service demanded by those applications. Mobile networks require that the applications and protocols that have worked successfully in fixed networks can be used with the same level of quality in mobile scenarios. Until the third generation of mobile networks, the need to ensure reliable handovers was still an important issue. On the eve of a new generation of access networks (4G) and increased connectivity between networks of different characteristics commonly called hybrid (satellite, ad-hoc, sensors, wired, WIMAX, LAN, etc.), it is necessary to transfer mechanisms of mobility to future generations of networks. In order to achieve this, it is essential to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of current protocols and the diverse topologies to suit the new mobility conditions

Escalonamento de pacotes áudio e vídeo em redes WiMAX em malha com QoS

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e Telecomunicações´E evidente na actualidade que os utilizadores procuram cada vez mais aceder a servi¸cos multim´edia e aplica¸c˜oes interactivas nos seus terminais m´oveis. H´a, portanto, uma necessidade de implementar arquitecturas de Qualidadede- Servi¸co (QoS) e Qualidade-de-Experiˆencia (QoE) robustas, que sejam capazes de fornecer um atraso baixo para as aplica¸c˜oes interactivas, ao mesmo tempo que lidam com outro tipo de aplica¸c˜oes que requerem uma maior largura de banda, mas com mais tolerˆancia a atrasos, desta forma maximizando a utiliza¸c˜ao dos recursos dispon´ıveis na rede e melhorando a experiˆencia do utilizador final. A norma IEEE 802.16 representa uma das tecnologias mais avan¸cadas e de maior relevˆancia para o acesso sem fios em banda larga a redes de ´area metropolitana. O modo de opera¸c˜ao Ponto-multiponto (PMP) do IEEE 802.16 foi desenvolvido para suportar requisitos de QoS, control´avel pelo operador da rede, e desta forma complementando as solu¸c˜oes m´oveis de terceira-gera¸c˜ao j´a existentes. Um modo alternativo de opera¸c˜ao em malha (MESH) permite a cria¸c˜ao de redes flex´ıveis e auto-configur´aveis em que o tr´afego ´e encaminhado atrav´es de v´arios n´os. Esta tese aborda os temas de QoS e QoE quando aplicados a redes sem fios em malha, operando sobre a norma IEEE 802.16. S˜ao contribu´ıdos melhoramentos e an´alises de desempenho a uma nova arquitectura para trazer suporte de QoS ao modo de opera¸c˜ao MESH do standard 802.16. Tamb´em ´e apresentado um novo escalonador de pacotes com o objectivo de melhorar a qualidade subjectiva de servi¸cos de ´audio, v´ıdeo e transferˆencia de ficheiros que o utilizador final experiencia. Os resultados provenientes de simula¸c˜oes demonstram tanto a eficiˆencia da arquitectura QoS em termos de medidas objectivas como taxa de transfer ˆencia e atraso de pacotes, como o bom funcionamento do escalonador de pacotes para QoE, com melhorias vis´ıveis em m´etricas de qualidade subjectiva.It is clear nowadays that users are becoming increasingly interested in accessing multimedia and interactive applications on their mobile terminals. Therefore, there is a need to implement robust Quality-of-Service (QoS) and Quality-of-Experience (QoE) architectures capable of providing low delay for such interactive applications, while at the same time dealing with other bandwidth-hungry but more delay-tolerant services, and thereby maximizing the network’s available resources and improving the end-user experience. The IEEE 802.16 standard represents one of the most relevant and advanced technologies for broadband wireless access in metropolitan area networks. The point-to-multipoint (PMP) mode of IEEE 802.16 has been designed to support quality of service (QoS) requirements, controlled by the network operator, thus complementing the existing third-generation mobile solutions. An alternative mesh (MESH) mode of operation allows the creation of flexible, self-configuring networks with traffic routing through various nodes. This thesis approaches the subjects of QoS and QoE when applied to wireless mesh networks operating under the IEEE 802.16 standard. It provides improvements and performance evaluations of a new architecture to bring QoS support to the 802.16 MESH mode of operation. It also presents a new packet scheduler with the aim to improve the subjective quality of audio, video and file transfer services, as experienced by the end user. Simulation results demonstrate both the efficiency of the QoS architecture in terms of objective measurements such as throughput and packet delay, and the good functioning of the QoE-aware packet scheduler, with noticeable increases in subjective quality metrics

A Survey on 5G Usage Scenarios and Traffic Models

The fifth-generation mobile initiative, 5G, is a tremendous and collective effort to specify, standardize, design, manufacture, and deploy the next cellular network generation. 5G networks will support demanding services such as enhanced Mobile Broadband, Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications and massive Machine-Type Communications, which will require data rates of tens of Gbps, latencies of few milliseconds and connection densities of millions of devices per square kilometer. This survey presents the most significant use cases expected for 5G including their corresponding scenarios and traffic models. First, the paper analyzes the characteristics and requirements for 5G communications, considering aspects such as traffic volume, network deployments, and main performance targets. Secondly, emphasizing the definition of performance evaluation criteria for 5G technologies, the paper reviews related proposals from principal standards development organizations and industry alliances. Finally, well-defined and significant 5G use cases are provided. As a result, these guidelines will help and ease the performance evaluation of current and future 5G innovations, as well as the dimensioning of 5G future deployments.This work is partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project TEC2016-76795-C6-4-R)H2020 research and innovation project 5G-CLARITY (Grant No. 871428)Andalusian Knowledge Agency (project A-TIC-241-UGR18)

Lightweight mobile and wireless systems: technologies, architectures, and services

1Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering (ICSE), University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece 2Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI), University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy 3Department of Informatics, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 574 00 Macedonia, Greece 4Centre Tecnologic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), 08860 Barcelona, Spain 5North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, NC 27695, US

A study of mobile VoIP performance in wireless broadband networks

Voice service is to date still the killer mobile service and the main source for operator revenue for years to come. Additionally, voice service will evolve from circuit switched technologies towards packet based Voice over IP (VoIP). However, using VoIP over wireless networks different from 3GPP cellular technologies makes it also a disruptive technology in the traditional telecommunication sector. The focus of this dissertation is on determining mobile VoIP performance in different wireless broadband systems with current state of the art networks, as well as the potential disruption to cellular operators when mobile VoIP is deployed over different access networks. The research method is based on an empirical model. The model and experiments are well documented and based on industry standards for voice quality evaluation. The evaluation provides results from both experiments in a controlled laboratory setup as well as from live scenarios. The research scope is first, evaluate each network technology independently; second, investigate vertical handover mobility cases; third, determine other aspects directly affecting end user experience (e.g., call setup delay and battery lifetime). The main contribution of this work is a systematic examination of mobile VoIP performance and end user experience. The research results point out the main challenges for achieving call toll quality, and how derive the required changes and technological performance roadmap for improved VoIP service. That is, investigate how the performance and usability of mobile VoIP can eventually be improved to be a suitable substitute for circuit switched voice. In addition, we evaluate the potential disruption to cellular operators that mobile VoIP brings when deployed over other access networks. This research extends the available knowledge from simulations and provides an insight into actual end user experience, as well as the challenges of using embedded clients in handheld devices. In addition, we find several issues that are not visible or accounted for in simulations in regard to network parameters, required retransmissions and decreased battery lifetime. The conclusion is that although the network performance of several wireless networks is good enough for near toll quality voice in static scenarios, there are still a number of problems which make it currently unfeasible to use as a primary voice service. Moreover, under mobility scenarios performance is degraded. Finally, there are other issues apart from network performance such as energy consumption, hardware limitations and lack of supporting business models (e.g., for WiFi mesh) that further limit the possibility of rolling out mobile VoIP services

Energy efficiency in next generation wireless networks: methodologies, solutions and algorithms

Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) networks will offer in the forthcoming years multiple and differentiated services to users with high mobility requirements, connecting via portable or wearable devices which rely on the use of batteries by necessity. Since such devices consume a relatively large fraction of energy for transmitting/receiving data over-the-air, mechanisms are needed to reduce power consumption, in order to increase the lifetime of devices and hence improve user’s satisfaction. Next generation wireless network standards define power saving functions at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, which allow user terminals to switch off the radio transceiver during open traffic sessions for greatest energy consumption reduction. However, enabling power saving usually increases the transmission latency, which can negatively affect the Quality of Service (QoS) experienced by users. On the other hand, imposing stringent QoS requirements may limit the amount of energy that can be saved. The IEEE 802.16e standard defines the sleep mode is power saving mechanism with the purpose of reducing energy consumption. Three different operation classes are provided, each one to serve different class of traffic: class I, best effort traffic, class II real time traffic and class III multicast traffic. Several aspects of the sleep mode are left unspecified, as it is usually done in standards, allowing manufacturers to implement their own proprietary solutions, thus gaining a competitive advantage over the rivals. The work of this thesis is aimed at verifying, the effectiveness of the power saving mechanism proposed into IEEE 802.16e standard, focusing on the mutual interaction between power saving and QoS support. Two types of delay constrained applications with different requirements are considered, i.e., Web and Voice over IP (VoIP). The performance is assessed via detailed packet-level simulation, with respect to several system parameters. To capture the relative contribution of all the factors on the energy- and QoS-related metrics, part of the evaluation is carried out by means of 2k · r! analysis. Our study shows that the sleep mode can achieve significant power consumption reduction, however, when real time traffic is considered a wise configuration of the parameters is mandatory in order to avoid unacceptable degradation of the QoS. Finally, based on the guidelines drawn through the analysis, we extend our contribution beyond a simple evaluation, proposing a power saving aware scheduling framework aimed at reducing further the energy consumption. Our framework integrates with existing scheduling policies that can pursue their original goals, e.g. maximizing throughput or fairness, while improving the energy efficiency of the user terminals. Its effectiveness is assessed through an extensive packet level simulation campaign

Security-centric analysis and performance investigation of IEEE 802.16 WiMAX

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