Performance Evaluation Of Quality Of Service Of A 4g Network In A Tropical Environment

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which is a communication regulatory Authority sets some key Performance Indications (KPIs) that the GSM network providers need to adhere to in order to deliver an efficient and quality network services in the country [1]. In this paper, Transverse Electromagnetic Wave Simulator (TEMS) was used in collecting data (Drive Tests) related to – call setup success rate (CSSR), call drop rate (CDR), paging success rate (PSR), grade of service (GOS), handover success rate (HOSR) etc; from 30 Base transceiver stations (BTS or BS) within Enugu metropolis during a specified period of fifteen working days. The Path Loss Exponent of the Test-Bed was verified to ascertain if it is in agreement with the environment of interest and the Operation and Maintenance Centre Resources (OMCR) statistics and drive test data gathered were analyzed using different graphs. The results of the Investigation of performance of Quality of Service offered by the network provider, Mobile Telecommunications Nigeria (MTN) in Enugu metropolis showed high performance as the network was deployed in the appropriate environment – Shadowed Urban Environment with Path Loss Exponent of 3.12

Evaluating the Perfomance of the Modified Dynamic Hose Model for Virtual Private Networks

This paper is designed to model a Modified Dynamic Hose Algorithm for data traffic management. The Virtual Private Network (VPN) under study was characterized and the data for transmission was modeled. Then Algorithm for Modified Dynamic Hose Model to handle varying traffic rates was developed and simulated using MATLAB. The results obtained from network characterization shows that variation in window size and packet size affects the throughput in a VPN as an increase in window size from 50kb to 100kb improved the throughput generated from 15 for the Conventional Hose Model to 28.3 for the Modified Dynamic Hose Model resulting in 13.3 throughputs, which translate to 47% improvement. Also variation in window size and packet size affects the throughput in a VPN as an increase in window size from 10kb to 50kb resulted to a maximum throughput of 3.01 for the Conventional Model as against 15 for the Modified Dynamic Hose Model resulting to additional 11.99 or improvement of 79.93%. The Modified Dynamic Hose Model algorithm, unlike the Conventional Hose Model, determines whether to drop a particular packet or to queue it thereby improving the bandwidth utilization, minimize latency (delays) and Virtual Private Network Throughput

Experimental Study on the Impact of Weather Conditions on Wide Code Division Multiple Access Signals in Nigeria

In cellular network activities, before a site is integrated it is expected that each cell of the site meets the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) standard of ≥98% for both service accessibility and call completion rate which in turn depicts a ≤2% in both blocked call rate (BCR) and dropped call rate (DCR). It is suggested that weather conditions have a very strong negative effect on the performance of wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) network as it could lead to signal attenuation or change the polarization. In this paper, we study the impact of weather conditions on WCDMA network in Nigeria. To achieve this, network samples (log-files) were collected weekly during a driving test in Enugu State Nigeria for a period of five years for both rainy and dry seasons, in which blocked and dropped calls were extracted. Results show that during adverse weather conditions, BCR and DCR rise greater than 8% and 4% respectively. Although with a slight relationship between the weather conditions, the weather condition during the dry season has a better-blocked call rate of 8.76% in comparison with the rainy season with 12.89%. Calls tend to drop more during the dry season. From the outcome of the experiment, a model was developed for predicting an unknown network call statistics variables

Flowchart for Call Management Scheme through Users Mobility Control

The tremendous popularity of wireless technologies during the last decade has created a considerable expansion of wireless networks both in size and use. These facts, together with a great variety of mobile devices and numerous different services that are becoming increasingly resource-demanding, have attracted the attention of many researchers into the area of radio resource planning and optimization. In wireless cellular networks, it is important to develop model or schemes to facilitate effective and efficient utilization of the limited radio resources. In this paper, flowchart for call management scheme through users mobility control is presented. The flowchart along with the analytical expressions pertaining to the scheme are presented and discussed. Particularly, the scheme improves channel allocation to handoff calls for mobile users by considering the direction of their movement. The direction of mobile users with respect to a base station is captured in terms of mobility factor.  The mobility factor increases as the user moves closer to a base station. In this case, even if the signal strength of ongoing call of a mobile user is sufficient, it channel allocation can still be retained if its mobility factor is relatively high. In this case, the mobile user will be handed off to the base station it has higher mobility factor value

Flowchart for Clustered-Based Channel Allocation Management Scheme

In the GSM system, several Base Transceiver Station (BTS) are controlled by a single Base Station Controller (BSC). In this paper, the BTSs in a given BSC is referred to as a cluster.  In this paper, flowchart for clustered-based channel allocation management scheme is presented. The mechanism is meant to reduce call blocking/dropping to the barest minimum. Usually, traffic intensity value varies from one BTS to another, as it is directly proportional to the number of GSM users that make or receive calls within a particular period of time. In order to maintain a reliable GSM network that will provide minimum call blocking/dropping, the paper presents the flowchart for network resource management scheme that will adopt sharing of traffic loads among BTSs that belong to a particular network cluster. The scheme also considers the following; available channels, mobility factor, offered traffic, number of nearby BTSs, new call arrival rate, handoff call arrival rate and mean call duration. With limited available channels per BTS, instead of blocking a new call or dropping a handoff call whenever a particular BTS reaches its maximum allowable capacity, this newly proposed scheme however checks for a nearby BTS within that cluster that has free channels, and then performs a routine operation that will transfer some percentage of the traffic load to the free nearby BTS. This routine operation therefore allows the BTS to admit more calls

Magnitude and Pattern of Disease Presentation among Students in Federal University of Technology Owerri Nigeria 1*

Abstract: Students' wellbeing is paramount to their effective participation in academic and extracurricular activities. This study described the prevalence and pattern of disease presentation among students attending Federal University of Technology Medical Centre, Owerri, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional hospital based study of consecutive 552 students who gave their informed consent. Data were extracted through clerking, examination and laboratory investigations and they included socio-demographic information and diagnoses. These data were entered into Microsoft Excel 2016 and transported to Xlstat 2015 for analysis. The age distribution of the students revealed that majority of the students (46.4%) were within the age bracket of 17-23years. The mean age of the students was 24 years. The majority of the students (22.6%) were drawn from the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology. The disease pattern of students showed that typhomalaria fever was most prevalent (33.5%), malaria (28.9%), upper respiratory tract infection (21.3%), hypertension (7.3%), peptic ulcer disease (5.7%) and typhoid (3.6%). Malaria was most prevalent during the rainy season in the months of June and July, 36.5% and 35.1% respectively. Strengthening of the primary health care system, application of the principles of integrated vector management and investing substantially in specialist care model will lessen the burden of diseases in the University community

Petromin: the slow death of statist oil development in Saudi Arabia

The paper recounts the history of Saudi Arabia's first national oil company, Petromin, which was originally supposed to take the place of foreign-owned Aramco. As a result of Petromin's inefficiency and personal rivalries among the Saudi elite, however, Petromin was progressively relegated to the sidelines in favour of a gradually 'Saudiised' Aramco. As a result, the organisation of the Saudi oil sector today is very different from - and more efficient than - that of most other oil exporters in the developing world. The paper concludes with a tentative taxonomy of national oil companies, based on the circumstances of nationalisation

Chapter 4. Extract of Africa: Towards the Equitable and Ecologically Sound Governance of Mining and Drilling

Background: Economists and political scientists have long recognised four kinds of goods: private, public, common-pool and club, the assumption being that category membership is determined by the physical properties of the goods themselves. But in the theory of plural rationality—the approach taken in this chapter—where specific goods end up is, to the extent that that is not determined by their physical properties, the outcome of a never-ending struggle between four kinds of social solidarity: individualism (which works towards privatisation), hierarchy (which favours the creation of public goods), egalitarianism (which is supported by common-pool goods) and fatalism (whose upholders enable club goods by the ease with which they can be excluded). Methodology: The study uses historical surveys and case-studies of different contexts where natural resource governance has upset harmonious relationship between different stakeholders. Application/Relevance to systems analysis: Our argument is that policy and governance, particularly in Africa, have allowed (indeed encouraged) individualism and hierarchy to dominate, thereby drowning out the other two institutional “voices”. The result, as we show by way of a continent-wide historical survey and three case-studies—REDD+ in the Democratic Republic of Congo, acid mine drainage in South Africa and oil extraction in Nigeria—has been “crap” governance (in contrast to good governance, which requires that all four voices are both heard and responded to by the others). Put another way, the “resource curse” is not the inevitable consequence of a country being heavily reliant on extractive industries; it stems from insufficient “clumsiness”: exemplified, as Kofi Annan has recently pointed out, by just two solidarities—multinational companies (individualism) and political leaders (hierarchy)—colluding to swindle the citizens out of their just rewards from their natural resources. Policy implications: Of policy implication, is the bringing-in of the two currently excluded voices, and we conclude by showing how, in relation to our case-studies, this can be achieved. Conclusion: Analyses of resource-related conflicts, especially in Africa, have often ignored the voices of the excluded social solidarities. Analysing this problem through a systems perspective will allow the incorporation of all voices as a way of constructing a more harmonious system in natural resource governance