LTE-Advanced Enhancements using Femtocells

Funder

Organizational Unit

Publications

Dynamic Configuration and Optimization of WiMAX Networks with Relay Power Saving Modes: Measurement-Based Scenario in a Hilly Region

Publication . Robalo, Daniel; Oliveira, João R.; Velez, Fernando J.; Holland, Oliver; Aghvami, A. Hamid

This paper investigates the performances achievable by WiMAX networks deployed in various sectorization configurations, with and without relay stations (RSs). Further, it studies the dynamic adjustment of the configuration to serve traffic loads at different times of the day while maximising the use of opportunistic sleep modes by relays in conjunction with cell zooming, thereby saving energy. The configuration changes and invocation of opportunistic sleep modes also take into account coverage constraints. This paper first reports extensive propagation measurements that have been undertaken in Covilha˜, a hilly area of Portugal which presents a realistic and challenging propagation scenario. Using this scenario as the topographical basis, practical cellular planning results are then obtained and compared, using the dominant path and ray tracing (RT) functionalities of WinpropTM. It is shown that without RSs present, the supported throughput is lower in practice because coverage is not 100 %. Further, for the case with omnidirectional cells, coverage reduces to only approximately 60 % if RSs go into sleep mode, and for the tri-sectored cells case coverage drops from 95.75 to 81.90 % (based on RT calculations) if RSs go into sleep mode. There is, however, still a reasonable economic performance in all cases. Additional results demonstrate that savings typically of 47.6 % in RSs’ average power consumption can be achieved. These savings are shown to result in a financial saving for the operator of 10 % of the combined operational and maintenance cost. However, it is observed that such solutions have to be used cautiously in hilly regions due to challenges in maintaining coverage.

2015-06Journal article

Open access

A Model for Mapping between the Quality of Service and Experience for Wireless Multimedia Applications

Publication . Robalo, Daniel; Velez, Fernando J.

With nowadays evolution of wireless network technologies and the growth of novel wireless multimedia services it is critical for network and service providers to be able to assess user's perceptual multimedia quality, for commercial and technical reasons. As so, we present wireless network services and applications characterization requirements, updated to current specifications. We considered recommendations for some major regulations entities, such as the ITU, 3GPP, WiMAX Forum and the European project EU-MESH. In the case of audio and video applications, the latest and most used encoding schemes were addressed by considering the WiMAX Forum recommendations. In turn, as not only the Quality of Service (QoS) needs to be addressed, we propose a model for the mapping between QoS parameters and user's Quality of Experience (QoE) for multimedia applications. Measurable QoS parameters can be gathered throughout the network and mapped into an effective QoE estimation. The model has been obtained by means of mathematical regression and the fittings are validated by analysing the coefficient of determination, R2, between the results from our model and MOS experimental values. The achieved results are R2 = 0.94, 0.84 and 0.98 for gaming, video and audio, respectively. The corresponding mean square error is approximately zero in all cases.

2014Conference object

Open access

Model for the correlation between quality of service and experience in cognitive radio networks

Publication . Robalo, Daniel; Velez, Fernando J.

This paper proposes a methodology for the development of a correlation model between Quality of Service and Experience in cognitive radio networks. The aim of this research is to provide the cognitive radio networks ecosystem player the tools to assess the contribution of the network performance to the overall level of user's satisfaction. The performance parameters of several types of applications are addressed to highlight how delay, delay variation and information loss affect the service quality. Furthermore we thoroughly discuss, evaluate and test the proposed methodology, i.e., non-linear regression and genetic algorithms, by comparing it to the IETF recommended games MUSE G-Model. The obtained results are very promising. Future work includes verifying the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in the context of more complex fitting equations.

2011-10Conference object

Open access

Cost/revenue optimization of WiMAX networks with relay power saving modes: Measurement-Based scenario in a hilly region

Publication . Velez, Fernando J.; Oliveira, João; Robalo, Daniel; Holland, Oliver; Aghvami, Hamid

This paper investigates cell zooming and relaying in conjunction with the use of opportunistic sleep modes to save energy at times of low load in WiMAX network deployments. It performs extensive propagation measurements in a hilly area of Covilhã, Portugal, in order to present a realistic and topographically challenging scenario in which to perform dynamic optimizations. It describes these measurements and their methodology in detail. Based on this scenario, it then investigates the performance achievable by networks that are deployed in various sectorization configurations with and without relays, and matches this to varying traffic loads at different times of the day to maximise the use of sleep modes, where possible, by relays, also in consideration of coverage constraints. Results demonstrate that savings typically of 47.6% in relays' average power consumption can be achieved. These savings are shown to map to a financial saving for the operator of 10% in operation and maintenance cost combined. It is also demonstrated that such solutions have to be used cautiously in such hilly regions due to challenges in maintaining coverage.

2012-12Conference object

Open access

Transmitted Power Formulation for the Optimization of Spectrum Aggregation in LTE-A over 800 MHz and 2 GHz Frequency Bands

Publication . Acevedo Flores, Jessica Elizabeth; Robalo, Daniel; Velez, Fernando

This work starts by proposing a formulation to calculate the transmitter power needed to cover cells of different sizes, whilst maintaining the average signal to interference-plus-noise ratio constant, and near the maximum, for two Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems operating over non-contiguous frequency bands, 800 MHz and 2 GHz, with an integrated common radio resource management (iCRRM) entity. In the context of spectrum aggregation (SA), iCRRM is able to switch users between the two LTE-Advanced scenarios to facilitate the best user allocation and maximize the total network throughput in these LTE systems. We address a formulation based on the computation of the average received power and average co-channel interference in cellular topologies with frequency reuse pattern K = 3, keeping the presence of coverage holes insignificant, whilst considering the COST-231 Hata path loss model. We have verified how the normalized power increases as the cell radius increases. The objective of applying this formulation in the dimensioning process is to save power for the shortest coverage distances. It has been found that without SA the maximum average cell throughput is observed in the presence of 80 simultaneous users within the cell (40 for each LTE system, operating in different frequency bands). We have considered traced-based video sessions with a (video) bit rate of 128 kbps. In this scenario, through extensive simulations cell average supported throughput of approximately 6,800, 8,500 and 9,500 kbps have been obtained for the cases without SA (considering the sum of the 800 MHz and 2 GHz systems capacities), with a simple CRRM and with iCRRM, respectively. It was also found that when the peak throughput is achieved with 80 users, the average cell packet loss ratio without SA, with CRRM and iCRRM present values of 22, 11 and 7 %. The average cell delay with both CRRM and iCRRM entities is 22 ms, whereas without SA is equal to 32 ms. Finally, the cost/revenue tradeoff is analysed from the operator/service provider’s point of view, whose main goal is obtain the maximum profit from his business. It was found that CRRM increases the total profit in percentage, compared to a simple allocation, without SA. Nevertheless, the profit growth with iCRRM is even larger, from 253 to 296 % for R = 1,000 m and a price of 0.010 €/MByte. Therefore, our proposal for SA is convenient not only in terms of technical features and QoS, as loss and delay have been obtained within a range of reasonable values, but also in terms of economic aspects.

2017Journal article

Open access