Álvaro Gomes

Converged wireless networking and optimization for next generation services

The Next Generation Network (NGN) vision is tending towards the convergence of internet and mobile services providing the impetus for new market opportunities in combining the appealing services of internet with the roaming capability of mobile networks. However, this convergence does not go far enough, and with the emergence of new coexistence scenarios, there is a clear need to evolve the current architecture to provide cost-effective end-to-end communication. The LOOP project, a EUREKA-CELTIC driven initiative, is one piece in the jigsaw by helping European industry to sustain a leading role in telecommunications and manufacturing of high-value products and machinery by delivering pioneering converged wireless networking solutions that can be successfully demonstrated. This paper provides an overview of the LOOP project and the key achievements that have been tunneled into first prototypes for showcasing next generation services for operators and process manufacturers.

WiMAX for Emergency Services: An Empirical Evaluation

WiMAX, as a Broadband Wireless Access technology for Metropolitan Area Networks, supporting fixed and mobile terminals, is very promising for Next Generation Networks. Emergency Services can also strongly benefit from WiMAX features, allowing the exploitation of novel application scenarios and business models. This paper presents a set of scenarios, such as Environmental Monitoring, Telemedicine and Fire Prevention, defined and implemented in several European testbeds, interconnected by the European research network GEANT 2, in the framework of the WEIRD project. In particular, we focus our attention on the scenario implemented in the Portuguese testbed - Fire Prevention - providing a detailed description about the testbed planning, implementation and evaluation.

Dynamic Licensed Shared Access - A New Architecture and Spectrum Allocation Techniques

This paper proposes a new system architecture for Licensed Shared Access (LSA) wireless networks, as well as novel band management techniques for fair and ranking-based spectrum allocation. The proposed architecture builds upon recently standardized and regulatory-accepted LSA systems and stems from the work done in the EU-funded project ADEL. Two new resource allocation algorithms are introduced and their behaviour is validated via system-level simulations.

Dynamic LSA for 5G networks the ADEL perspective

Exploiting additional radio spectrum is key to respond to the unprecedented capacity demands of mobile broadband communication systems in recent years. In fact, most of the frequency bands suitable for mobile communications are already in use by other radio services, and spectrum refarming is usually not possible or constitutes a highly time-consuming procedure. At the same time, several field measurement campaigns have shown that the occupied spectrum below 6GHz is severely underutilized, i.e. there exist “spectrum holes” in the time, frequency, and space dimensions, pointing to the possibility of using spectrum sharing as a mean to better exploit additional spectral resources. Licensed shared access (LSA) is a recent spectrum licensing paradigm that allows licensees to share the licensed spectrum of incumbents without causing harmful interference and ensuring a certain quality-of-service (QoS) for both types of players. The EU-funded project ADEL aims to enhance the current LSA paradigm by introducing 1) dynamic radio resource management (RRM), 2) sensing reasoning, based on database-assisted collaborative sensor networking, and 3) an extension to the LSA architecture that allows a more effective RRM, increasing QoS satisfaction and policy enforcement for all players, finally leading to an overall improved spectrum utilization. The key features of ADELs enhanced LSA paradigm are outlined throughout the remainder of this paper.

C2POWER Approach for Power Saving in Multi-standard Wireless Devices

4G networks promise higher data rates and continuous connectivity to multi-standard mobile devices, but at the expense of higher power requirements. Energy is a critical resource for mobile devices, which depend on batteries for power supply. Battery capacity is finite and battery industry is slow, with no promises of any breakthrough in the near future. Therefore, there is a critical necessity for developing new disruptive energy saving techniques, if mobile users are to enjoy the offered advanced applications while roaming freely, in addition to having more environmentally friendly systems. Otherwise mobiles users will relentlessly be searching for power outlets rather than network access, becoming once again bound to a single location. To avoid the so called 4G “Energy Trap”, the ICT-C2POWER project addresses the issue of power efficient communication from the user devices through to the core infrastructure of the network and investigates how different entities interact with each other. The C2POWER project will investigate how cognitive and cooperative techniques can be applied for reducing power consumption of wireless mobile devices. The goal of C2POWER is to study, develop and demonstrate energy saving technologies for multi-standard wireless mobile devices, exploiting the combination of cognitive and cooperative techniques. This paper provides an overview of C2POWER project, highlighting its innovative approach, the considered scenarios, and challenges.

SWOT analysis for TV white spaces

The digital dividend will occur when the transition from analogue to digital television TV becomes effective. The freed and interleaved spectrum, known as TV white spaces TVWS, may be a good opportunity for business related with new wireless services based on software-defined radio SDR and cognitive radio CR technologies. In this scope, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats SWOT analysis-which is a tool to help in the identification of inner internal origin and outer external origin factors of a company, service or product, which characterise its position in the market-is considered a useful tool to evaluate the chances of success for this new spectrum usage paradigm. In this work, we present a suitable SWOT analysis for the use of TV white spaces considering three different reference scenarios in the European context: spectrum of commons, secondary spectrum market and prioritised services public safety.Copyright

IEEE 802.16 Packet Scheduling with Traffic Prioritization and Cross-Layer Optimization

WiMAX is emerging as a broadband wireless access technology to satisfy end user expectations, containing a new set of advantages in terms of throughput, coverage and QoS support at the MAC level which allows convergence of several different types of applications and services. For that reason, the allocation of resources or scheduling becomes of greater importance. This paper focuses on a cross-layer scheduling optimization solution for IEEE 802.16. The relevant features of the proposed packet scheduling optimization scheme consist: of prioritization of users within the same traffic class, allowing for example to an operator, differentiated treatment among users, for instance distinguishing between premium or gold users and silver users; and also cross layer optimization which implies radio resource optimization and a more effective scheduler decision. Simulation scenarios are presented to demonstrate how the scheduling solution allocates resources through particular WiMAX MAC layer implementation in the NS-2 simulator. Results show that the new mechanism implementation results in an improvement to the simple Round Robin fashion present in the original simulation model, being able to increase differentiation between different classes and decrease packets delay, due to its cross-layer processing and traffic prioritization.

Toward 5G: Smart and Green Scenarios

The first wave of 4th Generation systems is finally being deployed over Europe, providing a vehicle for broadband mobile services at anytime, anyplace and anywhere. However, mobile traffic is still growing (Cisco in Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update 2012–2017, [1]) and the need for more sophisticated broadband services will further push the limit on current standards to provide even tighter integration between wireless technologies and higher speeds, requiring a new generation of mobile communications: the so-called 5G. The evolution towards 5G is considered to be the convergence of internet services with legacy mobile networking standards leading to the commonly used term “mobile internet” over heterogeneous networks (HetNets), with very high connectivity speeds. In addition, green communications seem to play a pivotal role in this evolutionary path with key mobile stake holders driving momentum towards a greener society through cost-effective design approaches. In fact it is becoming increasingly clear from new emerging services and technological trends that energy and cost per bit reduction, service ubiquity, and high speed connectivity are becoming desirable traits for next generation networks. This chapter provides an introduction to the solutions presented in the book, by investigating potential smart and energy efficient scenarios for the 5G paradigm, which explores how cooperation working in synergy with seamless handovers using context information can provide the platform for significant energy saving at the mobile device. Given these scenarios, we define the system requirements and propose a functional architecture on which solutions proposed throughout this book are built.

Business Models for Cooperation

Identifying attractive business models for the network/service provider and users based on cooperation is essential in order to secure the adoption of this technology. In this chapter, we identify new business models showing how we exploit cooperation between user terminals and heterogeneous networks and operators. However, enabling technology based on cooperation raises some hurdles that need to be addressed such as motivation, selfish behaviours, among others; all if which are challenges that can be best addressed at the business level rather than technology wise; for example, without tailored incentive mechanisms, operators will face difficulties to implement cooperation among users. This chapter focuses mainly on the business models, addressing the importance of reducing the global power consumption. This chapter provides a survey of existing business models, which can be tailored to fit the approaches proposed within the book. Based on our survey, motivations and challenges are identified. Different business solutions are proposed using use cases to emphasize the selection of cooperation scenarios and network sharing.

Platform for Quality of Experience Evaluation in Real Time Applications over LTE Networks

GREEN-T is a CELTIC-Plus project which lists as one of its goals to develop and implement a 4G emulator, allowing the end-user to evaluate the quality of experience of real-time based services. There are many simulators for various wireless technologies (LTE, UMTS, WI-FI) and almost all of them have as outputs different values, such as bitrate, received power, SNR, depending on the simulation type. In spite of the reliability of these simulators, it is difficult to understand the impact of those values in real communication. This paper describes the implementation of an LTE emulator based on system simulator results where the end user can experience real time and real scenario communication conditions and interactivity with applications. This platform aims to convert the merely numerical values, obtained through the use of simulation tools, to a real-time experience for the simulated scenario. We demonstrate a 2Mbits/s bitrate video application, with a BER value of around \( 1 \times 10^{ - 6} \) or a received power around 1 nW in a simulation scenario. In spite of the fact that the implementation was based on the LTE, protocols of other 4G and 5G networks will be allowed to be used and tested, since they are IP based protocols like LTE.