Andreas Schieder

Ambient networks: an architecture for communication networks beyond 3G

In this article we present a new networking concept referred to as ambient networks, which aims to enable the cooperation of heterogeneous networks belonging to different operator or technology domains. We aim to provide a domain-structured edge-to-edge view for the network control to embrace the heterogeneity arising from the different network control technologies. In this way, it appears as homogeneous to the users of the network services. We aim for an instant network composition to allow rapid adaptation of the network domain topology as required for moving networks. This new view of network composition allows us to treat the communication endpoints as a special case of network domains as well. We introduce the ambient control space, which enables the ambient networks concept and introduce its main features. Two ambient control space functions, media delivery and generic link layer, are presented in more detail. AMBIENT NETWORKS: AN ARCHITECTURE FOR COMMUNICATION NETWORKS BEYOND 3G

Ambient Networks: Co-operative Mobile Networking for the Wireless World

Ambient Networks defines a new kind of network architecture, which embeds support for co operation and competition between diverse network types within a common control layer. This unified networking concept can adapt to the heterogeneous environments of different radio technologies and service and network environments. Special focus is placed on facilitating both competition and co-operation of various market players, by defining interfaces which allow the instant negotiation of cooperation agreements. The Ambient Networking concept has been developed in the framework of the Ambient Networks project, which is co-sponsored by the European Union under the Information Society Technology (IST) priority of the 6th Framework Programme. The Ambient Networks project mobilised the work of researchers from over forty different organisations, both major industrial corporations and leading academic institutions, from Europe and worldwide. This book offers a complete and detailed overview of the Ambient Networking concept and its core technologies. The authors explain the problems with current mobile IP networks and the need for a new mobility-aware IP-based control architecture, before presenting the Ambient Networking concept itself and the business opportunities that it offers. The architecture, components, features and challenges of Ambient Networking are covered in depth, with comprehensive discussions of multi-radio access, generic Ambient Network signalling, mobility support, context and network management and built-in media delivery overlay control. Ambient Networks: Co-operative Mobile Networking for the Wireless World Explains the need for Ambient Networking, discussing the limitations of todays proposed architectures, and explaining the business potential of edge networks and network co-operation. Describes Ambient Networking technology in detail, and addresses the technical challenges for implementation. Includes practical user scenarios which are fully analysed and assessed through simulation studies. Including a complete examination of the research and technologies arising from the Ambient Networks concept, Ambient Networks will be invaluable for research and development teams in networking and communications technology, as well as advanced students in electrical engineering and computer science faculties. Standardisation specialists, research departments, and telecommunications analysts will also find this a helpful resource.

Ambient networks: bridging heterogeneous network domains

Providing end-to-end communication in heterogeneous internetworking environments is a challenge. Two fundamental problems are bridging between different internetworking technologies and hiding of network complexity and differences from both applications and application developers. This paper presents abstraction and naming mechanisms that address these challenges in the Ambient Networks project. Connectivity abstractions hide the differences of heterogeneous internetworking technologies and enable applications to operate across them. A common naming framework enables end-to-end communication across otherwise independent internetworks and supports advanced networking capabilities, such as indirection or delegation, through dynamic bindings between named entities

A performance evaluation of Internet access via the General Packet Radio Service of GSM

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is currently being standardized by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) to extend the services provided by the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The GPRS is dedicated to support packet-oriented traffic, e.g. Internet traffic. Packet oriented transmission is by nature better suited to convey bursty traffic, as it is generated by Internet applications. Applications contributing most to the data volume in the Internet are WWW, FTP and e-mail. This paper presents a simulator, which was developed to assess the performance of the GPRS when used as a means of access to the Internet. The focus is on the evaluation of the interaction between the protocols applied in the Internet and for the GPRS. Only by considering both parts is the assessment of the overall performance, which will be recognized by the end-user, possible. This paper presents the simulation environment and discusses the simulation results regarding the end-to-end performance of TCP/IP based applications. It is shown that the GPRS is a suitable wireless access to Internet applications.

Ambient networks: a framework for future wireless internetworking

An increasingly wireless world faces new challenges due to the dynamicity of interactions, range of applications, multitude of available radio access technologies and network functionality. The ambient networks project recognizes these trends and enables the creation of innovative network solutions for mobile and wireless systems beyond 3G. These networks enables scalable and affordable wireless networking while providing pervasive, rich and easy-to-use communication. A specific focus lies on enabling advanced capabilities in environments with increased competition as well as cooperation, environments that are populated by a multitude of user devices, wireless technologies, network operators and business actors. The project adopts a modular architecture that enables plug-and-play control extensibility that supports a wide range of different applications and network technologies. Based on a small subset of common functionality, this approach supports the dynamic deployment of advanced internetworking capabilities, such as media and context-awareness or multi-radio access.

Advances in network-supported media delivery in next-generation mobile systems

This article presents new concepts for network-supported media delivery in mobile networks. Automatic composition and merging of networks are central parts of these concepts. Media delivery is no longer an end-to-end service that only uses the network as an IP transport. Instead, these concepts create a service-aware network and provide customized delivery support through per-service overlay networks. They also integrate specialized processing nodes as part of the delivery topology, which include transcoders but also more complex processors, such as localized program insertions or personalized spam control. This article describes the underlying concepts and how these new network capabilities for media delivery services are requested, invoked, and managed

Names, addresses and identities in ambient networks

Ambient Networks interconnect independent realms that may use different local network technologies and may belong to different administrative or legal entities. At the core of these advanced internetworking concepts is a flexible naming architecture based on dynamic indirections between names, addresses and identities. This paper gives an overview of the connectivity abstractions of Ambient Networks and then describes its naming architecture in detail, comparing and contrasting them to other related next-generation network architectures.

Enhanced voice over IP support in GPRS and EGPRS

In this paper we discuss the applicability of GPRS and EGPRS for the transmission of voice packets in an end-to-end packet switched scenario. We assume typical voice over IP (VoIP) applications spanning between a fixed and a mobile terminal. As the transmission delay of the voice packets has most impact on the perceived quality of service (QoS), it has been the focus of our investigations. The studies have been aided by an end-to-end simulation environment modeling the protocol stack applied in (E)GPRS. The first assessments performed are dedicated to obtaining the performance figures of standard (E)GPRS systems carrying VoIP data. In a second step, the mechanisms and procedures having most relevance to the transmission delay in (E)GPRS are identified and improvements are proposed. These improvements start from smaller modifications of the standard system and end at modifications of the multiplexing schemes applied on the radio interface. The typical transmission delay of (E)GPRS is thus stepwise improved at the expense of increased modifications of the system.

Buffer management for the interactive bearer in GERAN

In this paper, we describe and evaluate a novel active queue management scheme that has been designed to optimize the transport of TCP-based traffic over GERAN 3rd generation wireless links. By means of simulations, we found that this scheme outperforms traditional passive and popular RED queuing schemes both in terms of link utilization and in terms of the amount of queuing delay introduced.

Network Supported Media Delivery in Ambient Networks (Netzwerkunterstützte Medienverteilung)

This paper presents the vision of Ambient Networking, which is proposed to constitute the control layer of future B3G networks. The main characteristics of the Ambient Network Control Space are introduced and the Ambient Network Media Delivery function is explained in more detail to provide an example for a typical control space component. The description of a Media Delivery prototype complements this article. Dieser Beitrag stellt das Ambient Networking Konzept vor. Dieses Konzept ist ein Vorschlag für eine Steuerungsschicht zukünftiger B3G (beyond 3G) Netze. Die Hauptmerkmale des Ambient Control Spaces werden beschrieben und die Steuerungsfunktion Ambient Media Delivery wird als Beispiel einer typischen Steuerungskomponente des Ambient Control Spaces näher betrachtet. Als Ergänzung der Beschreibung wird im letzten Abschnitt die prototypische Implementierung dieser Steuerungskomponente dargestellt.