Umar Toseef

Game-Theory Based User Centric Network Selection with Media Independent Handover Services and Flow Management

Future envisions universal and uninterrupted access to information owing to the widespread use of heterogeneous wireless technologies. The integration of heterogeneous wireless technologies and existence of multi-mode terminals enable users get associated to the best available networks according to user preferences over different application specific requirements, prices and network technologies. In this paper we present the user-centric network selection decision mechanism, where negotiation between users and network operators is carried out using game-theoretic approach. We model the utility functions of users and network operators in terms of offered prices and service quality. The proposed approach builds on IEEE 802.21standard. Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) and Mobile Internet Protocol (MIPv6) based flow management solutions are given, the later approach is implemented using OPNET modeller simulator. The performance of our approachis compared with Long-term contractual approach in termsof users throughput, users’ cost, operators’ revenue and call blocking probability.

Evaluation of a Network Based Mobility Management Protocol: PMIPv6

The Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) is a network based mobility management protocol standard that was ratified recently by the Network-based Localized Mobility Management (NetLMM) working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). PMIPv6 is a protocol that uses the same concepts as used in Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6), but modified to operate in the network part only instead of involving the Mobile Node (MN) as well. PMPv6 is claimed to posses a number of advantages over the host based mobility management protocols in use today, above all MIPv6. The main advantage of using PMIPv6 is the freeing up of the mobile host in doing any mobility related activities and thereby saving its resources. The saving of resources may result in their usage for other purposes or even enable otherwise capabilities restricted devices to operate in the PMIPv6 domains. Other advantages include reduced signaling traffic volume and no tunneled packets in the access network. These aspects become very important since the access networks in mobile networks usually are air interfaces. Further, PMIPv6 is also becoming a very attractive mobility management protocol for mobile network operators as seen by its inclusion in current 3 rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization as a possible alternative mobility management protocol for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies. In addition to qualitative analyses and comparisons, the work attempts to quantify these advantages to show the achieved benefits. The quantifications are done through measurements in a real test-bed which is installed with a PMIPv6 implementation developed as part of this work.

Dimensioning of the LTE access network

This paper proposes efficient analytical models to dimension the necessary transport bandwidths for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) access network satisfying the QoS targets required by different services. In this paper, we consider two major traffic types: elastic traffic and real time traffic. For each type of traffic, individual dimensioning models are proposed for both the S1 interface and the X2 interface. For elastic traffic the dimensioning models are based on the Processor Sharing models; while for real time traffic the dimensioning models are based on the fundamental queuing models. For validating these analytical dimensioning models, a developed LTE system simulation model is used. Extensive simulations are performed for various traffic and network scenarios. The analytical results derived from the proposed dimensioning models are compared with the simulation results. The presented results demonstrate that the proposed analytical models can appropriately estimate the required performances for different service classes and priorities. Hence they are suitable to be used for dimensioning of the LTE access network with different traffic and network conditions.

Dimensioning of the LTE S1 interface

This paper presents analytical models to dimension the transport bandwidths for the S1 interface in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Network. In this paper, we consider two major traffic types: elastic traffic and real time traffic. For each type of traffic, individual dimensioning models are proposed. For validating these analytical dimensioning models, a developed LTE system simulation model is used. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed models can properly estimate the required performances and thus be able to be used for link dimensioning for various traffic and network scenarios.

Realization of multiple access interface management and flow mobility in IPv6

Internet capable mobile or portable devices are already a modern commodity while it is becoming more and more common that such devices are hosts to more than one wireless network interface. The aim of this work is to show from a users perspective how such a portable device may make best use of this property by using multiple wireless and wired network interfaces simultaneously. This would incline that the intelligent control logic can distribute active flows across the available network interfaces and that it is also able to seamlessly transfer them between the network interfaces in mid-session without interruption. Focus of this work is on the inclusion of user preferences in the decision process, recognizing that future telecommunication systems may include also network conditions and operator preferences.

Dimensioning of the LTE Access Network for the Transport Network Delay QoS

This paper proposes an analytical model for dimensioning transport bandwidths in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) access network. In this work the criterion for dimensioning is the transport network delay QoS (at the packet level). The presented analytical model takes into considerations the key features of the LTE radio interface and the use of Differentiated Service (DiffServ) QoS scheme in the LTE access transport network. Furthermore, the proposed dimensioning approach can be performed for a single transport link as well as for the entire transport network. For validating the analytical dimensioning models, a developed LTE system simulation model is used. The presented results demonstrate that the proposed analytical models can appropriately estimate the transport network delays for different QoS priorities and hence can be used for bandwidth dimensioning for various traffic and network scenarios.

User Satisfaction Based Resource Allocation in Future Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The widespread use of heterogeneous wireless network technologies and their integration with multi-mode terminals enable users to be associated to the best available networks according to user preferences and application specific requirements. We study a user-centric quality of experience based resource allocation problem with several operators, several types of users and different classes of services. We propose a framework for future short term user-operator contractual vision. We also study the equilibrium solution for the mentioned problem using a game-theoretic approach. Based on experimental measurements, we formulate the utility functions for the users and the operators. Our results are validated through OPNET simulations for different service classes including FTP, VoIP and Video streaming over Long Term Evolution (LTE), and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) technologies. We also implement the IPv6 based flow management for congestion avoidance at inter-operator level, and study the performance of various splitting and non-splitting approaches.

Statistical Analysis of Contact Patterns between Human-Carried Mobile Devices

In this paper, we focus on analyzing the impact of human-to-human contact patterns on opportunistic communication in Pocket Switched Networks (PSNs). We take advantage of statistical methods to consider the distributions of two different types of inter-contact time as well as the number of contacts between human-carried mobile devices. Different from the results from recent studies, we present empirical evidence that power law with exponential cutoff characterizes all three distributions of interest better than other possible long-tail distributions. We further show that each of the investigated distributions has a finite mean value. Having a finite mean value is of importance for each distribution, as it facilitates the design of distributed community detection algorithms as well as social-based forwarding algorithms. Finally, we make the recommendation to exploit the average number of contacts as a threshold for each device to determine their friend-set, which is a precondition for some distributed community detection algorithms.

Dimensioning of the LTE access transport network for elastic internet traffic

This paper proposes efficient analytical models to dimension the required transport bandwidths for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) access network for the elastic Internet traffic (which is carried by the TCP protocol). The dimensioning models are based on the use of Processor Sharing queuing theory to guarantee a desired end-to-end application QoS target. For validating the analytical dimensioning models, a developed LTE system simulation model is used. Extensive simulations are performed with various traffic and network scenarios. The analytical results derived from the proposed dimensioning models are compared against the simulation results. The presented results demonstrate that the proposed analytical models can appropriately estimate the application performances of different QoS priorities and thus be used for the link dimensioning for various traffic and network scenarios.

Open Connectivity Services for future networks

This presented work gives an overview on the FP7 project — SAIL, that aims at designing architectures for the Future Networks. The conceptual developments in the work package - Open Connectivity Services (OConS) is the focus of this paper. OConS is proposing an open and flexible architecture framework for handling the connectivities in current and future networks. As exemplary studies, we applied OConS architecture framework to two scenarios: (1) the Mult-P transmission of 3GPP LTE connected with WLAN; (2) the extensions of ICN (Information Centric Networks) supporting Multi-P. They show the flexibility and the openness of OConS, and the benefits expected will be e.g. higher data rates, higher resource utilization and more reliable connectivity.