Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'LTE Radio Access'

The most important fact in the mobile industry at the moment is that demand for wireless services will continue to expand in the coming years. Therefore, it is vital to find more spectrums through cognitive radios for the growing numbers of services and users. However, the spectrum reallocations, enhanced receivers, shared use, or secondary markets-will not likely, by themselves or in combination, meet the real exponential increases in demand for wireless resources. Network operators will also need to re-examine network architecture, and consider integrating the fibre and wireless networks to address this issue. This thesis involves driving fibre deeper into cognitive networks, deploying microcells connected through fibre infrastructure to the backbone LTE networks, and developing the algorithms for diverting calls between the wireless and fibre systems, introducing new coexistence models, and mobility management. This research addresses the network deployment scenarios to a microcell-aided cognitive network, specifically slicing the spectrum spatially and providing reliable coverage at either tier. The goal of this research is to propose new method of decentralized-to-distributed management techniques that overcomes the spectrum unavailability barrier overhead in ongoing and future deployments of multi-tiered cognitive network architectures. Such adjustments will propose new opportunities in cognitive radio-to-fibre systematic investment strategies. Specific contributions include: 1) Identifying the radio access technologies and radio over fibre solution for cognitive network infrastructure to increase the uplink capacity analysis in two-tier networks. 2) Coexistence of macro and microcells are studied to propose a roadmap for optimising the deployment of cognitive microcells inside LTE macrocells in the case of considering radio over fibre access systems. 3) New method for roaming mobiles moving between microcells and macrocell coverage areas is proposed for managing spectrum handover, operator database, authentication and accounting by introducing the channel assigning agent entity. The ultimate goal is to reduce unnecessary channel adaptations.

A drastic increase in traffic of mobile broadband is seen in the past few years, which is further accelerated by the increase in usage of smart phones and its applications. The availability of good smart phones and better data connectivity are encouraging mobile users to use video services. This huge increase in usage will pose a lot of challenges to the wireless networks. The wireless network has to become content aware in order to offer enhanced quality of video service through efficient utilization of the wireless spectrum. This thesis focuses on improving the Quality of Experience (QoE) for video transmission over Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks by imparting the content awareness to the system and providing unequal error protection for critical video packets. Two different schemes for the improvement of video quality delivery over LTE networks are presented in this thesis. Using content awareness, the retransmission count of Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) are changed dynamically such that the most important video frame gets more number of retransmission attempts, which increases its success for delivery in-turn increasing the received video quality. Since Radio Link Control (RLC) is the link layer for radio interface, the second approach focuses on optimizing this layer for efficient video transmission. As part of this scheme, a new operation mode called Hybrid Mode (HM) for RLC is defined. This mode performs retransmission only for the critical video frames, leaving other frames to unacknowledged transmission. The simulation results of both proposed schemes provide significant improvement in achieving good video quality without affecting the system performance.

In the LTE access networks, the Radio Resource Management (RRM) is one of the most important modules which is responsible for handling the overall management of radio resources. The packet scheduler is a particular sub-module which assigns the existing radio resources to each user in order to deliver the requested services in the most efficient manner. Data packets are scheduled dynamically at every Transmission Time Interval (TTI), a time window used to take the user’s requests and to respond them accordingly. The scheduling procedure is conducted by using scheduling rules which select different users to be scheduled at each TTI based on some priority metrics. Various scheduling rules exist and they behave differently by balancing the scheduler performance in the direction imposed by one of the following objectives: increasing the system throughput, maintaining the user fairness, respecting the Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR), Head of Line (HoL) packet delay, packet loss rate and queue stability requirements. Most of the static scheduling rules follow the sequential multi-objective optimization in the sense that when the first targeted objective is satisfied, then other objectives can be prioritized. When the targeted scheduling objective(s) can be satisfied at each TTI, the LTE scheduler is considered to be optimal or feasible. So, the scheduling performance depends on the exploited rule being focused on particular objectives. This study aims to increase the percentage of feasible TTIs for a given downlink transmission by applying a mixture of scheduling rules instead of using one discipline adopted across the entire scheduling session. Two types of optimization problems are proposed in this sense: Dynamic Scheduling Rule based Sequential Multi-Objective Optimization (DSR-SMOO) when the applied scheduling rules address the same objective and Dynamic Scheduling Rule based Concurrent Multi-Objective Optimization (DSR-CMOO) if the pool of rules addresses different scheduling objectives. The best way of solving such complex optimization problems is to adapt and to refine scheduling policies which are able to call different rules at each TTI based on the best matching scheduler conditions (states). The idea is to develop a set of non-linear functions which maps the scheduler state at each TTI in optimal distribution probabilities of selecting the best scheduling rule. Due to the multi-dimensional and continuous characteristics of the scheduler state space, the scheduling functions should be approximated. Moreover, the function approximations are learned through the interaction with the RRM environment. The Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms are used in this sense in order to evaluate and to refine the scheduling policies for the considered DSR-SMOO/CMOO optimization problems. The neural networks are used to train the non-linear mapping functions based on the interaction among the intelligent controller, the LTE packet scheduler and the RRM environment. In order to enhance the convergence in the feasible state and to reduce the scheduler state space dimension, meta-heuristic approaches are used for the channel statement aggregation. Simulation results show that the proposed aggregation scheme is able to outperform other heuristic methods. When the aggregation scheme of the channel statements is exploited, the proposed DSR-SMOO/CMOO problems focusing on different objectives which are solved by using various RL approaches are able to: increase the mean percentage of feasible TTIs, minimize the number of TTIs when the RL approaches punish the actions taken TTI-by-TTI, and minimize the variation of the performance indicators when different simulations are launched in parallel. This way, the obtained scheduling policies being focused on the multi-objective criteria are sustainable. Keywords: LTE, packet scheduling, scheduling rules, multi-objective optimization, reinforcement learning, channel, aggregation, scheduling policies, sustainable.

En tant qu'étape importante vers une société intelligente, hormis la communication d'humain à humain (H2H), les réseaux sans fil de l'avenir devraient prendre en charge la communication machine-à-machine (également connue sous le nom de MTC). Ce dernier est un nouveau paradigme de communication dans lequel les terminaux peuvent parler les uns avec les autres sans ou avec peu d'intervention humaine. Avec la prolifération rapide des applications M2M, un grand nombre de terminaux seront déployés dans de nombreux types d'applications telles que le comptage intelligent, l'automatisation de l'industrie, la télésanté, etc.Cependant, les réseaux sans fil actuels ne sont toujours pas prêts pour écouler correctement le trafic des MTC. La raison en est double. Tout d'abord, l'évolution du réseau sans fil vise à augmenter le débit et à réduire le délai. Deuxièmement, les caractéristiques spéciales des MTC, telles qu'un nombre très élevé de terminaux déployés, une petite charge utile mais une transmission fréquente, un emplacement souvent d'installation défavorable, etc., font que les exigences de H2H ne sont pas partagés par la plupart des cas d'utilisation M2M.À partir de l'état de l'art, nous distinguons deux orientations de recherche possibles pour gérer efficacement le trafic M2M: Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) et adaptation des réseaux cellulaires existants. Pour les deux pistes, les mécanismes d'accès radio, utilisés dans le réseau d'accès radio (RAN) sont d'une importance vitale pour assurer le succès de MTC. De ce point de vue, le mécanisme d'accès radio est le principal objectif de nos études. Dans cette thèse, nous présentons les contributions couvrant les aspects susmentionnés.Les contributions de cette thèse sont résumées dans les points suivants:Nous faisons état de l'art sur les études liées à l'efficacité énergétique des MTC de la littérature. La contribution principale de cette enquête est de passer en revue, classifier les travaux de recherche existants dans différentes catégories, et de comparer les avantages et les inconvénients entre les catégories. Nous parlons également des progrès de l'approche basée sur les LPWAN.Nous étudions l'impact de la diversité du niveau de puissance d'émission et du contrôle de puissance imparfait sur les systèmes LPWAN en slotted-ALOHA. Quelques directives de conception perspicaces sont obtenues en manipulant le modèle analytique établi.Nous étudions les performances du système LPWAN avec la diversité de la réception macro. En utilisant la géométrie stochastique, nous établissons des formules simples de forme fermée pour le taux de perte de paquets et le débit spatial. Ces formules sont très utiles pour analyser les réseaux LPWAN (en particulier dans les zones urbaines) et pour quantifier le gain de capacité du système. En rassemblant plusieurs résultats disponibles sur l'analyse de l'ALOHA pure, nous obtenons finalement un cadre de synthèse pour étudier le RAN de LPWAN.En termes d'adaptations au RAN des réseaux LTE, nous analysons d'abord le mécanisme d'accès aléatoire conventionnel dans LTE et identifions les inefficacités existantes. Nous proposons ensuite un service d'interrogation multipériodique pour les cas d'utilisation M2M périodiques. Le service proposé est comparé au mécanisme d'accès aléatoire conventionnel en LTE dans un modèle fluide. Les résultats numériques montrent que le service proposé réduit considérablement la consommation des ressources système telles que l'identificateur temporaire de réseau radio (RNTI), le bloc de ressources (RB) et a une efficacité énergétique supérieure en raison de l'évitement de la procédure d'accès aléatoire et des messages de signalisation associés
As a key step toward a smart society, apart from the Human-to-Human (H2H) communication, the future wireless networks, are expected to accommodate Machine-to-Machine Communication (also known as Machine Type Communication (MTC)). The latter is a new communication paradigm in which the devices can talk with each other without or with little human intervention. With the rapid proliferation of M2M applications, a huge number of devices will be deployed in many types of use cases such as smart metering, industry automation, e-health, etc. However, the current wireless networks are still not ready to hold traffic from MTC. The reason is twofold. First, the evolution of the wireless network seeks for higher throughput and lower latency. Second, the special features that MTC exhibits, such as huge number of deployed devices, small payload but frequent transmission, adverse installation location, etc., lead to that the requirements by H2H are no longer required by most of M2M use cases.From the state-of-the-art work, we find that two possible research orientations to efficiently handle M2M traffic: Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) and adaption of the existing cellular networks. For both of them, the radio access mechanisms, used in Radio Access Network (RAN), is vitally important to make MTC a promising technology. From this view, radio access mechanism is the main focus of our studies. In this thesis, we present the contributions covering the aforementioned aspects: performance evaluation of ALOHA-based LPWAN networks, and a polling service that is an extension to RAN of LTE networks for periodic M2M traffic.The contributions of this thesis are summarized on the following axis: We make a survey about the energy efficiency related studies in the literatures. The main contribution in this survey is to review, classify the existing research works into different categories, and compare the pros and cons between categories. We also review the advances of the LPWAN related study. We study the impact of transmit power level diversity and imperfect power control to the slotted ALOHA based LPWAN systems. Some insightful design guidelines are obtained by manipulating the established analytical model. We study the performance of LPWAN system with macro reception diversity. By stochastic geometry, we get simple closed-form formulas for the packet loss rate and spatial throughput, which were unknown before. These formulas are very useful to analyze LPWAN networks (especially in urban areas) and to quantify the system capacity gain. By gathering several available results about the analysis of non slotted ALOHA, we finally get a synthesis framework to study the RAN of LPWAN. In terms of adaptations to RAN of LTE networks, we first analyze the conventional random access mechanism in LTE and identify the existing inefficiencies. We then propose a multiple period polling service for periodic M2M use cases. The proposed service is compared with conventional random access mechanism in LTE in a fluid model. The numerical results show that the proposed service dramatically reduces the consumption of system resources such as Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI), Resource Block (RB) and has a higher energy efficiency due to the avoidance of random access procedure and related signaling messages

Le Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) est une future direction dans les réseaux de communications sans fils pour déployer des systèmes cellulaires 4G et renforcer la migration des opérateurs vers la nouvelle génération 5G. En comparaison avec l'architecture traditionnelle des stations de base distribuées, l'architecture C-RAN apporte un lot d'avantages à l'opérateur: meilleure utilisation des ressources radio, flexibilité du réseau, minimisation de la puissance consommée et amenuisement des coûts de déploiement. Dans cette thèse, nous adressons le problème d'allocation dynamique des ressources et minimisation de la puissance des communications à liaison descendante dans le C-RAN. Notre recherche vise à allouer les ressources radio à des flux dynamiques d'utilisateurs, tout en trouvant les meilleures combinaisons entre points d'accès et unités de calculs, pour satisfaire la demande de trafic. Il s'agit en outre, d'un problème d'optimisation non linéaire et NP-difficile, comprenant plusieurs contraintes relatives aux demandes de ressources des utilisateurs, gestion d'interférences, capacités fixes des unités de calcul dans le Cloud et des liaisons de transport ainsi que la limitation de la puissance transmise maximale. Afin de surmonter la complexité inhérente à cette problématique du C-RAN, nous présentons différentes approches pour l'allocation dynamique des ressources en trois principales contributions. Les résultats de nos simulations prouvent l'efficacité de nos méthodes, comparé à celles existantes dans la littérature, en termes de taux de débit de satisfaction, nombre d'antennes actives, puissance consommée dans le Cloud, résilience et coût opérationnel du C-RAN
Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is a future direction in wireless communications for deploying cellular radio access subsystems in current 4G and next-generation 5G networks. In the C-RAN architecture, BaseBand Units (BBUs) are located in a pool of virtual base stations, which are connected via a high-bandwidth low latency fronthaul network to Radio Remote Heads (RRHs). In comparison to standalone clusters of distributed radio base stations, C-RAN architecture provides significant benefits in terms of centralized resource pooling, network flexibility and cost savings. In this thesis, we address the problem of dynamic resource allocation and power minimization in downlink communications for C-RAN. Our research aims to allocate baseband resources to dynamic flows of mobile users, while properly assigning RRHs to BBUs to accommodate the traffic and network demands. This is a non-linear NP-hard optimization problem, which encompasses many constraints such as mobile users' resources demands, interference management, BBU pool and fronthaul links capacities, as well as maximum transmission power limitation. To overcome the high complexity involved in this problem, we present several approaches for resource allocation strategies and tackle this issue in three stages. Obtained results prove the efficiency of our proposed strategies in terms of throughput satisfaction rate, number of active RRHs, BBU pool processing power, resiliency, and operational budget cost

This thesis proposes four novel techniques to solve the problem of growing energy consumption requirements in cellular communication networks. The first and second part of this work propose a novel energy efficient scheduling mechanism and two new bandwidth management techniques, while the third part provides an algorithm to actively manage the power state of base stations (BSs) so that energy consumption is minimized throughout the day while users suffer a minimal loss in achieved data rate performance within the system. The proposed energy efficient score based scheduler (EESBS) is based on the already existing principle of score based resource allocation. Resource blocks (RBs) are given scores based on their energy efficiency for every user and then their allocation is decided based on a comparison between the scores of the different users on each RB. Two additional techniques are introduced that allow the scheduler to manage the user’s bandwidth footprint or in other words the number of RBs allocated. The first one, bandwidth expansion mode (BEM), allows users to expand their bandwidth footprint while retaining their overall transmission data rate. This allows the system to save energy due to the fact that data rate scales linearly with bandwidth and only logarithmically with transmission power. The second technique, time compression mode (TCoM), is targeted at users whose energy consumption is dominated by signalling overhead transmissions. If the assumption is made that the overhead is proportional to the number of RBs allocated, then users who find themselves having low data rate demands can release some of their allocated RBs by using a higher order modulation on the remaining ones and thus reduce their overall energy expenditure. Moreover, a system that combines all of the aforementioned scheduling techniques is also discussed. Both theoretical and simulation results on the performance of the described systems are provided. The energy efficient hardware state control (EESC) algorithm works by first collecting statistical information about the loading of each BS during the day that is due to the particular mobility patterns of users. It then uses that information to allow the BSs to turn off for parts of the day when the expected load is low and they can offload their current users to nearby cell sites. Simplified theoretical, along with complete system computer simulation, results are included. All the algorithms presented are very straightforward to implement and are not computationally intensive. They provide significant energy consumption reductions at none to minimal cost in terms of experienced user data rate.

Single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) has become a popular alternative to orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM) in multi-user communication on LTE uplink systems. This is primarily due to the low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of SC-FDMA compared to that of OFDM. Long-term evolution (LTE) uses SC-FDMA on the uplink to exploit this PAPR advantage to reduce transmit power amplifier (PA) back-off in mobile user terminals. However, the latest generation of communication systems requires high power efficiency and a large quantity of capacity in transmitting mobile data, bringing out some other critical problems: 1) the nonlinearity of Radio Frequency (RF) power amplifiers inevitably affects the power efficiency. Working beyond the saturation point is the main reason for power amplifiers having nonlinear properties; 2) In order to obtain adequate capacity, wide bandwidth is applied to the latest communication systems. Since in previous systems the pre-distorter would focus on memory-less distortion with relatively narrow bandwidth, this change makes memory distortion become a serious issue, degrading the transmission quality in the wireless communication systems. The intent of this thesis is to present nonlinear analysis of the SC-FDMA Spectrum with the RF power amplifier. Relevant mathematical models were considered and applied to the RF power amplifier in terms of intermodulation products and the third-order intercept point. The equivalent mathematical model is applied for the first time to SC-FDMA signals and with the previous formulation of the PA model, the derivation of the expressions for spectrum regrowth of amplified SC-FDMA signals was first established and finally simulated with Matlab software. The digital pre-distortion (DPD) technology was also applied to SC-FDMA signals for the first time in this thesis. An inverse intermodulation and Autoregressive Moving-Average (IM-ARMA) model was introduced to linearize the PA distortion with memory in the LTE uplink system. The DPD was finally implemented by Matlab R2010b. Conclusions are drawn that amplified power emission levels can be expressed by the form of third-order intercept point (IP_3). The expressions for spectrum regrowth of amplified SC-FDMA signals have been verified for the first time with the comparison of simulation, measurement and calculation results. The effects of third order intermodulation have a greater impact than higher order components with respect to out-of-band emission power levels. Furthermore, the DPD algorithm reduced the spectrum regrowth of SC-FDMA signals by 12 dB. The proposed pre-distorter can effectively solve the distortion problem caused by the memory effect in RF power amplifier.

Given the ever increasing reliance of today’s society on ubiquitous wireless access, the paradigm of dynamic spectrum access (DSA) as been proposed and implemented for utilizing the limited wireless spectrum more efficiently. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is growing in popularity for adoption into wireless services employing DSA frame- work, due to its high bandwidth efficiency and resiliency to multipath fading. While these advantages have been proven for many wireless applications, including LTE-Advanced and numerous IEEE wireless standards, one potential drawback of OFDM or its non-contiguous variant, NC-OFDM, is that it exhibits high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPR), which can induce in-band and out-of-band (OOB) distortions when the peaks of the waveform enter the compression region of the transmitter power amplifier (PA). Such OOB emissions can interfere with existing neighboring transmissions, and thereby severely deteriorate the reliability of the DSA network. A performance-enhancing digital pre-distortion (DPD) technique compensating for PA and in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulator distortions is proposed in this dissertation. Al- though substantial research efforts into designing DPD schemes have already been presented in the open literature, there still exists numerous opportunities to further improve upon the performance of OOB suppression for NC-OFDM transmission in the presence of RF front-end impairments. A set of orthogonal polynomial basis functions is proposed in this dissertation together with a simplified joint DPD structure. A performance analysis is presented to show that the OOB emissions is reduced to approximately 50 dBc with proposed algorithms employed during NC-OFDM transmission. Furthermore, a novel and intuitive DPD solution that can minimize the power regrowth at any pre-specified frequency in the spurious domain is proposed in this dissertation. Conventional DPD methods have been proven to be able to effectively reduce the OOB emissions that fall on top of adjacent channels. However more spectral emissions in more distant frequency ranges are generated by employing such DPD solutions, which are potentially in violation of the spurious emission limit. At the same time, the emissions in adjacent channel must be kept under the OOB limit. To the best of the author’s knowledge, there has not been extensive research conducted on this topic. Mathematical derivation procedures of the proposed algorithm are provided for both memoryless nonlinear model and memory-based nonlinear model. Simulation results show that the proposed method is able to provide a good balance of OOB emissions and emissions in the far out spurious domain, by reducing the spurious emissions by 4-5 dB while maintaining the adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) improvement by at least 10 dB, comparing to the PA output spectrum without any DPD.

La préservation de l’environnement et des ressources naturelles pour les prochaines générations est aujourd’hui considérée comme un des axes les plus prioritaires dans presque tous les secteurs économiques. Le secteur des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication est loin d’être épargné de cette tendance écologique. Nous considérons dans cette thèse la problématique de la conservation d’énergie dans le contexte technologique actuel caractérisé par: • La coexistence d’une multitude de technologies d’accès sans fil offrant un environnement riche et dynamique • Des terminaux mobiles multimodaux • Limitations persistantes des sources d’énergie sur les terminaux mobiles. Dans ce contexte très riche, les possibilités offertes aux usagers sont à double tranchant. D’un côté, elles peuvent très bien améliorer la QoS en offrant toujours la meilleure connectivité en fonction du contexte de l’utilisateur. D’un autre côté, et sans une bonne optimisation de la consommation d’énergie sur le terminal, la disponibilité de celui-ci peut vite diminuer et donc faire baisser la QoE à cause de l’énergie nécessaire pour gérer plusieurs interfaces radio en parallèle. Nous considérons essentiellement les liens entre les stations de base (ou les point d’accès) et les terminaux mobiles. Notre objectif étant d’analyser la consommation d’énergie sur ces liens pour ensuite proposer des contributions permettant de mieux la maitriser. Nous focalisons essentiellement sur l’exploitation des multiples interfaces et du multi-flux pour étudier, analyser et proposer des solutions dynamiques et adaptatives d’ordonnancement, de sélection et de gestion d’interfaces minimisant la consommation d’énergie
Since the last decades, environmental issues are becoming among the major concerns for most human activities, including the Information and Communication Technologies sector. This will surely influence upcoming networking technologies, architectures and usage practices. New approaches and methodologies are required in order to evaluate and to reduce the Carbon Footprint toward what is commonly denoted as Green Networks. Within the ICT sector, the main efforts are related to energy saving techniques. These efforts started in early stages within wireless technologies, mainly because of energy limitations on mobile devices such as mobile phones and wireless sensors. Additionally, because of health considerations, standardization bodies and government had set stringent policies and limits on electromagnetic radiation levels that can be emitted by radio stations. For these reasons, many academic and industrial research and development activities had led to a number of relatively energy efficient solutions. In this thesis, we consider energy efficiency in the context of Heterogeneous Wireless Access Networks. These are composed of multi-standards wireless network solutions, with non uniform topologies and cell sizes and Multi-Modal mobile terminals able to manage simultaneously different connections. The main contributions of our studies include the proposal of new optimization solutions regarding user association and scheduling techniques at both flow and packet levels for multi-homed mobile terminals. An overall context-based solution is also proposed in order to provide end-to-end energy efficient networking solutions

Le réseau mobile est un réseau hybride avec une partie d’accès radio et le réseau central de liaison fixe. Les algorithmes de contrôle de congestion (CCA) conçus pour un type de système spécifique peuvent ne pas fonctionner aussi bien dans l’autre type de réseau, en particulier le réseau avec un dispositif de fonctionnalité hybride comme le réseau de périphérie mobile. Généralement, le goulot d’étranglement dans un réseau mobile est la partie accès radio. Cependant, ce n’est pas toujours le cas puisque plusieurs stations de base radio ou passerelle de réseau de livraison de paquets peuvent partager le même goulot d’étranglement dans le backhaul de livraison de paquets. Dans cette thèse, nous partons d’une méthode cross-layer et abordons le problème avec une solution omniprésente. Le premier algorithme que nous avons analysé est appelé CQIC, qui implique la couche PHY de l’UE dans la conception du contrôle de la congestion. Une amélioration du scénario 3G CQIC au scénario LTE est proposée sous le nom de DCIC. Cet algorithme utilise l’indicateur de commande de liaison descendante (DCI) au lieu de l’indicateur de qualité de canal (CQI) pour économiser la puissance de calcul sur l’UE et prendre en compte le résultat de la planification d’eNB. En outre, nous avons évalué l’algorithme BBR actuel, qui se concentre sur le réseau du centre de données, dans le scénario mobile. La plupart des CCA conventionnels ne prennent pas en compte la dégradation du BW de liaison montante et les autres caractéristiques du système cellulaire dans sa méthode d’estimation de la largeur de bande. Sur la base de cet examen, nous avons proposé les cinq objectifs de compromis pour guider la conception de l’ACC dans un type de réseau hybride mobile: utilisation de la bande passante, délai (où la perte est l’expression extrême du retard), équité, simplicité et généricité. Sur la base des compromis et des objectifs, nous avons proposé le CDBE, une estimation de la bande passante pilotée par le client TCP (CDBE) et une boucle de rétroaction de rapport. La méthode d’estimation BW côté client ne prend que peu de capacité de calcul dans la deuxième version, par rapport à la première version ou CQIC et DCIC. Coopérer avec la transition d’état côté serveur améliorée CDBE peut atteindre une part équitable de BW dans le réseau central `a paquets fixes ou le réseau mobile avec un coût de RTT inférieur à celui des CCA conventionnels. Aucune unité / application de boîtier de médiation ou de périphérie n’est requise dans l’architecture CDBE
The mobile network is a hybrid network with Radio Access part and the fixed backhaul core network. The congestion control algorithms(CCA) designed for a specific type of system may not work as well in the other kind of network, especially the network with hybrid feature device like the mobile edge network. Generally, the bottleneck in a mobile network is the Radio access part. However, this is not always the case since multiple radio base stations or packet delivery network gateway can be sharing the same bottleneck in the packet delivery backhaul. In this thesis, we start from a cross-layer method and address the issue with a ubiquitous solution. The first algorithm we analysed is called CQIC, which get the PHY layer of UE involved in the congestion control design. An improvement from 3G CQIC to LTE scenario is proposed named DCIC. This algorithm uses the Downlink Control Indicator(DCI) instead of Channel Quality Indicator(CQI) to save the computation power on UE and take the scheduling result of eNB into consideration. Further, we evaluated current BBR algorithm, which focuses on the data centre network, in the mobile scenario. Most conventional CCA does not take the uplink BW degradation and other features in the cellular system into consideration in its bandwidth estimation method. Based on the review, we proposed the five tradeoff objectives to guide the CCA design in a mobile hybrid type of network: Bandwidth Utilisation, Delay (where loss is the extreme expression of delay), Fairness, Simplicity and Genericity. Based on the tradeoffs and goals, we proposed CDBE, a TCP clientside driven bandwidth estimation(CDBE) and report feedback loop. The client-side BW estimation method takes only little computation capability in the second version, compared to its first version and the DCIC. Cooperate with the enhanced server-side state transition CDBE can achieve a fair share of BW in both fixed packet core network or mobile network with a lower cost of RTT compared to conventional CCAs. No extra middlebox or edge computing unit/applications is required in CDBE architecture

Abstract Sharing is emerging as one of the megatrends influencing future business opportunities, and wireless communications is no exception to this development. Future mobile broadband networks will operate on different types of spectrum bands including shared spectrum, which calls for changes in the operation and management of the networks. The creation and capture of value by the different players in the mobile broadband ecosystem is expected to change due to regulation, technology, and business landscape related drivers that concern not only spectrum sharing, but also sharing of other resources such as infrastructure, technologies, or data. This thesis examines the key business and technology enablers needed to exploit spectrum sharing in mobile broadband networks, and presents the business model characteristics and strategic choices that spectrum sharing concepts support. Action research and integral scenarios methodologies were applied for strategic and business analysis utilizing the capacity and expertise of the policy, business and technology research communities. The thesis introduces a new approach to analyze the scalability of the spectrum sharing concepts and their business model elements utilizing sharing economy antecedent factors. The results indicate that all analyzed sharing concepts meet basic requirements to scale. The Licensed Shared Access (LSA) leverages existing assets and capabilities of the mobile network operator domain, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) extends the business model dynamics from connectivity to content, context and commerce, and the hybrid usage of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band by Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) and downlink Long Term Evolution (LTE) (HUHF) enables new collaborative opportunities between converging communication, Internet and media domains. The thesis validates the feasibility of spectrum sharing between mobile broadband networks and other types of incumbent spectrum users utilizing Finnish cognitive radio field trial environment (CORE), and expands the notion of spectrum sharing beyond the mobile broadband domain to be applied to other wireless systems including the media and broadcasting. The presented results can be used in developing the future mobile broadband systems enhanced with innovative spectrum sharing enabled business models to cope with the growing demand for capacity and new services by humans and machines
Tiivistelmä Jakamistalous on yksi suurista tulevaisuuden liiketoimintamahdollisuuksiin vaikuttavista trendeistä, eikä langaton tietoliikenne ole tässä poikkeus. Tulevaisuuden laajakaistaiset matkapuhelinverkot tulevat hyödyntämään erityyppisiä radiotaajuuksia, kuten jaettuja taajuuskaistoja, mikä vaatii muutoksia verkkojen toimintoihin ja hallintaan. Eri toimijoiden arvonluonti- ja ansaintamahdollisuuksien odotetaan muuttuvan näissä liikkuvan laajakaistan ekosysteemeissä regulaation, teknologian ja liiketoimintaympäristön kehittyessä, ei vain taajuuksien jakamisessa, vaan myös kun kyseessä on muiden resurssien kuten infrastruktuurin, teknologioiden tai tiedon jakaminen. Väitöskirja tutkii teknologia- ja liiketoimintaedellytyksiä taajuusjakomenetelmille matkapuhelinverkoissa, sekä esittelee ja analysoi menetelmien mahdollistamia liiketoimintamalleja ja strategisia valintoja. Strategia- ja liiketoiminta-analyyseissä käytettiin toimintatutkimus- ja skenaariomenetelmiä poikkitieteellisissä tutkimusprojekteissa yhteistyössä reguloinnin, liiketoiminnan ja tekniikan tutkimusyhteisöjen kanssa. Tutkimus esittelee uuden lähestymistavan taajuusjakotekniikoiden liiketoimintamallien skaalautuvuuden analysointiin jakamistalouden määritelmiä hyödyntäen. Tulokset osoittavat, että kaikki tutkitut tekniikat täyttävät perusedellytykset skaalautuvuudelle; Licensed Shared Access (LSA) hyödyntäen matkapuhelinoperaattorin olemassa olevia resursseja ja kyvykkyyksiä, Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) laajentaen liiketoimintamalleja tietoliikenteestä sisältöön, kontekstiin ja kaupankäyntialustoihin, sekä digitaalitelevision ja langattoman LTE-tekniikan hybridikäyttö UHF-taajuuskaistalla (HUHF) mahdollistaen uusia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia lähentyvien tietoliikenne-, Internet- ja mediaekosysteemien välillä. Väitöskirja tulokset vahvistivat taajuuden jakamisen soveltuvuuden liikkuvan laajakaistaverkon ja saman taajuusalueen eri teollisuudenalan haltijan välillä suomalaisessa CORE kenttätestausympäristössä, ja laajensivat taajuusjakotekniikan sovellettavuutta myös muihin langattomiin järjestelmiin sisältö- ja mediajakelussa. Esitettyjä tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää tulevaisuuden langattomien laajakaistaverkkojen kehitystyössä vastaamaan ihmisten ja koneiden kasvaviin tietoliikennepalveluiden ja -kapasiteetin tarpeisiin hyödyntäen tehokkaita taajuusjakotekniikoita ja niiden mahdollistamia innovatiivisia liiketoimintamalleja

La presente tesina titulada “Modernización de la red de acceso de un operador móvil para el caso de Lima Metropolitana” expone una propuesta para un operador que tiene como objetivo poder incrementar su cobertura de servicio de segunda y cuarta generación, para esto se definen conceptos teóricos en base a lo que son las tecnologías de telefonía móvil celular de tipo GSM, UMTS y LTE y se compararan con las características técnicas de los equipos que se plantean usar demostrándose que estos pueden optimizar la red de acceso del operador en cobertura y funcionamiento para brindar un mejor servicio en base a 2G y 4G. Para lograr el objetivo propuesto, esta tesina describe el diseño y dimensionamiento de proyecto, pasos para su ejecución, especificaciones técnicas de los equipos, procedimiento para la puesta en servicio y resultados en base a pruebas del servicio y KPI. The current thesis entitled “Modernización de la red de acceso de un operador móvil para el caso de Lima Metropolitana” exposes a proposal for a mobile operator that has as a target increase their second and fourth generator coverage. For achieve this we have to defined theoric concepts based on the mobile telecommunication technology GSM, UMTS and LTE and compare with the features of equipment proposed to use proving that the coverage and performance of the access network of the operator can be improved for provide a better 2G and 4G service. For achieve this target proposed, this thesis describes the design and sizing of Project, steps for execution, technical features of equipment, on air procedure and results base on the testing service and KPI.

Les réseaux mobiles de la cinquième génération (5G) sont conçus pour introduire de nouveaux services nécessitant des débits de données extrêmement hauts et une faible latence. 5G sera un changement de paradigme qui comprend des réseaux hétérogènes densifiés, des réseaux d'accès radio virtualisés, des fréquences porteuses à ondes millimétrées et des densités de périphériques très élevées. Cependant, contrairement aux générations précédentes, 5G sera un réseau holistique, intégrant n'importe quelle nouvelle technologie radio avec les technologies LTE et WiFi existant. Dans ce contexte, on se concentre sur de nouvelles stratégies d'allocation de ressources capables de bénéficier du multihoming dans le cas d'accès double au réseau. On modélise ces algorithmes au niveau du flux et analyse leurs performances en termes de débit, de stabilité du système et d'équité entre différentes catégories d'utilisateurs. On se concentre tout d'abord sur le multihoming dans les réseaux hétérogènes LTE/WiFi. On considère les allocations centrées sur le réseau où un planificateur central effectue des allocations d'équité proportionnelle (PF) locale et globale pour différentes classes d'utilisateurs, utilisateurs individuels (single-homed) et multi-domiciliés (multihomed). Par rapport à un modèle de référence sans multihoming, on montre que les deux stratégies améliorent la performance et la stabilité du système, au détriment d'une plus grande complexité pour la stratégie PF globale. On étudie également les stratégies d'allocation centrées sur l'utilisateur, dans lesquelles les utilisateurs multihomed décident la partition de la demande d'un fichier en utilisant soit la maximisation du débit crête, soit la stratégie assistée par réseau. On montre que cette dernière stratégie maximise le débit moyen dans l'ensemble du réseau. On montre également que les stratégies centrées sur le réseau permettent d'obtenir des débits de données plus élevés que ceux centrés sur l'utilisateur. Ensuite, on se concentre sur les réseaux d'accès radio virtuels (V-RAN) et en particulier sur l'allocation de multi-ressources. On étudie la faisabilité de la virtualisation sans diminuer ni la performance des utilisateurs, ni la stabilité du système. On considère un réseau hétérogène 5G composé de cellules LTE et mm-wave afin d'étudier comment les réseaux hauts fréquence peuvent augmenter la capacité du système. On montre que la virtualisation du réseau est réalisable sans perte de performance lors de l'utilisation de la stratégie « dominant resource fairness » (DRF). On propose une stratégie d'allocation en deux phases (TPA) qui montre un indice d'équité plus élevé que DRF et une stabilité du système plus élevée que PF. On montre également des gains importants apportés par l'adoption des fréquences mm-wave au lieu de WiFi. Finalement, on considère l'efficacité énergétique et compare les stratégies DRF et TPA avec une stratégie éconergétique basée sur l'algorithme de Dinklebach. Les résultats montrent que la stratégie éconergétique dépasse légèrement DRF et TPA à charge faible ou moyenne en termes de débit moyen plus élevé avec une consommation d'énergie comparable, alors qu'elle les surpasse à une charge élevée en termes de consommation d'énergie moins élevée. Dans ce cas de charge élevée, DRF surpasse TPA et la stratégie éconergétique en termes de débit moyen. En ce qui concerne l'indice d'équité de Jain, TPA réalise l'indice d'équité le plus élevé parmi d'autres stratégies
Fifth generation mobile networks (5G) are being designed to introduce new services that require extreme broadband data rates and utlra-reliable latency. 5G will be a paradigm shift that includes heterogeneous networks with densification, virtualized radio access networks, mm-wave carrier frequencies, and very high device densities. However, unlike the previous generations, it will be a holistic network, tying any new 5G air interface and spectrum with the currently existing LTE and WiFi. In this context, we focus on new resource allocation strategies that are able to take advantage of multihoming in dual access settings. We model such algorithms at the flow level and analyze their performance in terms of flow throughput, system stability and fairness between different classes of users. We first focus on multihoming in LTE/WiFi heterogeneous networks. We consider network centric allocations where a central scheduler performs local and global proportional fairness (PF) allocations for different classes of users, single-homed and multihomed users. By comparison with a reference model without multihoming, we show that both strategies improve system performance and stability, at the expense of more complexity for the global PF. We also investigate user centric allocation strategies where multihomed users decide the split of a file using either peak rate maximization or network assisted strategy. We show that the latter strategy maximizes the average throughput in the whole network. We also show that network centric strategies achieve higher data rates than the user centric ones. Then, we focus on Virtual Radio Access Networks (V-RAN) and particularly on multi-resource allocation therein. We investigate the feasibility of virtualization without decreasing neither users performance, nor system's stability. We consider a 5G heterogeneous network composed of LTE and mm-wave cells in order to study how high frequency networks can increase system's capacity. We show that network virtualization is feasible without performance loss when using the dominant resource fairness strategy (DRF). We propose a two-phase allocation (TPA) strategy which achieves a higher fairness index than DRF and a higher system stability than PF. We also show significant gains brought by mm-wave instead of WiFi. Eventually, we consider energy efficiency and compare DRF and TPA strategies with a Dinklebach based energy efficient strategy. Our results show that the energy efficient strategy slightly outperforms DRF and TPA at low to medium load in terms of higher average throughput with comparable power consumption, while it outperforms them at high load in terms of power consumption. In this case of high load, DRF outperforms TPA and the energy efficient strategy in terms of average throughput. As for Jain's fairness index, TPA achieves the highest one

The next-generation electric power system, known as smart grid, relies on a robust and reliable underlying communication infrastructure to improve the efficiency of electricity distribution. Cellular networks, e.g., LTE/LTE-A systems, appear as a promising technology to facilitate the smart grid evolution. Their inherent performance characteristics and well-established ecosystem could potentially unlock unprecedented use cases, enabling real-time and autonomous distribution grid operations. However, cellular technology was not originally intended for smart grid communication, associated with highly-reliable message exchange and massive device connectivity requirements. The fundamental differences between smart grid and human-type communication challenge the classical design of cellular networks and introduce important research questions that have not been sufficiently addressed so far. Motivated by these challenges, this doctoral thesis investigates novel radio access network (RAN) design principles and performance analysis for the seamless integration of smart grid traffic in future cellular networks. Specifically, we focus on addressing the fundamental RAN problems of network scalability in massive smart grid deployments and radio resource management for smart grid and human-type traffic. The main objective of the thesis lies on the design, analysis and performance evaluation of RAN mechanisms that would render cellular networks the key enabler for emerging smart grid applications. The first part of the thesis addresses the radio access limitations in LTE-based networks for reliable and scalable smart grid communication. We first identify the congestion problem in LTE random access that arises in large-scale smart grid deployments. To overcome this, a novel random access mechanism is proposed that can efficiently support real-time distribution automation services with negligible impact on the background traffic. Motivated by the stringent reliability requirements of various smart grid operations, we then develop an analytical model of the LTE random access procedure that allows us to assess the performance of event-based monitoring traffic under various load conditions and network configurations. We further extend our analysis to include the relation between the cell size and the availability of orthogonal random access resources and we identify an additional challenge for reliable smart grid connectivity. To this end, we devise an interference- and load-aware cell planning mechanism that enhances reliability in substation automation services. Finally, we couple the problem of state estimation in wide-area monitoring systems with the reliability challenges in information acquisition. Using our developed analytical framework, we quantify the impact of imperfect communication reliability in the state estimation accuracy and we provide useful insights for the design of reliability-aware state estimators. The second part of the thesis builds on the previous one and focuses on the RAN problem of resource scheduling and sharing for smart grid and human-type traffic. We introduce a novel scheduler that achieves low latency for distribution automation traffic while resource allocation is performed in a way that keeps the degradation of cellular users at a minimum level. In addition, we investigate the benefits of Device-to-Device (D2D) transmission mode for event-based message exchange in substation automation scenarios. We design a joint mode selection and resource allocation mechanism which results in higher data rates with respect to the conventional transmission mode via the base station. An orthogonal resource partition scheme between cellular and D2D links is further proposed to prevent the underutilization of the scarce cellular spectrum. The research findings of this thesis aim to deliver novel solutions to important RAN performance issues that arise when cellular networks support smart grid communication.
Las redes celulares, p.e., los sistemas LTE/LTE-A, aparecen como una tecnología prometedora para facilitar la evolución de la próxima generación del sistema eléctrico de potencia, conocido como smart grid (SG). Sin embargo, la tecnología celular no fue pensada originalmente para las comunicaciones en la SG, asociadas con el intercambio fiable de mensajes y con requisitos de conectividad de un número masivo de dispositivos. Las diferencias fundamentales entre las comunicaciones en la SG y la comunicación de tipo humano desafían el diseño clásico de las redes celulares e introducen importantes cuestiones de investigación que hasta ahora no se han abordado suficientemente. Motivada por estos retos, esta tesis doctoral investiga los principios de diseño y analiza el rendimiento de una nueva red de acceso radio (RAN) que permita una integración perfecta del tráfico de la SG en las redes celulares futuras. Nos centramos en los problemas fundamentales de escalabilidad de la RAN en despliegues de SG masivos, y en la gestión de los recursos radio para la integración del tráfico de la SG con el tráfico de tipo humano. El objetivo principal de la tesis consiste en el diseño, el análisis y la evaluación del rendimiento de los mecanismos de las RAN que convertirán a las redes celulares en el elemento clave para las aplicaciones emergentes de las SGs. La primera parte de la tesis aborda las limitaciones del acceso radio en redes LTE para la comunicación fiable y escalable en SGs. En primer lugar, identificamos el problema de congestión en el acceso aleatorio de LTE que aparece en los despliegues de SGs a gran escala. Para superar este problema, se propone un nuevo mecanismo de acceso aleatorio que permite soportar de forma eficiente los servicios de automatización de la distribución eléctrica en tiempo real, con un impacto insignificante en el tráfico de fondo. Motivados por los estrictos requisitos de fiabilidad de las diversas operaciones en la SG, desarrollamos un modelo analítico del procedimiento de acceso aleatorio de LTE que nos permite evaluar el rendimiento del tráfico de monitorización de la red eléctrica basado en eventos bajo diversas condiciones de carga y configuraciones de red. Además, ampliamos nuestro análisis para incluir la relación entre el tamaño de celda y la disponibilidad de recursos de acceso aleatorio ortogonales, e identificamos un reto adicional para la conectividad fiable en la SG. Con este fin, diseñamos un mecanismo de planificación celular que tiene en cuenta las interferencias y la carga de la red, y que mejora la fiabilidad en los servicios de automatización de las subestaciones eléctricas. Finalmente, combinamos el problema de la estimación de estado en sistemas de monitorización de redes eléctricas de área amplia con los retos de fiabilidad en la adquisición de la información. Utilizando el modelo analítico desarrollado, cuantificamos el impacto de la baja fiabilidad en las comunicaciones sobre la precisión de la estimación de estado. La segunda parte de la tesis se centra en el problema de scheduling y compartición de recursos en la RAN para el tráfico de SG y el tráfico de tipo humano. Presentamos un nuevo scheduler que proporciona baja latencia para el tráfico de automatización de la distribución eléctrica, mientras que la asignación de recursos se realiza de un modo que mantiene la degradación de los usuarios celulares en un nivel mínimo. Además, investigamos los beneficios del modo de transmisión Device-to-Device (D2D) en el intercambio de mensajes basados en eventos en escenarios de automatización de subestaciones eléctricas. Diseñamos un mecanismo conjunto de asignación de recursos y selección de modo que da como resultado tasas de datos más elevadas con respecto al modo de transmisión convencional a través de la estación base. Finalmente, se propone un esquema de partición de recursos ortogonales entre enlaces celulares y D2

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications is an emerging communication paradigm that provides ubiquitous connectivity between devices along with an ability to communicate autonomously without human intervention. M2M communications acts as an enabling technology for the practical realization of Internet-of-Things (IoT). However, M2M communications differs from conventional Human-to-Human (H2H) communications due to its unique features such as massive number of connected devices, small data transmissions, little or no mobility, requirements of high energy efficiency and reliability, etc. These features create various challenges for existing communication networks which are primarily optimized for H2H communications. Therefore, novel solutions are required to meet the key requirements of M2M communications. In addition, enhancements are required at different layers of the protocol stack to support co-existence of M2M devices and H2H users. The main objective of this research is to investigate the challenges of M2M communications in two broad types of M2M networks; capillary M2M and cellular M2M networks. The primary focus is on developing novel solutions, algorithms, and protocol enhancements for successfully enabling M2M communications. Since cognitive radio technology is very promising for M2M communications, special emphasis is on capillary M2M networks with cognitive radio based Physical layer. Besides, the focus is also on exploring new frontiers in M2M communications. This thesis covers different aspects of M2M communications. Considering the motivation for cognitive M2M and service requirements of M2M devices, two cognitive MAC protocols have been proposed. The first protocol is centralized in nature and utilizes a specialized frame structure for co-existence with the primary network as well as handling different Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements of M2M devices. The second protocol is a distributed cognitive MAC protocol, which is specially designed to provide high energy efficiency and reliability for M2M devices operating in challenging wireless environments. Both protocols explicitly account for the peculiarities of cognitive radio environments. The protocols have been evaluated using analytical modeling and simulation studies. Recently IETF has standardized a specially designed routing protocol for capillary M2M networks, known as RPL (Routing for Low Power and Lossy Networks). RPL is emerging as the de facto routing protocol for many M2M applications including the smart grid. On the other hand, the application of cognitive radio for smart grid communication is under active investigation in the research community. Hence, it is important to investigate the applicability and adaptation of RPL in cognitive radio environments. In this regard, an enhanced RPL based routing protocol has been proposed for cognitive radio enabled smart grid networks. The enhanced protocol provides novel modifications to RPL for protecting the primary users along with meeting the utility requirements of the secondary network. An important challenge in LTE-based cellular networks with M2M communications is the uplink radio resource management as available resources are shared between M2M devices and H2H users, having different and often conflicting QoS requirements. Apart from this, energy efficiency requirements become critically important. Further, the specific constraints of Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) complicate the resource allocation problem. In this respect, an energy efficient resource allocation algorithm for the uplink of LTE networks with M2M/H2H co-existence under statistical QoS guarantees has been developed, that is based on canonical duality theory. The proposed algorithm outperforms classical algorithms in terms of energy efficiency while satisfying the QoS requirements of M2M devices and H2H users. A new frontier in M2M communications is the nano-M2M communications, which is envisioned to create the Internet-of-Nano-Things (IoNT). Molecular communication (MC) is a promising communication technique for nano-M2M communications. In literature, no model for error performance of MC exists. Therefore, an error performance model has been developed that explicitly accounts for noise and interference effects. Since relaying and network coding based solutions are gaining popularity for nano-M2M networks, the error performance of a network coded molecular nano-M2M network has been evaluated as well. Finally, the thesis is concluded based on the overall picture of the research conducted. In addition, some directions for future work are included as well.

Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) is a multiple access transmission scheme that has been adopted in the 4th generation 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) of cellular systems. In fact, its relatively low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) makes it ideal for the uplink transmission where the transmit power efficiency is of paramount importance. Multiple access among users is made possible by assigning different users to different sets of non-overlapping subcarriers. With the current LTE specifications, if an SC-FDMA system is operating at its full capacity and a new user requests channel access, the system redistributes the subcarriers in such a way that it can accommodate all of the users. Having less subcarriers for transmission, every user has to increase its modulation order (for example from QPSK to 16QAM) in order to keep the same transmission rate. However, increasing the modulation order is not always possible in practice and may introduce considerable complexity to the system. The technique presented in this thesis report describes a new way of adding more users to an SC-FDMA system by assigning the same sets of subcarriers to different users. The main advantage of this technique is that it allows the system to accommodate more users than conventional SC-FDMA and this corresponds to increasing the spectral efficiency without requiring a higher modulation order or using more bandwidth. During this work, special attentions wee paid to the cases where two and three source signals are being transmitted on the same set of subcarriers, which leads respectively to doubling and tripling the spectral efficiency. Simulation results show that by using the proposed technique, it is possible to add more users to any SC-FDMA system without increasing the bandwidth or the modulation order while keeping the same performance in terms of bit error rate (BER) as the conventional SC-FDMA. This is realized by slightly increasing the energy per bit to noise power spectral density ratio (Eb/N0) at the transmitters.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
電子工程系
100
Mass machine-type communications (MTC) devices simultaneously access the random access channel (RACH) may result in radio access networks (RANs) overload and degrade the performance of the human-to-human communications (H2H) services. Slotted access scheme is one of the mechanisms proposed in 3GPP for the RAN overload protection. This thesis aim to propose an analytical model which considered both MTC and H2H traffic for slotted access scheme and derive the performance metrics that include the collision probability, access success probability, statistics of number of preamble transmission, statistics of access delay and utilization. Besides, the optimal access cycle for different MTC traffic is derived to maximize the utilization of the random access channel on the guaranteeing of quality of service (QoS) for H2H traffic. Numerical results demonstrate the proposed model can accuracy estimate the performance metrics of slotted access scheme.

碩士
國立成功大學
資訊工程學系
102
In Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) network, Machine type communication (MTC) provides random access-based communication for automation applications. In MTC, one of the most critical issues is the emergence of large number of MTC devices which may send requests to the base station at the same time, such that severe collision occurs. Whenever MTC devices have data to send, the MTC devices perform random access procedure to obtain resource blocks. When collision occurs, the message delay accumulates, and the data delivery fails. In this case, limiting the number of MTC devices' access to eNB at the same time can alleviate the collision. In this thesis, we propose a two-stage radio access scheme to alleviate collision and reduce message delay for MTC. MTC devices are divided into several groups, where random access in each group (as the first step) is controlled by a device called MTC gateway. Collision of random access to the base station (as the second stage) is then effectively alleviated. To observe the effect of numbers and sizes of groups, we propose analytical model and simulation model to investigate the performance in terms of utilization of random access slots, access success probability and average message delay. Simulation results show that better performance is observed when the number of groups is around 64.

Current and next generation wireless cellular systems strive to maximize spectral efficiency and meet the increasing demand for higher data rates despite being severely constrained by the limited availability of spectrum. Rate adaptation and scheduling are two key enabling techniques to achieve these challenging goals. In the former, the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) are adapted as a function of the instantaneous channel conditions, while in the latter, the base station (BS) adapts the user to which it transmits to. While appealing, several practical challenges arise in implementing rate adaptation and scheduling in current generation cellular systems that employ orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). First, the symbols of a transmitted packet can experience different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) in a frequency-selective channel. Thus, rate adaptation in these systems is driven by the vector of SNRs experienced by the packets and is referred to as wideband rate adaptation. It is considerably more involved than conventional narrowband rate adaptation, which is based on a single SNR. Second, the channel state information (CSI) at the BS, which it obtains through feedback from the users, is outdated due to the delay between the time of channel estimation and the time of data transmission. This can lead to incorrect adaptations and a significant reduction in system throughput. Third, the CSI feedback in the uplink is limited in order to conserve uplink radio resources. The lack of enough CSI at the BS due to this can also degrade the throughput. We develop a new analytical framework to characterize the throughput of wideband rate adaptation. The framework employs the exponential effective SNR mapping (EESM), which simplifies the rate adaptation problem by mapping the vector of SNRs into a single equivalent flat-fading SNR. However, even rate adaption using EESM is challenging owing to its non-linear form and its dependence on the MCS and has not been analysed before. Our framework leads to a new upper bound and an accurate approximation for the cell throughput. We then extend the framework to also incorporate feedback delays and co-channel interference from neighbouring cells. We observe that the decrease in throughput with feedback delays is more gradual for wideband rate adaptation compared to narrowband rate adaptation. Further, it depends on the scheduler employed by the BS. We then propose novel BS-side estimation techniques to mitigate the loss in throughput due to the reduced feedback from the users. We develop a new minimum mean square error estimator-based approach and subsequently a new throughput-optimal adaptation policy for the practically relevant best-M reduced feedback scheme. These approaches exploit the correlation between the subchannels, and the structure of the information fed back to improve the effectiveness of rate adaptation and scheduling without requiring any additional feedback. The throughput-optimal policy leads to a new benchmark for the achievable cell throughput in systems that employ reduced feedback schemes.

Motivated by the increasing demand for higher data rates, coverage, and spectral efficiency, current and next generation wireless systems adapt transmission parameters and even who is being transmitted to, based on the instantaneous channel states. For example, frequency-domain scheduling(FDS) is an instance of adaptation in orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA) systems in which the base station opportunistically assigns different subcarriers to their most appropriate user. Likewise ,transmit antenna selection(AS) is another form of adaptation in which the transmitter adapts which subset of antennas it transmits with. Cognitive radio(CR), which is a next generation technology, itself is a form of adaptation in which secondary users(SUs) adapt their transmissions to avoid interfering with the licensed primary users(PUs), who own the spectrum. However, adaptation requires channel state information(CSI), which might not be available apriori at the node or nodes that are adapting. Further, the CSI might not be perfect due to noise or feedback delays. This can result in suboptimal adaptation in OFDMA systems or excessive interference at the PUs due to transmissions by the SUs in CR. In this thesis, we focus on adaptation techniques in current and next generation wireless systems and evaluate the impact of CSI –both perfect and imperfect –on it. We first develop a novel model and analysis for characterizing the performance of AS in frequency-selective OFDMA systems. Our model is unique and comprehensive in that it incorporates key LTE features such as imperfect channel estimation based on dense, narrow band demodulation reference signal and coarse, broad band sounding reference signal. It incorporates the frequency-domain scheduler, the hardware constraint that the same antenna must be used to transmit over all the subcarriers that are allocated to a user, and the scheduling constraint that the allocated subcarriers must all be contiguous. Our results show the effectiveness of combined AS and FDS in frequency-selective OFDMA systems even at lower sounding reference signal powers. We then investigate power adaptation in underlay CR, in which the SU can transmit even when the primary is on but under stringent interference constraints. The nature of the interference constraint fundamentally decides how the SU adapts its transmit power. To this end, assuming perfect CSI, we propose optimal transmit power adaptation policies that minimize the symbol error probability of an SU when they are subject to different interference and transmit power constraints. We then study the robustness of these optimal policies to imperfections in CSI. An interesting observation that comes out of our study is that imperfect CSI can not only increase the interference at the PU but can also decrease it, and this depends on the choice of the system parameters, interference, and transmit power constraints. The regimes in which these occur are characterized.

Motivated by the increasing demand for higher data rates, coverage, and spectral efficiency, current and next generation wireless systems adapt transmission parameters and even who is being transmitted to, based on the instantaneous channel states. For example, frequency-domain scheduling(FDS) is an instance of adaptation in orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA) systems in which the base station opportunistically assigns different subcarriers to their most appropriate user. Likewise ,transmit antenna selection(AS) is another form of adaptation in which the transmitter adapts which subset of antennas it transmits with. Cognitive radio(CR), which is a next generation technology, itself is a form of adaptation in which secondary users(SUs) adapt their transmissions to avoid interfering with the licensed primary users(PUs), who own the spectrum. However, adaptation requires channel state information(CSI), which might not be available apriori at the node or nodes that are adapting. Further, the CSI might not be perfect due to noise or feedback delays. This can result in suboptimal adaptation in OFDMA systems or excessive interference at the PUs due to transmissions by the SUs in CR. In this thesis, we focus on adaptation techniques in current and next generation wireless systems and evaluate the impact of CSI –both perfect and imperfect –on it. We first develop a novel model and analysis for characterizing the performance of AS in frequency-selective OFDMA systems. Our model is unique and comprehensive in that it incorporates key LTE features such as imperfect channel estimation based on dense, narrow band demodulation reference signal and coarse, broad band sounding reference signal. It incorporates the frequency-domain scheduler, the hardware constraint that the same antenna must be used to transmit over all the subcarriers that are allocated to a user, and the scheduling constraint that the allocated subcarriers must all be contiguous. Our results show the effectiveness of combined AS and FDS in frequency-selective OFDMA systems even at lower sounding reference signal powers. We then investigate power adaptation in underlay CR, in which the SU can transmit even when the primary is on but under stringent interference constraints. The nature of the interference constraint fundamentally decides how the SU adapts its transmit power. To this end, assuming perfect CSI, we propose optimal transmit power adaptation policies that minimize the symbol error probability of an SU when they are subject to different interference and transmit power constraints. We then study the robustness of these optimal policies to imperfections in CSI. An interesting observation that comes out of our study is that imperfect CSI can not only increase the interference at the PU but can also decrease it, and this depends on the choice of the system parameters, interference, and transmit power constraints. The regimes in which these occur are characterized.

Ο ταχύτατα εξελισσόμενος τομέας των δικτύων κινητών επικοινωνιών έχει επιφέρει μία ιδιαίτερα αυξανόμενη απαίτηση για ασύρματη, πολυμεσική επικοινωνία. Στη ραγδαία εξέλιξη του τομέα αυτού συμβάλουν τα μέγιστα και οι απαιτήσεις της σύγχρονης αγοράς για ένα ενοποιημένο και λειτουργικό σύστημα κινητής τηλεφωνίας παρέχοντας παράλληλα πληθώρα ευρυζωνικών υπηρεσιών ψηφιακού περιεχομένου στους πελάτες - χρήστες του. Είναι γεγονός ότι τα τελευταία χρόνια τα δίκτυα επικοινωνιών τρίτης γενιάς (3G) - Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) γνωρίζουν μεγάλη άνθηση και η χρήση τους έχει επεκταθεί στις περισσότερες ευρωπαϊκές χώρες, όπως και στην Ελλάδα. Τα νέα αυτά κινητά δίκτυα αντικαθιστούν τα υπάρχοντα κινητά δίκτυα δεύτερης γενιάς και επιπλέον προσφέρουν προηγμένες υπηρεσίες στους κινητούς χρήστες. Ωστόσο, η αδήριτη ανάγκη για μεγαλύτερες (ευρυζωνικές) ταχύτητες πρόσβασης οδήγησε στην περαιτέρω ανάπτυξη των 3G δικτύων και στην υιοθέτηση νέων τεχνολογιών, με κυριότερο εκπρόσωπο τους την τεχνολογία High Speed Packet Access (HSPA). Η τεχνολογία HSPA αποτελεί τη φυσιολογική μετεξέλιξη του UMTS, η οποία πολλές φορές συναντάται και ως 3.5G ή 3G+, προκειμένου να δηλώσει την αναβάθμιση του 3G (UMTS) προτύπου. Ωστόσο, παρά το γεγονός ότι η τεχνολογία HSPA αναμένεται να προσφέρει τη δυνατότητα παροχής πληθώρας ευρυζωνικών υπηρεσιών, το 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), που αποτελεί τον οργανισμό που προτυποποιεί τις νέες τεχνολογίες και ορίζει τις προδιαγραφές τους, ήδη μελετά και επεξεργάζεται νέες τεχνολογίες που θα επικρατήσουν την αμέσως επόμενη δεκαετία στην αγορά των κινητών επικοινωνιών. Το νέο αυτό project αποκαλείται Long Term Evolution (LTE) και στοχεύει στην επίτευξη ακόμη υψηλότερων ρυθμών μετάδοσης σε συνδυασμό με την αξιοποίηση μεγαλύτερου εύρος ζώνης. Κύρια προοπτική του LTE αποτελεί η διασφάλιση της ανταγωνιστικότητας και η επικράτηση του προτύπου στο χρονικό ορίζοντα της επόμενης δεκαετίας. Κατά συνέπεια, η αγορά κινητών επικοινωνιών σταδιακά μεταλλάσσεται προς τη δημιουργία δικτύων κινητών επικοινωνιών επόμενης γενιάς, με απώτερο σκοπό την επίτευξη της αποκαλούμενης «Κινητής Ευρυζωνικότητας» (Mobile Broadband). Ταυτόχρονα με την εκτεταμένη εξάπλωση των δικτύων κινητών επικοινωνιών επόμενης γενιάς καθώς και τις αυξημένες δυνατότητες των κινητών συσκευών, οι πάροχοι πολυμεσικού περιεχομένου και υπηρεσιών ενδιαφέρονται όλο και περισσότερο για την υποστήριξη της πολυεκπομπής (multicasting) δεδομένων στα δίκτυα αυτά με σκοπό την αποτελεσματική διαχείριση και επαναχρησιμοποίηση των διαθέσιμων πόρων του δικτύου. Επιπρόσθετα, οι χρήστες των κινητών δικτύων έχουν πλέον την απαίτηση να προσπελαύνουν εφαρμογές και υπηρεσίες οι οποίες μέχρι σήμερα μπορούσαν να διατεθούν αποκλειστικά από τα συμβατικά ενσύρματα δίκτυα. Έτσι λοιπόν στις μέρες μας γίνεται λόγος για υπηρεσίες πραγματικού χρόνου όπως mobile TV, mobile gaming, mobile streaming κ.α. Ένα από τα σημαντικότερα βήματα των δικτύων κινητών επικοινωνιών προς την κατεύθυνση της παροχής νέων, προηγμένων πολυμεσικών υπηρεσιών είναι η εισαγωγή της υπηρεσίας Multimedia Broadcast / Multicast Service (MBMS). Η υπηρεσία MBMS έχει σαν κύριο σκοπό την υποστήριξη IP εφαρμογών πανεκπομπής (broadcact) και πολυεκπομπής (multicast), επιτρέποντας με αυτό τον τρόπο την παροχή υπηρεσιών υψηλού ρυθμού μετάδοσης σε πολλαπλούς χρήστες με οικονομικό τρόπο. Η multicast μετάδοση δεδομένων σε κινητά δίκτυα επικοινωνιών είναι μια σχετικά νέα λειτουργικότητα η οποία βρίσκεται ακόμη στο στάδιο των δοκιμών και της προτυποποίησης της. Ένας multicast μηχανισμός μεταδίδει τα δεδομένα μόνο μία φορά πάνω από κάθε ασύρματο σύνδεσμο που αποτελεί τμήμα των μονοπατιών προς τους προορισμούς-κινητούς χρήστες. Το κρισιμότερο σημείο που εντοπίζεται κατά τη multicast μετάδοση δεδομένων στα κινητά δίκτυα επικοινωνιών είναι ο αποτελεσματικός έλεγχος ισχύος. Οι σταθμοί βάσης των κυψελωτών αυτών δικτύων διαθέτουν περιορισμένους πόρους ισχύος, γεγονός που περιορίζει τη χωρητικότητα της κυψέλης (cell) και επιβάλλει τη χρήση μίας βέλτιστης στρατηγικής για την όσο το δυνατόν καλύτερη αξιοποίηση των διαθέσιμων πόρων ισχύος. Ο έλεγχος ισχύος στοχεύει στη μείωση της εκπεμπόμενης ισχύος, στην ελαχιστοποίηση του θορύβου στο κυψελωτό δίκτυο και κατά συνέπεια στη διασφάλιση μεγαλύτερης χωρητικότητας επιπλέον χρηστών. Ένα από τα βασικότερα στοιχεία του ελέγχου ισχύος στα δίκτυα κινητών επικοινωνιών επόμενης γενιάς κατά τη multicast μετάδοση πολυμεσικών δεδομένων αποτελεί η επιλογή του κατάλληλου καναλιού μεταφοράς για τη μετάδοση των δεδομένων στον κινητό χρήστη. Συγκεκριμένα, πρόκειται για ένα κρίσιμο ζήτημα το οποίο είναι ακόμα υπό εξέταση στο 3GPP. Προς την κατεύθυνση αυτή, στο MBMS πρότυπο έχουν αναπτυχθεί διάφοροι μηχανισμοί, με χαρακτηριστικό τον MBMS Counting Mechanism. Στόχος του μηχανισμού αυτού είναι η βελτιστοποίηση της ροής δεδομένων για την υπηρεσία MBMS, όταν αυτά διέρχονται από τις διεπαφές του UMTS/HSPA δικτύου. Ωστόσο, η υπάρχουσα μορφή του μηχανισμού αυτού, καθώς και των αρκετών άλλων μηχανισμών που έχουν προταθεί από το 3GPP, διακρίνεται από πολλές αδυναμίες που δεν επιτρέπουν την αποτελεσματική και μαζική μετάδοση πολυμεσικών δεδομένων. Τα σημαντικότερα προβλήματα των μηχανισμών αυτών είναι η απουσία ευρυζωνικών χαρακτηριστικών καθώς και η σπατάλη σημαντικού τμήματος των ούτως ή άλλως περιορισμένων πόρων ισχύος. Εν γένει, η επιλογή του κατάλληλου καναλιού μεταφοράς των πολυμεσικών δεδομένων στο ασύρματο μέσο είναι μια δύσκολη διαδικασία καθώς μια λανθασμένη επιλογή καναλιού μπορεί να οδηγήσει στην αστοχία μίας ολόκληρης κυψέλης. Γίνεται σαφές λοιπόν, ότι απαιτείται μία βελτιωμένη έκδοση των υπαρχόντων μηχανισμών για την αποτελεσματικότερη και οικονομικότερη μετάδοση πολυμεσικού περιεχομένου σε μεγάλο πλήθος χρηστών. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τα παραπάνω, στόχος της παρούσας διδακτορικής διατριβής είναι η μελέτη του ελέγχου ισχύος στα δίκτυα κινητών επικοινωνιών επόμενης γενιάς καθώς και η ανάπτυξη νέων μεθόδων/μηχανισμών για τη βελτιστοποίηση του. Ιδιαίτερο χαρακτηριστικό της διατριβής αυτής είναι η ενσωμάτωση και η «εκμετάλλευση» όλων των ιδιαίτερων χαρακτηριστικών της HSPA τεχνολογίας στην MBMS υπηρεσία. Προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση, στην παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή αναλύονται και αξιολογούνται όλα τα υπάρχοντα κανάλια μεταφοράς του UMTS και της τεχνολογίας HSPA τα οποία μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν για τη multicast μετάδοση MBMS υπηρεσιών. Η αξιολόγηση γίνεται με βάση την απαιτούμενη ισχύ που πρέπει να ανατεθεί από το σταθμό βάσης για καθένα από αυτά, και κατά συνέπεια με βάση το ρυθμό μετάδοσης τους, τον αριθμό των χρηστών που μπορούν να εξυπηρετήσουν, την ποιότητα υπηρεσιών για κάθε χρήστη, τη μέγιστη δυνατή κάλυψη της κυψέλης κ.α. Οι ιδιαίτερα αυξημένες απαιτήσεις των MBMS υπηρεσιών μας οδήγησαν στη συνέχεια στη διερεύνηση και αξιολόγηση ορισμένων τεχνικών μείωσης της εκπεμπόμενης ισχύος, με απώτερο σκοπό την αποδοτικότερη χρήση των πόρων του συστήματος κατά τη μετάδοση MBMS υπηρεσιών. Ενδεικτικά αναφέρουμε πως μία MBMS υπηρεσία με ρυθμό μετάδοσης 128 Kbps μπορεί να καταναλώσει έως και το 80% των πόρων ισχύος ενός σταθμού βάσης. Επομένως, γίνεται κατανοητό ότι η μετάδοση MBMS υπηρεσιών με τόσο υψηλούς ρυθμούς μετάδοσης καθίσταται δύσκολη έως και αδύνατη. Για την αντιμετώπιση αυτού του προβλήματος έχουν αναπτυχθεί τεχνικές, όπως η FACH Dynamic Power Setting, η Macro Diversity Combining και το Rate Splitting, ικανές να μειώσουν τα επίπεδα ισχύος κατά τη μετάδοση multicast δεδομένων στους MBMS χρήστες. Η διδακτορική αυτή διατριβή εξετάζει την αποδοτικότητα της χρήσης αυτών των τεχνικών εξοικονόμησης ισχύος και παρουσιάζει πειραματικά αποτελέσματα που αποκαλύπτουν το ποσό ισχύος που εξοικονομείται από κάθε μία τεχνική. Η αξιολόγηση τόσο των καναλιών μεταφοράς όσο και των τεχνικών μείωσης ισχύος θα οδηγήσει στην εύρεση ενός κατάλληλου σχήματος/μηχανισμού, ο οποίος θα εξασφαλίζει την αποδοτική εναλλαγή μεταξύ των διάφορων τύπων καναλιών κατά τη μετάδοση MBMS υπηρεσιών. Ο μηχανισμός αυτός, τον οποίο καλούμε MBMS Channel Assignment Mechanism (ή χάριν συντομίας «MCAM»), αναμένεται να εξασφαλίσει βελτιωμένη απόδοση σε σχέση με τους αντίστοιχους μηχανισμούς που έχουν προταθεί από το 3GPP, μείωση της καταναλισκόμενης ισχύος και κατά συνέπεια αύξηση της χωρητικότητας των κινητών δικτύων επόμενης γενιάς. Ωστόσο, το πιο αξιοπρόσεκτο πλεονέκτημα του προτεινόμενου μηχανισμού, που ουσιαστικά τον διαφοροποιεί από τις άλλες προσεγγίσεις, είναι ότι προσαρμόζεται στις αυξημένες απαιτήσεις των κινητών δικτύων επόμενης γενιάς για ταυτόχρονη παροχή πολλαπλών πολυμεσικών συνόδων. Το γεγονός αυτό μπορεί να επιτρέψει τη μαζική μετάδοση πολυμεσικών δεδομένων σε πληθώρα κινητών χρηστών, θέτοντας κατά τον τρόπο αυτό τον MCAM σαν έναν ισχυρό υποψήφιο για τα δίκτυα επόμενης γενιάς.
The rapid growth of mobile communications networks has involved an increasing demand for wireless, multimedia communication. The fast development of this area was mainly motivated by the requirements of modern market for a unified and functional system of mobile communications that, at the same time, may provide numerous broadband services to its users. More specifically, in the recent years, the usage of third generation (3G) - Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) cellular networks has begun to rise in most European countries, as in Greece. 3G networks have replaced the second generation mobile networks and moreover, are in position of offering advanced services to mobile users. However, the need for higher (broadband) speeds led to the further development of 3G networks and to the adoption of new technologies, with main representative the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology. HSPA constitutes the evolution of UMTS and is known as 3.5G or 3G+ in order to indicate the upgrade from UMTS. However, despite the fact that HSPA technology is expected to allow the provision of numerous broadband services, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the authorized organization for the standardization of new mobile technologies, already examines new technologies that will prevail in the mobile communications industry over the next decades. This novel project is known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and aims at achieving increased data rates and reduced latency compared to UMTS and HSPA networks. Therefore, the mobile communications industry progressively evolves to next generation networks, with main target the achievement of the so called “Mobile Broadband”. Simultaneously, multimedia content and service providers show an increased interest in supporting multicast data in order to effectively manage and re-use the available network resources. Additionally, more and more users require access to applications and services that until today could only be accessed by conventional wired networks. Thus, real time applications and services may face low penetration today; however, they are expected to gain high interest in future mobile networks. These applications actually reflect a modern, future way of communication among mobile users. For instance, mobile TV is expected to be a “killer” application for 3G’s. Such mobile TV services include streaming live TV (news, weather forecasts etc.) and streaming video (such as video clips). All the above constitute a series of indicative emerging applications that necessitate advanced transmission techniques. One of the most significant steps towards the provision of such demanding services is the introduction of Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS). MBMS is a point-to-multipoint service in which data is transmitted from a single source entity to multiple destinations, allowing the networks resources to be shared. Actually, MBMS extends the existing UMTS infrastructure and efficiently uses network and radio resources, both in the core network and most importantly, in the air interface of UMTS, where the bottleneck is placed to a large group of users. Therefore, MBMS constitutes an efficient way to support the plethora of the emerging wireless multimedia applications and services such as IP video conferencing and video streaming. The main requirement during the provision of MBMS multicast services is to make an efficient overall usage of radio and network resources. This necessity mainly translates into improved power control strategies, since the base stations’ transmission power is the limiting factor of downlink capacity in UMTS networks. Under this prism, power control is one of the most critical aspects in MBMS due to the fact that downlink transmission power in UMTS networks is a limited resource and must be shared efficiently among all MBMS users in a cell. Moreover, power control aims at minimizing the transmitted power, eliminating in this way the intercell interference. However, when misused, the use of power control may lead to a high level of wasted power and worse performance results. In order to have efficient power control in MBMS, one of the most critical aspects is the selection of the transport channel for the transmission of MBMS multicast traffic. MBMS services can be provided in each cell by either multiple point-to-point (PTP) channels or by a single point-to-multipoint (PTM) channel. A wrong channel selection may result to a significant capacity decrease, thus, preventing the mass delivery of multimedia applications. It is worth mentioning that channel selection is still an open issue in today’s MBMS infrastructure mainly due to its catalytic role in MBMS performance. In the frame of MBMS power control and transport channel selection several approaches have been proposed, with main representative the 3GPP MBMS Counting Mechanism. However, none of these approaches performs optimal transport channel selection either due to the fact that some of them do not consider the power consumption as the selection criterion or because of the fact that they do not consider all the available transport channels (or combination of them) for the transmission of the MBMS data. All the above stress the need for an advanced version of these mechanisms that could deliver multimedia content to a large number of mobile users in a more efficient and economic way. After taking into account the above analysis, objective of this dissertation is the study of power control issues in next generation mobile communication networks and the development of new approaches/ mechanisms for its optimization. To this direction, this dissertation analyzes and evaluates all the available UMTS and HSPA transport channels that could be used for the transmission of MBMS multicast services. Moreover, this dissertation investigates and evaluates several power saving techniques that aim at the efficient usage of radio and network resources. Techniques, such as Dynamic Power Setting, Macro Diversity Combining and Rate Splitting are capable of decreasing the power consumption during the provision of MBMS services and may enable the mass market delivery of multimedia services to mobile users. The evaluation of the available transport channels and power saving techniques will lead to the development of a novel scheme/mechanism that will enable the efficient selection of transport channels for the transmission of MBMS services. The proposed mechanism, which we call MBMS Channel Assignment Mechanism (or «MCAM»), is expected to optimally utilize the available power resources of base stations to MBMS sessions running in the network, resulting in that way to an extensive increase on the system’s capacity. Therefore, MCAM may allow the mass provision of multimedia data to a large number of mobile users, which makes MCAM a strong candidate for next generation networks.