On link quality estimation for 3G wireless communication networks

Abstract

In this paper we present a method to assess measurements for link quality estimation in wireless networks. Quality of service (QoS) is increasingly important in 3G wireless networks. Commonly, the end to end QoS is defined by delay and error rate. To meet the end-to-end QoS requirements it is very important to control the error rates on the air interface. The error rates can be controlled by change the energy per bit on the air interface. A mismatching energy assignment will either result in a waste of capacity or in a violation of the error rate requirements for the air interface. Thus, the link quality estimation is critical for performance and capacity of wireless networks. In this paper we present a method to evaluate the value of possible measurements for link quality estimation. This method supports the selection process of appropriate measurements and allows the comparison of their performance. As an example, we apply the presented method to an UMTS 12.2 kbps connection.