Deployment Of Access Networks Research Articles

Rethinking the mobile edge for vehicular services

The growing connected car market requires mobile network operators (MNOs) to rethink their network architecture to deliver ultra-reliable low-latency communications. In response, Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) has emerged as a solution, enabling the deployment of computing resources at the network edge. For MNOs to tap into the potential benefits of MEC, they need to transform their networks accordingly. Consequently, the primary objective of this study is to design a realistic MEC architecture and corresponding optimal deployment strategy – deciding on the placement and configuration of computing resources – as opposed to prior studies focusing on MEC run-time management and orchestration (e.g., service placement, computation offloading, and user allocation). To cater to the heterogeneous demands of vehicular services, we propose a multi-tier MEC architecture aligned with 5G and Beyond-5G radio access network deployments. Therefore, we frame MEC deployment as an optimization problem within this architecture, assuming 3 MEC tiers. Our data-driven evaluation, grounded in realistic assumptions about network architecture, usage, latency, and cost models, relies on datasets from a major MNO in the UK. We show the benefits of adopting a 3-tier MEC architecture over single-tier (centralized or distributed) architectures for heterogeneous vehicular services, in terms of deployment cost, energy consumption, and robustness.

Design and implementation of the QKD control and management layers for access network deployments

Design and implementation of the QKD control and management layers for access network deployments

I-MEREC-T: Improved MEREC-TOPSIS scheme for optimal network selection in 5G heterogeneous network for IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) requires seamless mobility and services with low power consumption, low packet loss ratio, ultra-low latency, and high reliability. Ultra-dense deployment of small coverage radio access networks improves network throughput, latency, and packet loss ratio but increases the frequency of vertical handovers. Optimal network selection to ensure ultra-reliable, low-latency, seamless connectivity to provide massive machine-type communication to support a wide range of services for the emergence of IoT and Industry 5.0 through the next generation heterogeneous networks is one of the most challenging fields of research. The best network selection is one of the most crucial phases of the vertical handover decision algorithm in an ultra-dense heterogeneous network. Inadequate network selection can lead to failed handovers and ping pong handovers, which drastically affect the quality of services and the quality of experience. In this article, we have developed a new improved method based on improved removal effects of criteria- technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (I-MEREC-TOPSIS) network selection scheme. It is based on the removal effect of alternatives’ attributes. It is an intelligent integration of the I-MEREC weight method of alternative criteria and the TOPSIS alternative ranking multi-attribute decision-making technique. In the proposed scheme, optimal network selection is not only dependent on the best performance score of candidate networks but also on the statistically defined threshold value of servicing and target networks. In comparison to CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) TOPSIS, Entropy-TOPSIS, Statistical Variance Procedure(SVP) TOPSIS, and MEREC-TOPSIS, the proposed scheme has reduced ping-pong handovers and handover failures.

Artificial Intelligence in Open-Radio Access Network

This tutorial seeks to outline the proposed Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) deployment for Fifth generation (5G) wireless networks. O-RAN seeks to supplant hardware-specific Radio Access Network (RAN) components (e.g., the mobility management entity (MME) or base station (gNB)) with generic hardware, specialized software, and open signaling interfaces. The virtualization and network slicing features of 5G allow for software to replace previously hardware specific functions. Software further provides faster analytics, thus supporting 5Gs latency requirements and advanced usage scenarios (i.e., enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low latency communications (uRLLC)). Furthermore, as software annexes control of the RAN, there is freedom to integrate Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) algorithms into RAN management (particularly at the user plane). This integration is one of the goals of O-RAN. Lastly, relying on generic hardware and specialized, open-source software eliminates reliance upon specific device manufacturers. This paper will provide questions regarding the future of O-RAN, with a focus on 5G network device security.

Sub-Gbps key rate four-state continuous-variable quantum key distribution within metropolitan area

Continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) has potential advantages of high secret key rate, which is very suitable for high-speed metropolitan network application. However, the secret key rates of the reported CVQKD systems are only a few Mbps over typical transmission distance so far. Here, we address the fundamental experimental problems and demonstrate a single-carrier four-state CVQKD with sub-Gbps key rate within metropolitan area. In the demonstrated four-state CVQKD using local local oscillator, an ultra-low level of excess noise is obtained and a high efficient post-processing setup is designed for practically extracting the final secure keys. Thus, the achieved secret key rates are 190.54 Mbps, 137.76 Mbps and 52.48 Mbps using linear channel assuming security analysis method and 233.87 Mbps, 133.6 Mbps and 21.53 Mbps using semidefinite programming security analysis method over transmission distances of 5 km, 10 km and 25 km, respectively. This result increases the asymptotic secret key rate to sub-Gbps level, which is sufficient to achieve the one-time pad cryptographic task. Moreover, our work shows the road for future high-rate and large-scale CVQKD deployment in secure broadband metropolitan and access networks.

Seamless Fiber–Wireless System in W-Band Using Optical Phase Modulation and Self-Homodyne Receiver

We propose and demonstrate a seamless fiber–wireless system in the W-band using a simple transmitter, antenna site, and radio receiver. The transmitter utilizes an optical phase modulator instead of an optical in-phase/quadrature modulator for data modulation. A high-output optical-to-radio converter is fabricated and used for radio signal generation at the antenna site. The receiver employs a self-homodyne detector (SHD) that does not require a separate local oscillator source to receive and down-convert the signal to the microwave band. For a proof-of-concept demonstration, we successfully transmitted a high-order quadrature amplitude modulation orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signal with a bandwidth of up to 4 GHz over the system. The performance of the signal transmission over the system using an envelope detector was also evaluated. Owing to its better received sensitivity, the SHD receiver exhibited better performance. The proposed system can facilitate the deployment of seamless access networks in high-frequency bands in future mobile networks.

Testing a 5G Communication System: Kriging-Aided O2I Path Loss Modeling Based on 3.5 GHz Measurement Analysis.

Deep knowledge of how radio waves behave in a practical wireless channel is required for the effective planning and deployment of radio access networks in outdoor-to-indoor (O2I) environments. Using more than 400 non-line-of-sight (NLOS) radio measurements at 3.5 GHz, this study analyzes and validates a novel O2I measurement-based path loss prediction narrowband model that characterizes and estimates shadowing through Kriging techniques. The prediction results of the developed model are compared with those of the most traditional assumption of slow fading as a random variable: COST231, WINNER+, ITU-R, 3GPP urban microcell O2I models and field measured data. The results showed and guaranteed that the predicted path loss accuracy, expressed in terms of the mean error, standard deviation and root mean square error (RMSE) was significantly better with the proposed model; it considerably decreased the average error for both scenarios under evaluation.

Energy-Efficient Multi-Access Mobile Edge Computing With Secrecy Provisioning

Thanks to the wide deployment of heterogeneous radio access networks (RANs) in the past decades, the emerging paradigm of multi-access mobile edge computing, which allows mobile terminals to simultaneously offload the computation-workloads to several different edge-computing servers via multi-RANs, has provided a promising scheme for enabling the computation-intensive mobile Internet services in future wireless systems. The broadcasting nature of radio transmission, however, may lead to a potential secrecy-outage during the offloading transmission. In this paper, we thus investigate the energy-efficient multi-access mobile edge computing with secrecy provisioning. Specifically, we first investigate the scenario of one wireless device's (WD's) multi-access offloading subject to a malicious node's eavesdropping. By characterizing the WD's secrecy based throughput in its offloading transmission, we formulate a joint optimization of the WD's multi-access computation offloading, secrecy provisioning, and offloading-transmission duration, with the objective of minimizing the WD's total energy consumption, while providing a guaranteed secrecy-outage during offloading and a guaranteed overall-latency in completing the WD's workload. Despite the non-convexity of this joint optimization problem, we exploit its layered structure and propose an efficient algorithm for solving it. Based on the study on the single-WD scenario, we further investigate the scenario of multiple WDs, in which a group of WDs sequentially execute the multi-access computation offloading, while subject to a malicious node's eavesdropping. Taking the coupling effect among different WDs into account, we propose a swapping-heuristic based algorithm (that uses our proposed single-WD algorithm as a subroutine) for finding the ordering of the WDs to execute the multi-access computation offloading, with the objective of minimizing all WDs’ total energy consumption. Extensive numerical results are provided to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed algorithms. The results demonstrate that our algorithms can outperform some conventional fixed offloading scheduling scheme and randomized offloading ordering scheme.

Анализ вычислительной сложности и времени выполнения стека протоколов в сетях 5G New Radio

Currently, an active deployment of radio access networks for mobile communication systems 5G New Radio is being observed. The architecture of networks is developing rapidly, where significant part of the functions is performed in a virtual cloud space of a personal computer. The computing power of a personal computer must be sufficient to execute network protocols in real time. To reduce the cost of deploying 5G NR networks, the configuration of each remote computer must be optimally matched to the scale of a particular network. Therefore, an urgent direction of research is the assessment of the execution time of the 5G NR protocol stack on various configurations of computers and the development of a mathematical model for data analysis, approximation of dependencies and making recommendations. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the main 5G NR network architectures, as well as a description of the methods and tools that can be used to estimate the computational complexity of the 5G NR protocol stack. The final section provides an analysis of the computational complexity of the protocol stack, obtained during the experiments by colleagues in partner institutions.

An Energy-Efficient Distributed Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation Algorithm for Passive Optical Access Networks

The rapid deployment of passive optical access networks (PONs) increases the global energy consumption of networking infrastructure. This paper focuses on the minimization of energy consumption in Ethernet PONs (EPONs). We present an energy-efficient, distributed dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithm able to power off the transmitter and receiver of an optical network unit (ONU) when there is no upstream or downstream traffic. Our main contribution is combining the advantages of a distributed DBA (namely, a smaller packet delay compared to centralized DBAs, due to less time being needed to allocate the transmission slot) with energy saving features (that come at a price of longer delays due to the longer queue waiting times when transmitters are switched off). The proposed algorithm analyzes the queue size of the ONUs in order to switch them to doze/sleep mode when there is no upstream/downstream traffic in the network, respectively. Our results show that we minimized the ONU energy consumption across a wide range of network loads while keeping delay bounded.

Investigating the intertwining impact of wholesale access pricing and the commitment to net neutrality principle on European next-generation access networks private investment plans: An options-game application for capturing market players' competitive interactions

Whilst the deployment of next generation access networks (NGANs) is undoubtedly beneficial to the economy, new legal developments in the United States (US) regarding the issue of net neutrality (NN) pose a new challenge not only to policy makers but to telecommunication providers as well, that could justify a fresh approach when assessing NGANs investments. In particular, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) subverted extant NN rules in the US and if the European Union (EU) decides to follow a similar deregulatory path in the future it could change the way telecommunications providers on both sides of the Atlantic lay down their optical-fibre network infrastructure investment plans. For instance, if traffic prioritization is allowed then diversification of revenue sources can be achieved by charging customers for privileged data delivery to their premises. Currently, NGANs roll-out throughout EU is an ongoing process in a setting whereby access regulation in the form of network element unbundling is already imposed. As a result, these legal developments form a new context within which it makes sense to assess the role of NGANs wholesale access pricing in tandem with the degree of commitment to NN rules so as to i) determine their combinatorial impact on private telecommunications operators' financial figures and ii) capture their competitive interactions. Towards this end, an important aspect of particular value to market players (i.e. incumbents and competitive providers – CPs), and policy makers (i.e. National Regulatory Authorities – NRAs) that this article aims to examine is how to employ the option-game (OG) analysis, that reflects the intersection of game theory (GT) and real options (ROs), to model the competitive interactions between participants in a particular competition game set-up by means of deriving possible Nash-equilibrium (NE) outcomes within a regulatory setting part of which is the commitment or non-commitment to the NN principle. This, hybrid, evaluation tool is applied on top of a conventional discounted cash flow (DCF) techno-economic analysis assessment of an NGAN investment opportunity.

Increasing Broadband Reach with Hybrid Access Networks

End-users and governments force network operators to deploy faster Internet access services everywhere. Access technologies such as FTTx, VDSL2, DOCSIS3.0 can provide such services in cities. However, it is not cost-effective for network operators to deploy them in less densely populated regions. The recently proposed Hybrid Access Networks allow to boost xDSL networks by using the available capacity in existing LTE networks. We first present the three architectures defined by the Broadband Forum for such Hybrid Access Networks. Then we describe our experience with the implementation and the deployment of Multipath TCP-based Hybrid Access Networks.

Comparative techno-economic evaluation of LTE fixed wireless access, FTTdp G.fast and FTTC VDSL network deployment for providing 30 Mbps broadband services in rural areas

In rural areas in Europe, the deployment of High-Speed Broadband access networks lags far behind the urban and suburban areas due to difficulties of fiber rollout in the final meters. FTTC VDSL is the most widespread technology used for NGA network deployments in Europe but the coverage of VDSL networks is still limited in rural areas. FTTdp networks using G.fast have been proposed as a cost-effective and future-proof alternative to FTTH and FTTB especially in rural areas where FTTC and VDSL cannot always deliver service speeds of 30 Mbps which is the minimum bandwidth defined in the European Digital Agenda as a target to be met by 2020. However, the new target of EU Commission for Gigabit Society and 100 Mbps connections, upgradable to 1 Gbps, for all households in 2025 are unlikely to be achieved by VDSL Vectoring and other copper-based technologies. On the other hand, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) networks based on LTE technology can be used as a “last mile” solution to provide high-speed broadband access to areas where fixed broadband is limited. LTE technology offers high-speed connections able to support internet browsing and IP services, while it can theoretically support up to 300 Mbps depending on network load and sharing. Thus, it can be considered a viable alternative to other fixed network solutions especially when considering future upgrades to 5G networks that promise gigabit speeds per user. In this paper, a techno-economic study is performed to assess the feasibility of an FWA network deployment based on LTE technology in comparison to FTTdp G.fast and FTTC VDSL network rollout for delivering service speeds of 30 Mbps in rural areas. A variety of different population density, competition and regulation policy scenarios is considered. Cash flow results are presented and standard financial indexes for the business cases are discussed. The results are being assessed through a sensitivity and risk analysis to determine the most influential factors on the return on the investment. Furthermore, the (non) profitability of these cases and the subsidization needed from structural funds are analyzed. The results are aimed to contribute to the debate over network evolution scenarios among academia, industry, regulators, policy makers and governments.

Energy-efficient and delay-aware mobile cloud offloading over cellular networks

The latest mobile applications, such as GPS, games, virus scanning, and face detection and recognition, are compute-intensive applications consuming a lot of energy when executed, causing the limited-capacity batteries of the mobile devices to drain rapidly. Thus, the fifth generation standard has proposed the deployment of cloud radio access networks (C-RANs). By deploying C-RANs, the users can conserve their mobiles’ limited battery energy by running the compute-intensive and energy-hungry tasks or apps on the cloud. However, offloading the tasks to the cloud might not be always better, in terms of energy conservation, than running the task on the device. Many factors should be considered, such as the offloading delay, wireless channel conditions, and the energy consumption at the cloud. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an algorithm to offload the tasks to the cloud over a cellular network, with an objective of achieving an energy-efficient offloading while considering the execution time of the tasks. The algorithm takes into account the wireless channel conditions, the load of the servers in the cloud, and the mobility of the users. The results obtained show that the proposed algorithm saves the transmission and execution energies while satisfying the delay constraints of various tasks.

Wireless technologies and policies for connecting rural areas in emerging countries: a case study in rural Peru

PurposeThis paper aims to compare the costs of deploying different wireless terrestrial broadband technologies in the Andes and Amazon Regions of Peru. These areas are representatives of different and challenging geographic regions throughout the globe that currently are severely underserved or unserved for vital broadband services necessary to bridge the “Digital Divide”.Design/methodology/approachThe broadband technologies studied include Wi-Fi, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), long term evolution (LTE), TVWS and new stratospheric platforms (super-pressure balloons). This study conducts a technical analysis (design and simulation) of wireless broadband networks, and a bottom-up engineering cost analysis to estimate and compare the deployment and operating costs of the networks over a 10-year period. The analysis also identifies potential regulatory barriers to deployment associated with spectrum allocation licenses and overbooking requirements intended to improve quality of service.FindingsComparison of the capital and operating expenses of these options over a 10-year period finds that LTE and Wi-Fi can be the lowest cost alternatives, though significantly, stratospheric balloons have the lowest initial costs for the first few years and can factor as a low-cost broadband catalyst early in deployment. Finally, the lowest cost technology broadband roadmap for the 10-year period is presented, which includes using stratospheric balloons (carrying micro-LTE base stations) for the first years and deploying complementary terrestrial LTE networks for the rest of the 10-year period.Originality/valueThis study presents detailed technical and engineering cost analysis results of wireless access network deployments, including advanced wireless technologies and new unmanned aerial systems, to expand broadband services to rural areas in mountainous (Andes Region) and rainforest (Amazon Region) geographies to reduce the digital divide in emerging countries. Results aim to aid governments, regulators, internet service providers (incumbents and competitive) and content providers to assess current alternatives to expand broadband service in these rural areas.

Energy-Efficient Coordinated Multipoint Scheduling in Green Cloud Radio Access Network

The fast development of mobile computing has raised ever-increasing diverse communication needs in wireless networks. To catch up with such needs, cloud radio access networks (CRAN) is proposed to enable efficient radio resource sharing and management. At the same time, the massive deployment of radio access networks has caused huge energy consumption. Incorporating renewable green energy to lower the brown energy consumption also has become a widely concerned topic. In this paper, we are motivated to investigate a green energy aware remote radio head activation problem for coordinated multipoint communications in green energy powered CRAN, aiming at minimizing the network brown energy power consumption. The problem is first formulated into a nonconvex optimization form. By analyzing the characteristics of the formulation, we further propose a heuristic algorithm based on an ordered selection method. Extensive simulation based experiment results show that the proposed green energy aware algorithm provides an effective way to reduce brown energy power consumption, well fitting the goal of developing green communications.

Next Generation Access Network Deployment in Croatia: Optical Access Networks and Current IoT/5G Status

ABSTRACTThis paper gives an overview and background of optical access network deployment in Croatia. Optical access network development in Croatia has been put into a global as well as in the European Union context. All the challenges and the driving factors for optical access networks deployment are considered. Optical access network architectures that have been deployed by most of the investors in Croatian telecommunication market are presented, as well as the architectures that are in early phase of deployment. Finally, an overview on current status of mobile networks of the fifth generation and Internet of Things is given.

A Comparative Analysis of Selected National and Regional Investment Initiatives That Seek to Achieve Broadband Expansion by Deploying NGA Networks

Abstract Expectations about higher economic growth and the ever-increasing demand for higher bandwidth are driving the worldwide deployment of Next-Generation Access (NGA) networks. The paths followed to achieve this goal markedly vary, however, across different countries. This article offers a comparison of a handful of leading NGA deployments that rely on different investment models. We study the broadband national initiatives of New Zealand and Australia and a group of selected regional NGA deployments in Europe. While New Zealand's approach partially relies on a public–private partnership model of investment, Australia's National Broadband Network is a wholly government-funded initiative and the European local initiatives in Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal use a range of mixed models of investment. We use a common technology–policy–market framework that allows for a clear mapping of the incentives, goals, and actions of those involved in network deployment. Our main interest is the identification of the drivers for investment as well as the description of main risk factors in each case. By applying this framework to those selected deployment cases our work draws relevant conclusions about the impact of investment decisions on performance criteria such as coverage and uptake.

A Comparative Analysis of Selected National and Regional Investment Initiatives That Seek to Achieve Broadband Expansion by Deploying NGA Networks

Abstract Expectations about higher economic growth and the ever-increasing demand for higher bandwidth are driving the worldwide deployment of Next-Generation Access (NGA) networks. The paths followed to achieve this goal markedly vary, however, across different countries. This article offers a comparison of a handful of leading NGA deployments that rely on different investment models. We study the broadband national initiatives of New Zealand and Australia and a group of selected regional NGA deployments in Europe. While New Zealand's approach partially relies on a public–private partnership model of investment, Australia's National Broadband Network is a wholly government-funded initiative and the European local initiatives in Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal use a range of mixed models of investment. We use a common technology–policy–market framework that allows for a clear mapping of the incentives, goals, and actions of those involved in network deployment. Our main interest is the identification of the drivers for investment as well as the description of main risk factors in each case. By applying this framework to those selected deployment cases our work draws relevant conclusions about the impact of investment decisions on performance criteria such as coverage and uptake.

Full C-Band Tunable V-Cavity-Laser based TOSA and SFP Transceiver Modules

<span lang="EN-US">We report the latest development in tunable transmitter optical sub-assembly (TOSA) and small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers based on simple and compact V-cavity laser (VCL), aiming for low-cost deployment in metro, access and data center networks. The VCL employs a half-wave coupler to achieve high side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) and the Vernier effect to achieve a wide wavelength tuning range. Full C-band tuning from 1529.55-nm to 1566.31-nm with SMSR above 36 dB is demonstrated. Since the laser does not involve any grating or epitaxial regrowth, and has a simple tuning algorithm, it allows simpler processes for fabrication and testing as compared to other widely tunable laser structures. Compact TOSAs and SFP transceiver modules have been developed for full C-band tuning with up to 93 channels at 50 GHz spacing. Transmission experiments are carried out for direct modulation with data rates from 2.5 Gbps to 8.5 Gbps. The results of reliability tests of the modules are also presented.</span>