Communication Service Providers Research Articles

IoT Ecosystems Enable Smart Communication Solutions: A Case Study

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a platform for innovation, allowing people to invest in and use IoT to improve life, business, and society. It will be applicable to all or any industry sectors, verticals, people, machines, and everything. This creates difficult requirements in terms of higher system capacity, extremely low latency, such as for the tactile Internet, extremely high throughput values, a wide range of services, such as IoT and M2M, and a more uninterrupted experience. As a symbiotic confluence of up to date and existing technologies, the IOT architecture will use Hetnet RAN, Cloud enhanced RAN, and SW defined data centres to combine novel and legacy technologies. As a result, IOT will combine next-generation largearea extensible service experiences anytime and anywhere, with ultra-dense installations, nearzero latency, and GB experiences–when and where it matters. Collaboration on research, standardisation, and spectrum sharing with the IT/Internet world, industry verticals, policymakers, and academia is a significant success element. Trillions of dollars in smart ecosystems prospects covering secure connections, digital service enablement, applications and repair provisioning, and a wide range of internet of things and consumer applications are available to communications service providers and enterprises.

ERICSSON MOBILITY REPORT (REVIEW. PART I)

Resilient networks are the foundation for continued digitalization of societies and industries. Continuous network modernization and coverage build-out has led to several hundred million people becoming new mobile broadband subscribers every year. 5G is scaling faster than any previous mobile generation and we expect 5G subscriptions to reach 1 billion by the end of 2022. In several regions, deployment of 5G standalone networks is also picking up pace, as communications service providers prepare for innovation to address the business opportunities beyond enhanced mobile broadband. A solid digital network infrastructure underpins enterprises’ digital transformation plans, and their new capabilities can be turned into new customer services. As exemplified in this edition, service providers are looking to expand out of pure connectivity into service enablement platforms. Global mobile network data traffic has doubled in the last two years, driven by continuing growth in smartphone usage, mobile broadband and now the digitalization of societies and industries. But traffic is not the only thing that grows. The ongoing war in Europe, as well as increased geopolitical tension in the world, leads to a range of global threats – economic as well as social – that must be navigated. And in our field of networking, the threat landscape calls for constant diligence in keeping ahead with security. You can read more about security in this edition. Managing the continued strong traffic growth while reducing energy consumption is also a top priority. Older technologies are being replaced by continuous build-out of 4G and 5G networks, substantially improving network performance and energy efficiency with each generation. 5G technologies play a key role in modernization, providing multiples of capacity while becoming more energy efficient. Innovative network technologies enable service providers to introduce new services that in turn support societies and enterprises to reduce their carbon emission footprint. In this edition, we share some examples of how 4G and 5G technologies make it possible to unleash the power of IoT connectivity to enhance both enterprises’ business performance and sustainability.

Interference-Aware Demand-Based User Scheduling in Precoded High Throughput Satellite Systems

In recent years, dynamic traffic demand requisites have driven the satellite communication service providers to implement reconfigurable demand-driven features to align the delivered throughput with the temporal and geographical variations of the traffic demand. Also, in current interference-limited High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems, the resulting inter-beam co-channel interference can be mitigated by carefully performing precoding and user scheduling. Unfortunately, the conventional user scheduling algorithms fail to provide demand satisfaction for dynamic traffic demand requisites. Hence, in this paper, we focus on the user scheduling design for precoded satellite systems where both co-channel interference and user demands are taken into account. In particular, we first classify the sectors in each beam according to the interference they may cause to neighboring beams. Next, we formulate the scheduling problem such as the activation of neighboring beam sectors is avoided while proportionally dwelling on the sectors based on their traffic demands. The supporting numerical results for different demand distribution profiles validate the effectiveness of proposed interference-aware demand-based user scheduling over conventional scheduling techniques.

Impact of Outsourcing on Effectiveness of Call Center Services

Call center is the frontline of communicating with customers. This paper reports the findings of a survey on service effectiveness of call center operations of mobile communication service providers in Turkey that either use in-house or outsourcing method. The primary objective of this paper is to explore how the customers of mobile communications service provider companies perceive the inbound call center processes for speed, easiness of use, first call resolution, effective inquiry and in doing that what qualities they display. For this purpose a survey was conducted with the customers who use call centers either to make an inquiry or to complain about the services. The aims were: to specify the typical behavior of mobile communications service users; how the firms handle inquiries or complaints; if they solve the problems for good and in what time or how long it takes to get an answer practically useful; to reveal the speed and timeliness of the processes. The survey was conducted with the mobile phone users in a highly populated area of Istanbul.

Toward Energy-Efficient Distributed Federated Learning for 6G Networks

The provision of communication services via portable and mobile devices, such as aerial base stations, is a crucial concept to be realized in 5G/6G networks. Conventionally, IoT/edge devices need to transmit the data directly to the base station for training the model using machine learning techniques. The data transmission introduces privacy issues that might lead to security concerns and monetary losses. Recently, Federated learning was proposed to partially solve privacy issues via model-sharing with base station. However, the centralized nature of federated learning only allow the devices within the vicinity of base stations to share the trained models. Furthermore, the long-range communication compels the devices to increase transmission power, which raises the energy efficiency concerns. In this work, we propose distributed federated learning (DBFL) framework that overcomes the connectivity and energy efficiency issues for distant devices. The DBFL framework is compatible with mobile edge computing architecture that connects the devices in a distributed manner using clustering protocols. Experimental results show that the framework increases the classification performance by 7.4\% in comparison to conventional federated learning while reducing the energy consumption.

Capabilities of Business and Operational Support Systems for Pre-Commercial 5G Testbeds

With the visions and high ambitions for the 5G ecosystem, mobile network operators (MNOs) and communication service providers (CSPs) embark on increased market complexity, with regard to volume and variety of users, customers, services, and partners. Digitalized, frictionless, and growth-enabling support system journeys become imperative. This article builds on the analysis of users' challenges and requirements when accessing support systems and proposes an architectural design for the 5G platforms' system support stack. It suggests the most important capabilities that 5G business support systems and operation support systems should have and explains why they are important from the perspective of pre-commercial 5G testbeds/experimental platforms. Our study focuses on the three main actors interacting with such platforms, namely the MNO/CSP, which operates and contributes infrastructure to the testbed; the vertical enterprise customer, who consumes services for performing experiments; and the third-party service provider, which complements the testbed by offering its own services through the platform or performs testing of its services under realistic conditions.

Service exposure and automated life-cycle management: The Key Enablers for 5G Services

The digitalization of society and the growing popularity of 5G-enabled use cases are creating new business opportunities for communication service providers (CSPs) to utilize 3GPP and cloud-based technologies in the enterprise domain.

Distributed UAV-BSs Trajectory Optimization for User-Level Fair Communication Service With Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have attacted much attention in the field of wireless communication due to its agility and altitude. UAVs can be used as low-altitude aerial base stations (UAV-BSs) to provide communication services for ground devices (GDs) in various scenarios, such as emergency communication and traffic offloading in hotspots. However, due to the limited communication ranges and high prices of commercial UAV-BSs, covering a target area all the time with sufficient UAVs is quite challenging, especially under dynamic environment. We need to design the trajectory of the UAV-BSs to optimize system performance. Most existing works focus on the energy-efficient coverage and throughput maximization but ignore the fairness of communication service, especially the fairness at user-level. Besides, reinforcement learning is suitable for solving decision problems in dynamic environments. However, most existing works use centralized deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approaches. Due to the scalability and low time complexity, a distributed DRL approach is more suitable for multiple UAV-BSs communication system in dynamic environment. Unlike previous works, we characterize the fairness at user-level based on proportional fairness scheduling and formulate a weighted-throughput maximization problem via designing UAV-BSs’ trajectory. Then we model the dynamic deploymentproblem of UAV-BSs as a Markov game and propose a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning-based distributed UAV-BSs control approach named MAUC. MAUC approach adopts the framework of centralized training with distributed execution. Simulation results show that the MAUC can improve fairness of communication service by sacrificing a small amount of throughput.

A Dominant Position as a Sign of Strategic Importance of an Economic Society

The paper analyzes regulatory legal acts governing implementation of transactions with securities, stakes, property or rights in relation to business entities that occupy a dominant position in a certain commodity market. The paper examines the issues related to the possibility of recognizing a dominant position as a criterion for classifying an economic society as an economic society of strategic importance for ensuring the country’s defense and state security (hereinafter: strategic importance) using as an example legislative restrictions on implementation of economic concentration in relation to organizations, providing communication services, port services, as well as in relation to natural monopolies. Based on the results of the study, a conclusion is made about the validity of modern approaches to establishing strategic importance of an economic society through the concept of a dominant position that over time can be transformed to use the concept of a dominant position as an independent criterion for establishing strategic importance of an economic society.

M-SMDM: A model of security measures using Green Internet of Things with Cloud Integrated Data Management for Smart Cities

In recent years, the Green Internet of Things (G-IoT) has gained a lot of attention to developing energy-efficient communication systems. It consists of electronic devices and is integrated with numerous tight constraint sensors for observing the real world and provide communication services to end-users. However, optimal data collection and its management among the heterogeneous G-IoT objects are one of the main challenges. Many researchers are still proposing different solutions to cope with such problems and offering IoT-cloud paradigms for processing, storage, and scalability services. However, the data of smart cities is forwarded using the open-source IoT platform, and sensitive information may be compromised. Therefore, this research aims to propose a model of security measures using the Green Internet of Things with Cloud Integrated Data Management (M-SMDM) for Smart Cities. Firstly, it forms a long-run and energy-efficient connectivity using self-balancing trees and distributing load factors uniformly in green communication systems. Secondly, it addresses the problem of secret key distribution between peer nodes and attained trust for both partial and direct communication. In the end, it securing the transmission system from mobile gateways to application users against threats with improved overheads and data latency. The security analysis of the proposed M-SMDM model is done along with simulation-based experiments. The attained results disclose the importance of the proposed model in terms of network parameters compared to existing work.

Optimization of the Return Link Carrier Planning for a Constant Coding and Modulation Satellite Network

In this paper, we propose an approach to optimize the frequency plan and associated bandwidth allocation in the return link of a broadband satellite network, by exploring several design techniques for carrier allocation plans. Since bandwidth is a limited resource in satellite telecommunications, the minimization of bandwidth usage is a core issue that satellite communication service providers must solve, in particular for networks using a constant coding and modulation plan, which lacks the flexibility found in newer satellite communication products and can be subject to hardware constraints. This problematic led us to raise the following question: how can the long term bandwidth requirement of the network be minimized, given a set of ground terminals, of Modulations and Codings, and of discrete bandwidths. In this document we formally define the long-term carrier allocation problem and analyze current practical solutions. We subsequently investigate two other potential solutions, found to be more bandwidth-efficient: one based on heuristics and another based on integer linear programming. Finally, we look at the impact of several parameters on the performance of those three methods. Overall we observed marginal reductions in bandwidth, however significant gains were reached for networks with small return links with low committed information rate, a case in which some constant coding and modulation networks could fall. We concluded that those networks could benefit from our methods and see a significant reduction in bandwidth, and subsequently operational costs, at low implementation costs.

AI-enabled RAN automation

A significant and growing portion of communication service providers' (CSPs) opex relates to the manual tuning of algorithms in RANs that do not exploit the full potential of the networks in the field. As 5G and cloud-native RAN implementations continue, the skill level needed to operate the RAN will continue to rise. Our AI-centered approach to RAN automation is designed to overcome both of these challenges.

Edge Strategies in Industry: Overview and Challenges

This paper discusses some details from the 2020 NetSoft conference DEP panel. This panel consisted of industry experts, and as such the perspective presented here is biased with an industry view of Edge Computing. In sharing this discussion and further expanding on the discussion in this paper the hope is to provide the research community with guidance on opportunities to advance and possibly accelerate the rate of Edge adoption (Tiwari et al., 2021). There is no avoiding the Edge discussion; today in industry Communication Service Providers see this is an avenue to monetize their 5G investment, the cloud providers, also known as the `hyperscalers', see this as providing an ingress point into new markets, and finally enterprises themselves see this as an opportunity to modernize and gain business advantages through insights and better process management. Two U.S. based mobile network operators have edge portfolios (AT&T Edge Solutions, 2021 and Verizon, 2021). Many examples exist around the globe with other network service providers, an exhaustive list would consume this paper. In addition, 2020 saw Microsoft acquire two Independent Software Vendors (ISV's), Metaswitch and Affirmed. This clearly is intended to bring edge capability into their Azure product line.

Evaluation of Routing Performance using OSPF and Multi-Controller Based Network Architecture

Newer mobile applications are increasingly being defined using Internet Protocol, resulting in increased use of Internet Protocol and subsequent upsurge of smartphones. However, many communication service provider core networks continue to use classical routing protocols and single controller-based networks if deployed. Controller-based networks built on the foundation of software-defined networks include centralization and separation of control plane and data plane, which can address the challenges experienced with the classical routing protocols. When single controllers are used, they tend to get overloaded with traffic. The ability to use multi-controller-based network architecture to improve quality of service in the mobile IP core network is still an open issue. This paper presents a performance evaluation of multi-controller-based network architecture, running OpenFlow and Open Shortest Path First protocol. The long-term evolution simulated network architecture is created using well-known network simulator Objective Modular Network Testbed running OpenFlow and simuLTE add-on. We test and analyze data traffic for Packet data ratio and Jitter and their associated effects on a multi-controller-based network running OpenFlow versus OSPF on a mobile core network. The experiment created two topologies; multi controller-based and Open Shortest path first network. Video and ping traffic is tested by the generation of traffic from User Equipment to the network-based server in the data center and back, and traffic metrics recorded on an inbuilt integrated development environment. The simulation setup consisted of an OpenFlow controller, HyperFlow algorithm, OpenFlow switches, and Open Shortest Path First routers. The multi-controller-based network improved Jitter by 10 ms. The Open Shortest Path first showed packet data ratio values of 89% gain while the controller-based network registered a value of 86%. A standard deviation test revealed 0.7%, which shows that the difference is not significant when testing for Packet data ratio. We provided insight into the performance of multi-controller-based architecture and Open Shortest Path First protocol in the communication service provider's core network.

Quick coverage analysis of mega Walker Constellation based on 2D map

Providing communication and internet services by mega constellation is the developing trend of the communication system. For the requirement of quick analysis of mega Walker constellation, utilizing the symmetry of the constellation, a continuous coverage analysis method is proposed based on 2D map theory. This method first calculates the minimum unit with repeated coverage performance on the 2D map according to constellation configuration parameters. Then select the satellites that determine the coverage performance of the minimum unit. Based on the phase distribution of these satellites, the overlap of their coverage regions inside the minimum unit is solved. Finally, the coverage performance of the whole constellation can be obtained. Compared with the conventional methods, this method avoids redundant calculation of inter-satellite positions and positions between the satellites and ground targets, which greatly simplifies the solving process of the coverage performance, so that the time complexity does not increase significantly with the increase of satellites. Taking the Starlink system as an example, the simulation results show that compared to the conventional method, the proposed method can obtain the coverage performance of the same precision while taking much less time.

An UAV-assisted VANET architecture for intelligent transportation system in smart cities

Vehicular ad hoc network is a pretty research vibrant area since last decade. It has been successfully used for intelligent transportation system and entertainment purposes for realization of smart cities. However, intermittent connectivity, high routing overhead, inflexible communication infrastructure, unscalable networks, and high packet collision are the key challenges that put hindrances on the wide applications of vehicular ad hoc network. The severity of these challenges become even more intensified when deployed in urban areas. To overcome these hurdles, integrating micro unmanned aerial vehicles with vehicular ad hoc network provides a viable solution. In this article, we proposed an unmanned aerial vehicle–assisted vehicular ad hoc network communication architecture in which unmanned aerial vehicles fly over the deployed area and provide communication services to underlying coverage area. Unmanned aerial vehicle–assisted vehicular ad hoc network avails the advantages of line-of-sight communication, load balancing, flexible, and cost effective deployment. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated against a case study of vehicle collision on highway. Results show that utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles ensures the guaranteed and timely delivery of emergency messages to nearby vehicles so that a safe action can be taken to avoid further damages.

SCIENTIFIC AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO A COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE ECONOMIC STABILITY OF A TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY

The COVID-19 pandemic has ultimately changed the course of global economic functions, including the Ukrainian ones. The consequences caused by the pandemic significantly affected companies’ economic sustainability and reflected the urgent need to assess economic sustainability in order to determine its level and further develop theoretical and methodological aspects of Strategic Enterprise Management. This article is aimed at developing a scientific and methodological approach to comprehensively assess the economic stability of a telecommunications company that operates under modern market conditions. Methods. A study was conducted within the scope of existing techniques used to assess economic stability and, thus, the lack of generally accepted assessment methods was observed. A set of indicators to assess the economic stability of the telecommunications company was formed through financial analysis, taking into account the industry practices of communications service provider’s functioning. Comprehensive assessment of the economic stability of telecommunications companies was carried out using a statistical data analysis technique – regression analysis. 2016-2020 financial reports and statistical data provided by examined communications service providers from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine and the National Commission of Ukraine for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization were used as outcoming data. Study results. As part of the study, the existing assessment methods were analyzed, which made it possible to organize, systematize, and identify their advantages and disadvantages. A set of indicators to assess economic stability of a telecommunications company was formed, indicating the selection criteria and identifying dependence on the presence of a communications service provider at a certain stage of its business development. A scientific and methodological approach to a comprehensive assessment of the economic stability of telecommunications companies taking into account their industry characteristics has been developed. Conclusions. The created scientific and methodological approach to assess economic stability of the telecommunications company comprehensively makes it possible to determine the level of economic stability depending on the stage of business development of a company. The assessment performed is a key factor that must be taken into account when developing strategic management of a company that operates in the context of market transformations.

The current practices of Australian speech-language pathologists in providing communication services to children with autism spectrum disorder

Purpose Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is fundamental to speech-language pathology practice. Australian speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who treat communication disorders in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face unique challenges in implementing EBP. Challenges may include selecting an intervention from a myriad of available interventions for use within a complex population. Identification of current practices of Australian SLPs in communication service provision to children with ASD will provide a baseline for use of EBP and may guide future efforts to engage in EBP. Method A total of 109 Australian SLPs who provide communication services to children with ASD completed an online survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse service delivery and participant experiences of EBP. Result The most common barrier to delivering EBP was inadequate resources. The most utilised strategy was discussing evidence with colleagues. Most participants reported using therapies which did not adhere to a standard protocol, such as eclectic approaches. The majority also reported use of outcome measures which they believe adequately represent functional communication changes for their client. Conclusion Resource limitations may result in over-reliance on interventions lacking empirical support and over-reliance on subjective outcome measurement tools. Reflective practice and self-evaluation of communication services to children with ASD may support improved provision of EBP.

5G zero trust – A Zero-Trust Architecture for Telecom

The primary aim of any approach to network security is to protect the communication infrastructure so that it can provide services with the expected level of quality, free of disruption. By significantly mitigating risks inside the network perimeter, the zero trust model makes it easier for communication service providers (CSPs) to live up to their security commitments.

Performance analysis of 320 Gbps DWDM—FSO System under the effect of different atmospheric conditions

The last decade has witnessed significant growth of optical communication systems due to low attenuation offered for longer distances with high capacities. Optical wireless communication such as Free space Optical (FSO) systems provide license free secure transmission with lower deployment cost to make it attractive solution for providing communication services in remote areas. However atmospheric turbulences can become major challenges for deploying the FSO systems as it affects its performance. In this work, we propose a 320 Gbps, 32 channel’s hybrid fiber + FSO system using cost efficient On OFF Key modulation by incorporating hybrid dense wavelength division multiplexing scheme. Each channel carries 10 Gbps data segregated by 100 GHz channel spacing. Also, the effect of variant climatic turbulence analyzed for non-return to zero and Return to zero system considering clear sky, light fog, moderate fog and dense fog conditions.