Public Cellular Networks Research Articles

Enabling LPWANs for Coexistence and Diverse IoT Applications in Smart Cities Using Lightweight Heterogenous Multihomed Network Model

Smart cities have been envisioned to provide smartness in managing internet of things (IoT) application domains, such as transport and mobility, health care, natural resources, electricity and energy, homes and buildings, commerce and retail, society and workplace, industry, agriculture, and the environment. The growth trajectory in usage of these IoT domains has led to a heterogeneous dense network in a smart city environment. The heterogeneous dense network in smart cities has led to challenges, such as difficulties in the management of LPWAN coexistence, interference, spectrum insufficiency, QoS, and scalability issues. The existing LPWAN technologies cannot support the heterogeneous dense network challenges in smart cities. Further, it cannot support diverse IoT, including medium- to high-bandwidth applications, due to the power, complexity, and resource constraints of the LPWAN devices. Hence, this paper addresses high data rate IoT applications and heterogeneous dense networks. This paper proposes a lightweight heterogenous multihomed network (LHM-N) model for diverse smart city applications that will address dense heterogeneity network challenges in a smart city. The work aims to advocate and integrate a manageable license-free LPWAN that will coexist with 5G private and public cellular networks in the LHM-N model. This will help to provide a cost-effective solution model in a heterogeneous dense smart city environment. Further, a secured lightweight energy-efficient packet-size forwarding engine (PSFE) algorithm is presented using the discrete event simulation (DES) methodological approach in MATLAB for complexity evaluation. In addition, a 5G reduced capability (RedCap) IoT device is integrated into the (LHM-N) model to support smart city. Finally, the results show that the LHM-N model outperforms the conventional quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) protocol scheme in terms of error rate, latency, and data throughput with reduced energy costs for medium- to high-bandwidth industrial IoT applications. This validates the suitability of the LHM-N model for high data rate IoT applications.

Frequency Regulation Service Provision for Virtual Power Plants Through 5G RAN Slicing

The virtual power plant (VPP) has the potential to provide frequency regulation services by aggregating demand-side distributed energy resources (DERs). Cellular communication networks are commonly utilized for connecting DERs. Nevertheless, conventional cellular networks prior to 5G were unreliable, while private cellular networks incur huge investment costs. Radio access network (RAN) slicing in 5G communications can address these issues by providing the VPP with virtual private networks in public cellular networks. The VPP must evaluate the benefits of 5G RAN slicing and determine the size of slices before implementing it. This paper proposes to apply 5G RAN slicing to assist the VPP in participating in frequency regulation services. First, an optimization model is developed for the VPP to maximize the profit of engaging DERs in various frequency regulation services. Its solution determines the VPP’s DER portfolio schedule of regulation services and communication needs. Then, the effects of communication reliability on the regulation performance are quantified. 5G RAN slicing enhances the predictability of communication reliability, and its benefit is explicitly modeled as its contribution to reducing VPP’s risk profit loss. Next, based on the 5G RAN slicing benefit, an optimization model for determining the size of slices is further established, considering the cost of purchasing slices from mobile service providers. Additionally, an online solution method is developed, such that DERs’ regulation service portfolio can be determined in real-time. Numerical case studies are conducted to demonstrate the benefit of 5G RAN slicing for the VPP’s frequency regulation services.

Location-Based LTE-M Uplink Power Control and Radio Resource Scheduling.

Long-Term Evolution for Metro (LTE-M) is adopted as the data communication system in urban rail transit to exchange bio-direction train-wayside information. Reliable data communication is essential in LTE-M systems for ensuring trains’ operation safety and efficiency. However, the inter-cell inference problem exists in LTE results in throughput reduction, especially when trains are in the edge area of adjacent cells, and has negative effects on train operation. The uplink power control and radio resource scheduling scheme is studied in LTE-M system which differentiates from public cellular networks in user numbers and the availability of the trains’ locations. Since the locations of the trains are available, the interferences from the neighbouring cells can be calculated, and a location based algorithm together with soft frequency reuse is designed. In addition, a proportional fair algorithm is taken to improve uplink radio resource scheduling considering the fairness to different train-wayside communication service requirements. Through simulation, the practicability of the proposed schemes in communication system of urban rail transit is verified in aspects of radio power control and data communication throughput.

Client-Based Intelligence for Resource Efficient Vehicular Big Data Transfer in Future 6G Networks

Vehicular big data is anticipated to become the “new oil” of the automotive industry which fuels the development of novel crowdsensing-enabled services. However, the tremendous amount of transmitted vehicular sensor data represents a massive challenge for the cellular network. A promising method for achieving relief which allows to utilize the existing network resources in a more efficient way is the utilization of intelligence on the end-edge-cloud devices. Through machine learning-based identification and exploitation of highly resource efficient data transmission opportunities, the client devices are able to participate in overall network resource optimization process. In this work, we present a novel client-based opportunistic data transmission method for delay-tolerant applications which is based on a hybrid machine learning approach: Supervised learning is applied to forecast the currently achievable data rate which serves as the metric for the reinforcement learning-based data transfer scheduling process. In addition, unsupervised learning is applied to uncover geospatially-dependent uncertainties within the prediction model. In a comprehensive real world evaluation in the public cellular networks of three German Mobile Network Operator (MNO), we show that the average data rate can be improved by up to 223% while simultaneously reducing the amount of occupied network resources by up to 89%. As a side-effect of preferring more robust network conditions for the data transfer, the transmission-related power consumption is reduced by up to 73%. The price to pay is an increased Age of Information (AoI) of the sensor data.

Design of a New Type of Optical Fiber Infrasound Sensor and Its Usage in Karst Geological Exploration

In this study, the demand of optical fiber (OF) sonic sensor is analyzed, and a composite OF infrasound sensor is proposed aiming at the detection demand of low-frequency infrasound waves in specific occasions. With this sensor, the polymer thin film and the aluminum soil can be combined to form a kind of composite film, the ECF/P interferometer can be formed between the end faces of the ferrule of the OF FC contact, the sensor head of the OF ECF/P infrasound sensor system is fabricated and then packaged. The designed OF infrasound sensor is used in the construction of a wireless sensor network (WSN) for karst geological exploration. The structure of the WSN includes the SimpliciTI communication network protocol, ADF7021 RF transceiver chip, STM32 processor chip, etc. New types of environment from karst can be sampled with this WSN. During the test, the performance of the composite OF infrasound sensor is analyzed at the beginning. The acoustic sensitivity of up to –136.73 dB re 1 V/μPa can be obtained in the low frequency infrasound range (1–20 Hz); the WSN based on the composite OF infrasound sensor has lower power consumption and faster networking speed. In addition, it can realize signal cover in karst areas without public mobile cellular networks, and send the information collected by the sensor to the data center, thus proving the fiber optic sound wave sensor designed in this study is successful and helpful for the geological prospectors to monitor the environment.

IP-Based Cooperative Services Using ATSC 3.0 Broadcast and Broadband

This paper presents Internet protocol (IP)-based convergence of broadcast and broadband networks using Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0–the next generation terrestrial broadcasting standard. In the broadcast network, the combination of Layered Division Multiplexing (LDM) and Scalable High Efficiency Video Codec (SHVC) is used, enabling efficient use of spectrum when mobile and fixed services are intended in a single radio frequency (RF) channel. The proposed use case of IP-based convergence is that a service is largely consumed through the high power high tower (HPHT) based broadcast network, and then alternative streams are requested via unicast for areas where broadcast signals are not receivable. The implementation details of broadcast and broadband convergence include MPEG Media Transport (MMT)/Real-time Objective delivery over Unidirectional Transport (ROUTE) description for broadcast useand Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) for broadband use. To achieve seamless convergence between broadcast and broadband, transmission and reception systems based on ATSC 3.0 are hardware-developed and their implementation details are described. The proposed IP-based convergence use case of ATSC 3.0 broadcast and broadband is verified in a real-field environment using a public cellular network.

ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY OF RES ON RAILWAY

This work reviews the main related problems of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of the locomotive radio system GSM-R in modern railway transport. The typical internal electromagnetic interference (EMI), caused by the high density of the equipment layout in the rolling stock, and external electromagnetic interference generated by public cellular mobile communication networks and other radio systems are considered. The results of experiments to determine the parameters of public cellular mobile communication networks along the selected railway section show a rather high level of signals that are EMI for GSM-R and affecting on EMC.

Integration of LTE 230 and LTE 1800 in Power Wireless Private Networks

Power wireless private networks (PWPNs) have been highly developed in China in recent years. They provide a basis for the energy Internet of Things, which enables the exchange of energy information between devices. Although the power wireless private network is an imitation of the public cellular network, a number of special challenges remain in power private networks. Due to the lack of general standards for PWPNs at the beginning of deployment, there are now two independent PWPN systems in China: long-term evolution (LTE) 230 and LTE 1800. Each has its own core and access networks with independent hardware. In this paper, we propose a high-level design of multinetwork integration to allow LTE 230 and LTE 1800 to coexist. For core network integration, we propose a protocol controller to select the active protocol according to the user’s mode selection, since both LTE 230 and LTE 1800 evolved from the standard LTE system. For access network integration, we propose a multinetwork integration controller to help the device access the optimal cell. The simulation results show that the integrated system can retain the advantages of these two independent systems in terms of both capacity and coverage.

Joint Radio Resource Allocation and Base Station Location Selection in OFDMA Based Private Wireless Access Networks for Smart Grid

This paper studies the base stations deployment problem in orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) based private wireless access networks for smart grid (SG). Firstly, we analyze the differences between private wireless access networks for SG and public cellular access networks. Then, we propose scheduling and power control based algorithms for the radio resource allocation subproblem and K-means, simulated annealing (SA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) based algorithms for the base station (BS) location selection subproblem and iterate over these two sets of algorithms to solve the target problem. Simulation results show that the proposed method can effectively solve the target problem. Specifically, the combination of power control based resource allocation algorithm and PSO based location selection algorithm is recommended.

Field evaluation of an electrostatic PM10 mass monitor used for continuous ambient particulate air pollution measurements

The aim of this paper is to evaluate field values based on electrostatic charge technique of a PM10 mass monitor used for continuous measuring of ambient particulate air pollution. The PM10 mass monitor included electrostatic PM10 mass monitor (EPMM) and wireless monitor systems. In this study, the performance of the EPMM was simultaneously evaluated with a commercially available tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) for measurements at ambient condition. The data of the sensor was connected to the internet through a GSM connection to a public cellular network. The monitoring data of ambient PM was collected and compared for both EPMM and TEOM by measuring at Chiang Mai City Hall during May 1st – 31st, 2015. The two different instruments showed good results that were highly correlated. The comparison between the EPMM and TEOM data values resulted in R2 of 0.8352 and 0.9697, and a slope of 0.8401 and 0.9087 for 1-h and 24-h, respectively. In addition, it was found that the relative humidity played an important role in PM10 mass concentration and its electrical properties of the EPMM. Particularly the EPMM proved its advantages in measuring and detecting PM10 particulate air pollution for mass concentrations in the range from 0 to 500 μg/m3.

Balancing competing resource allocation demands in a public cellular network that supports emergency services

When an emergency happens, public communication networks, including cellular networks, public switched telecommunication networks, and the Internet can be utilized to support emergency communications. The admission control strategies currently employed by the Wireless Priority Service (WPS), however, have drawbacks of being not able to address dynamic traffic demands for different scenarios and locations. They assume a standard profile for emergency and public demand at all locations. In contrast, this paper presents an analytical modeling framework that creates flexible, adaptive algorithms for operators to easily use based on the specifics of each scenario. Numerical results show that this provides an obvious improvement over the existing approaches. The analysis approach provided here, that incorporates the reneging behavior of customers waiting for service, also presents another main contribution compared with past work for computing the average waiting time.

Professional Mobile Radio — the BT Airwave Public Safety Service and the Path for Technology and Service Evolution

Professional mobile radio (PMR) has often been perceived as the 'Cinderella' of the mobility market; however, a wide range of corporate mobile business communications people use PMR intensively, because both its unique functionality and its performance match their requirements bettern than other mobile technologies. Although there are several new digital PMR technologies, the new ETSI TETRA (terrestrial trunked radio) standard, which offers enhanced speech and data facilities, is a major factor in the quiet revolution in which more and more business users are adopting PMR to meet their mobile communications needs. This market is estimated to be worth over £ 10bn by 2004. TETRA is also receiving global acceptance outside Europe with contracts and/or commitments already in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and China, with interest being shown in North America (Com-Net Ericsson/Marconi contract for Florida). BT Quadrant and BT Airwave have been very successful in capturing a significant part of the UK 'public safety' (police, fire, ambulance, etc) market. A Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract worth £2.5bn was secured at the beginning of this year for the supply of PMR communications to the police and other 'blue light' services. This contract has a lifetime of over 15 years and it is therefore important to look ahead at how the present capabilities may be evolved to enhance the service, at a time when the capabilities of public cellular networks will be enhanced by new 3rd generation developments. This paper reviews the BT Airwave service for public safety users and discusses how it may be developed to provide users with greater flexibility and increased working effectiveness.