Extracting Bulk Configuration Data from a Relational UMTS Management Database

The design of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) radio network controller (RNC) required the integration of hardware and software from multiple vendors and development organizations across a multinational project. The RNC architects, drawing on their experience with previous object-oriented projects, designed an abstract, distributed, object-oriented operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P) system. A key component is the innovative data-driven fault management (FM) design. It is not just integrated with the devices being controlled; it is integrated into the entire system. FM data is a central project resource used to drive internal error and fault handling, operational state changes, external alarms, and generation of customer documentation. The design takes advantage of well-known commonality and variability design concepts for easy implementation and maintenance. The FM architecture makes the definition of an error, fault, alarm, and fault-handling behavior as simple as adding a row of data. © 2003 Lucent Technologies Inc.

In order to achieve global roaming of UMTS users, the satellite segment is integrated in the UMTS terrestrial radio access network and it replaces a terrestrial Node B. As the satellite capacity to support a big number of users at the same time is high, terrestrial RNC will just support one satellite/Node B instead of several terrestrial Node B, meaning a gain in coverage. Our proposal is to study the capacity of USRAN (UMTS satellite radio access network) for mixed traffics sent over satellite channel in order to achieve dimensioning that can be used for call admission control. The interest of such a study is to give the possibility of USRAN dimensioning, i.e., to determine the capacity needed for a number of flows given by the operator. In this paper we describe the network architecture for satellite integration with UMTS terrestrial radio access network. Performance analysis and testing were done for voice traffics represented by an ON/OFF source model as well as for data transfer application

In a UMTS network, UTRAN (UMTS terrestrial radio access network) accounts for 70-80% of an operator's total expenditure on the network. Therefore, careful planning and optimization of UTRAN is vital for the success of any 3G operator. An integrated approach to cover different aspects of UTRAN planning and optimization is presented. The integrated approach consists of two parts: BS (base station) planning and optimization; RNS (radio network subsystem) planning and optimization. BS planning and optimization is divided into three phases - traffic analysis and preliminary system dimensioning, automatic coverage planning and optimization, and network performance evaluation and simulation. In the integrated approach, the three phases of BS planning and optimization are further broken down into six steps. RNS planning includes RNC (radio network controller) location and capacity planning and transmission planning and optimization. The integrated approach forms a basis to automate and optimize the complicated UTRAN planning and optimization process.

With the proliferation of mobile-network services, mobile networks have become one of the core social infrastructures and are therefore required to operate stably. Conventional mobile-network-management systems can detect and recover from faults according to previously formulated rules. However, such semi-static rules are vulnerable to large variation in quality of networks and to sudden increases in traffic, which are inherent to radio access networks. Maintenance personnel often had to perform case-by-case analyses for the vast numbers of abnormal cases and such analyses and creation of rules may have taken more time when new faults appeared. In addition, providing network elements timely is essential to maintaining network quality but it is becoming more difficult as mobile networks become larger and more complicated. To overcome these problems, we have developed a system that enhances the conventional UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) management system of mobile networks and improves stability during network operation. In this paper, we present main features of the system and its fundamental technologies: fault detection based on statistical reliability, root-cause analysis of the fault, a rule editor easy to create and modify fault-analysis rules for maintenance personnel, and guidance on expansion based on long-term analysis of trends. We tested this system then confirmed it could reduce fault-detection errors in a conventional management system through theoretical calculations and trials in a cellular mobile network.

Due the growing popularity and availability of IP-devices and IP-transport, and given the evolving standardisation, it is clear that IP-transport will be one of the transport mechanisms in the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). Most studies until now have concentrated on studying the impact of IP-transport on the 'last mile', and have demonstrated that is a viable alternative transport on the last mile. Introduction of IP-transport in the UTRAN, however, has a broader scope than the last mile alone. Also the rest of the UTRAN has to be taken into account, and in particular the IP-backbone interconnecting the mobile network elements. This article demonstrates that the mechanisms exist to fulfil the requirements imposed by an IP-based UTRAN backbone with reasonable characteristics of the backbone, the elements it is composed of and the resources this requires.

Multihoming is one of the most attractive features of stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) aiming to make this prosperous transport scheme competitive in mobile environments when the mobile hosts are equipped with multiple interfaces. The complementary characteristic of the 3G universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) and wireless local area network (WLAN) architectures motivates operators to integrate these two successful technologies. Recently spreading wireless devices are increasingly provided with multiple networking interfaces such enabling end-users to access internet services using e.g., the WLAN's higher bandwidth wherever available, and connecting to the UMTS network in other cases. This paper investigates the performance of multihomed SCTP hosts through extensive experimental studies in such an integrated heterogeneous environment. In order to do this, we designed and implemented a real native IPv6 UMTS-WLAN testbed equipped with novel IPv6-based mobile technologies, such providing ideal conditions for SCTP multihoming performance analysis. In this testbed architecture we analysed numerous settings to measure the handover behaviour of the protocol in terms of handover effectiveness, link changeover characteristics, throughput and transmission delay. As our results show, accurate SCTP parameter setup can significantly decrease the handover delay and eliminate the data transmission interrupts.

Release99 of UMTS (universal mobile telecommunication system) network supports conversational services by means of UTRAN (universal terrestrial radio access network) dedicated transport channels (DCH). In this paper we evaluate by means of dynamic simulations the impacts of the radio access network on the end-to-end quality of service (QoS) of voice over IP (VoIP). In order to characterize the QoS level, an analytical model devoted to predict the mean opinion score (MOS) has been considered. Finally, an investigation of the most proper set-up of the service is also presented, taking into account inter-layer parameters such as the dimension of the VoIP client buffer as well as the block error rate at the air interface (BLER).

In order for third-generation partnership project (3GPP) networks to cope with the rapid growth of IP data traffic, the location management requires further enhancement to accommodate the burst data traffic characteristics of packet switched (PS) services. The universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) location management solutions for PS services in 3GPP networks has been investigated, and an inactivity counter mechanism in PS domain to reduce the location management cost of inactivate users has been proposed. An analytical model accommodating diverse call and mobility characteristics of user equipment to evaluate the performance of the inactivity counter mechanism has also been developed. Using the proposed model, the performance of the inactivity counter mechanism in UMTS terrestrial radio access network recommended by 3GPP is investigated, the cost reduction obtained by the proposed mechanism when compared with the original location strategy used in the PS domain is then analysed, which also shows the effect of system parameters and users' mobility and service patterns on the location management costs.

Evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) offers high uplink and downlink throughput. In this paper, we investigate the performance of five different schedulers of media access control for resource allocation, such as round robin (RB), proportional fair (PF), best channel quality indicator (CQI), max transmission point (TP) and resource fair (RF). On comparing the performance of resource allocation schedulers in the indistinguishable arrangement, we found the proportional fair (PF) offers balance in terms of individual metrics. Furthermore, we analyse the effect of feedback transmission time interval (TTI) delay on two typical EUTRAN networks referred to as long term evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advance (LTE-A). We evaluate the performance of the PF scheduler for both networks under varying feedback delay in TTI. Simulated results show that the delay in TTI affects the performance of resource allocation. Feedback delay improves network performance by compensating effect of imperfect channel.

In today's rapidly changing market, an operator needs to introduce new offerings faster and at a lower cost than its competitors. This requires network configuration tasks to be highly automated. However, current network configuration methods have limitations: they use direct-input commands, which is a primitive method that is inflexible and hard to automate; have inadequate modeling and thus cannot represent complex relations and dependencies; and are hard-coded with the underlying model so that model change causes error-prone code change. This paper proposes a general approach for automating network configuration tasks using multi-level modeling: the first level represents the underlying domain; the next level, the inter-relations between models; and the third level, the configuration task business logic. Using multi-level models, a generic engine can be built to auto-generate executable configuration commands. A prototype has been implemented for a UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN). When tested on a set of representative configuration tasks, the implementation effort and duration are significantly reduced.

UMTS access networks can provide a wide range of bearer services with different levels of quality of service suitable for multimedia applications with bit rates of up to 2 Mbit/s. These multiple services are managed by use of composite transport channels, each having static and semi-static transport channel parameters such as transport block size, CRC code length, channel coding schemes, RLC mode, MAC type, transport time interval, rate matching and spreading factor. The perceived quality of the application seen by the end user is greatly affected by the settings of these radio access parameters. The paper examines the effects of these network parameter settings on the performance of real-time video communications by simulating MPEG-4 coded video transmission over a UMTS multimedia evaluation test bed. It investigates the optimal radio bearer design for real-time video transmission over UTRAN (UMTS terrestrial radio access network).

Long Term Evolution (LTE) of UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access and Radio Access Network is a Fourth Generation wireless broadband technology which is capable of providing backward compatibility with 2G (Second Generation) and 3G (Third Generation) technologies. LTE is able to deliver high data rate and low latency with reduced cost. It uses the frame structure as Time Division Duplexing (TDD) Land Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD). The broadcast channel in LTE is Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) information is divided into two categories one is Master Information Block (MIB) consists of a limited number of the most frequently transmitted parameters essential for initial access to the cell, and is carried on the PBCH and the other System Information Blocks (SIB) at the physical layer are multiplexed together with unicast data transmitted. The main objective of this paper is the realization of receiver architectures for PBCH in LTE considering Single Input Single Output (SISO), Multiple Input Single Output (MISO), Single Input Multi Output (SIMO), and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). The Receiver processing steps involves as channel de-estimation, demodulation, minimum mean square error (MMSE) and among the received data minimum value is calculated using the comparator at receiver side. By applying the following VLSI DSP methods folding to reduce the number of resource elements required and another method consider to reduce the delay is Super scalar processing method and the results are compared between the direct method, folding method and super scalar method. Based on simulation and implementation, results are discussed in terms of Register Transfer Level (RTL) design, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) editor, power estimation and resource estimation. To simulate all the modules of all PBCH channel Verilog code, Modelsim is used. For synthesis and implementation of the above architecture PlanAhead 13.4 tool on Virtex-5, xc5vlx50tff1136-1 device board is used.

LTE of the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access and Radio Access Network is aimed at supporting high speed package data service. LTE constitutes a major step toward 4G network and supports both FDD mode and TDD mode. In this paper, we study the interference cases of LTE TDD system, especially the crossed timeslot interference (CTI) is discussed and evaluated in detail. According to the simulation assumption, the system performance of LTE TDD using three classic scheduling schemes with or without consideration of CTI is evaluated by system level simulation. We have developed the simulation platform for both uplink and downlink directions. Simulation results show that the throughput degrades significantly due to the CTI.

Long‐term evolution (LTE) is standardized in the Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) as an evolution of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). This chapter discusses the localization technology available in LTE and gives remarks on likely fifth‐generation (5G) 3GPP developments. The LTE system architecture comprises two major functional parts: the radio access network and the core network. 3GPP specifies functional requirements that describe the minimum set of mechanisms for supporting and developing various location services (LCS), as well as a set of the attributes to describe or characterize LCS. The term shape conversion denotes the geometrical transformations between the 3GPP geographical shapes. Although shape conversions enhance the flexibility of positioning solutions, they have a distinct drawback in that they destroy information. The main characteristics of the different positioning methods in LTE and their expected positioning performance are summarized.

Guest editorial IJSCN special issue on 3GPP NTN standards for future satellite communications