Race-UMTS for third generation wireless communications

For several years, effort have been devoted in standardization fora to develop network architecture(s) for third generation mobile communication systems. Based on the three-stage methodology defined in ITU-T Recommendation 1.130 [1], mobile and Intelligent Network experts within ITU and ETSI are currently working on the functional modelling of respectively FPLMTS (Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunication Systems) and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System). One of the major issues in deriving functional model(s) for future mobile communication systems concerns the harmonization of mobility features with the Intelligent Network (IN) principles. The support of mobility service features requires the analysis of how radio related control functions could impact on the development of future IN capability sets (CS-2 and CS-3). This paper addresses some of the issues related to the modelling of the radio access subnetwork and its interactions with IN functionalities.KeywordsMobile TerminalRadio ResourceUniversal Mobile Telecommunication SystemRadio InterfaceUniversal Mobile Telecommunication SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

The role of satellite communications in networks that provide new services, such as frame relay and multimedia, is investigated. Both passive and active (onboard switching, processing) satellite systems are considered. Novel techniques are developed for each system to demonstrate, via detailed analysis, how the communications bandwidth agility of multipoint/broadcast satellite channels, and the switchability of spot beams, makes it feasible to provide these new services via satellite in a resource-efficient manner. The current worldwide revolution in the telecommunications environment has led to significant changes in the generation and transmission of information. The coupling of local and global communications networks can make information, databases, and processing power available virtually everywhere. The essential infrastructure for this connectivity depends on the integrated services digital network (ISDN). Well-specified standards will initiate a worldwide movement toward the implementation of ISDN, and the 1990s are likely to be the decisive era for establishing the foundation for this new communications architecture. ISDN standards for interfaces, signaling procedures, service definitions, and other operational and architectural features will provide a common framework for developing satellite network configurations that can offer a range of new and enhanced services. The key elements of such communications systems will be the communications bandwidth agility of multipointlbroadcast satellite channels, global coverage, and the deployment of very small aperture terminals and mobile satellite terminals (VSATs and MSATs). These factors will play a crucial role in the cost-effective realization of ISDN; intelligent network deployment; the future public land mobile telecommunications system (FTLMTS); and ultimately, the universal personal telecommunications (UPT) service. There is a distinct paradigm shift in the way these telecommunications networks are evolving. The next generation, which will incorporate frame relay, broadband ISDN

A prototype communications system with security features based on the Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunications Systems (FPLMTS) network architecture is described. User authentication and communication security in radio links between many closed user groups (CUGs), public and private, are discussed. A layered structure of key management and key distribution protocols are presented.

Mobile communication systems with increasing complexity have been developed, introducing the specification of mobile terminal networks and personal telephony services within a world environment (for instance, the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) according to the ETSI or the Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunication System (FPLMTS) according to the ITU-T). The article describes the key management mechanism that has to be implemented over the mobility procedure, called handover, in order to guarantee the confidentiality and integrity of services in the transmission of control/user information over the radiolink in the macrocells environment. The successful integration of these security services in the handover procedure will be determined by the selected protocol which permits early execution of key management in every macrocell in which the mobile terminal is roaming.

The future Integrated Broadband Communications Network (IBCN) will provide high-speed communication capabilities that support a variety of existing and new services. The management of such a complex environment requires innovative management systems. NEMESYS is a project within the European Commission's Research and Development in Advanced Communications in Europe (RACE) program. The project goals are to demonstrate and evaluate the use of advanced information processing techniques for quality-of-service and traffic management. To reach these goals, a series of experimental prototypes are being built. This paper describes the assumptions, objectives, and approach of NEMESYS, and in particular, the design and implementation of an experiment that investigates service and traffic management techniques in a simulated asynchronous transfer mode environment. Because the project is not yet finished, some preliminary results are presented.

In Japan, mobile communication subscribers have been increasing rapidly, especially in the area of cellular telephones, radio paging, trunked system (called MCA) and cordless telephones. The digital cellular service was due to go into operation in the spring of 1993. The digital cordless telephone, digital trunked system end future public land mobile telecommunication system (FPLMTS) are considered. The author describes the following items; (1) mobile communication services in Japan; (2) personal mobile communications; and (3) future mobile communication terminals.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This paper describes the functional network architecture and the air interface protocol architecture for the Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunication Systems. The functional network architecture consists of two planes: the communication control plane that provides functions directly related to communication setup, release and so on and radio resource control plane that provides radio resource selection and handover trigger detection. Information flows for some basic services including both call-associated and non-call-associated ones are discussed. The impacts on intelligent network capabilities are also discussed.

Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunication Systems will provide mobile telecommunications anywhere and anytime. A third generation global communication system, called the IMT-2000 family, is being developed to this purpose under the ITU umbrella.

The infrastructure model of workstations in IBCNs: Mass market and international standardization

Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile communication technology based on wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and can facilitate the users in much better way as compared to the second generation of mobile communication. UMTS is superior to second generation in terms of bandwidth efficiency, quality of service, speech quality, speed and capacity. At present, more than 60 countries using WCDMA technology are operating commercially in 25 countries. In this paper, we focus on soft and hard handover issues in UMTS networks. In order to simulate a typical UMTS scenario we use OPNET modeler where a number of users are generating traffic and are free to move in various cells.

Advanced Communications, Technology and Services, known simply as ACTS, is one of the specific programmes of the “Fourth Framework Programme of European Community activities in the field of research and technological development and demonstration (1994–1998)” [1]. It provides the main focus of the European Unions research effort to accelerate deployment of advanced communications infrastructures and services, and is complemented by extensive European research in the areas of information technology and telematics. The stated objectives of ACTS are to “develop advanced communication systems and services for economic development and social cohesion within Europe, taking account of the rapid evolution of technologies, the changing regulatory situation and opportunities for development of advanced transeuropean networks and services”. Within ACTS, the emphasis of the work has shifted from the exploration of fundamental concepts and detailed system engineering, as it had been in earlier programs such as RACE (Research and development in Advanced Communication technologies for Europe), to issues relating to implementation of advanced systems and generic services, and applications which demonstrate the potential use of advanced communications in Europe. A key feature of the ACTS program is that the research be undertaken in the context of real-world trials.KeywordsField TrialSaturable AbsorberTiming JitterFibre LossOrder DispersionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Management architectures as well as protocols for accessing managed entities and exchanging management information are well developed in standards. On the other hand developments in open distributed processing (ODP) are of recognized importance for network and service management. Their generic features fit well into the geographically extended, multiple vendor and heterogeneous environment of communication networks. As a third ongoing development asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) broadband integrated services digital networks (B-ISDN) offer challenging problems for resource allocation, network performance and quality of service (QoS) evaluation in real time. The paper shows how performance monitoring and evaluation for ATM networks can greatly profit from the features of a distributed system environment (DSE). The extreme flexibility offered by the ATM principle requires a rich and reusable set of servers accomplishing coordinated performance evaluation tests. DSE transparencies are an excellent match to corresponding management applications (MA) requirements, so that tests can be performed in a distributed, flexible and adaptable way under a conceptually simple architecture. The paper draws extensively from a non-distributed counterpart, i.e. an existing sophisticated ATM test and analysis tool developed under the "Research for Advanced Communications in Europe" (RACE) program, R1083 PARASOL project.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Service and system engineering aspects developed within the RACE (Research and Development in Advanced Communications in Europe) program by project R 1044, entitled IBC (integrated broadband communications) Development and Implementation Strategies are described. It is shown how broadband interactive services will support business applications and how residential customers can be offered TV-based services. The features and technical characteristics of the B-ISDN will depend upon these service offerings. Proposals for the integrated and optical UNI (user-network interface) and the relevant wavelength allocation plan are also described. The major issues concerning short-term evolution are discussed, and findings are presented. >

RACE has proved a fertile environment for co-operation among the telecommunications actors : operators, industry and users, shaping the vision of telecommunication towards the year 2000. RACE output in terms of conceptual models, i.e. IBC, and R&D results have significantly strengthened the harmonisation processes in Europe. Cross-fertilisation of RACE results among the individual projects is encouraged and exploitation is pursued inside and outside the programme. The programme has largely disseminated information and significantly contributed to standardisation activities. An extended testbed infrastructure for broadband facilities ('islands') has been developed which is being exploited through work of RACE II projects. >

The present paper introduces frequency domain equalisation (FDE) as an efficient means for single‐user detection (SUD) in universal mobile telecommunication systems (UMTS) handhelds. Such an SUD is, at least partially, able to remove multiple access interference (MAI) like a multi‐user detector (MUD), however with several important advantages the operation principle of an FDE‐SUD is simple and easy to understand, the FDE‐SUD shows low numerical complexity and therefore, it is not power hungry like an MUD. The problem of applying FDE without zero‐padding or cyclic‐prefix insertion is solved by using the overlap‐cut method. In this paper we also prove that the performance of the FDE‐SUD is practically identical to that of linear MUD for a fully loaded UMTS cell. Furthermore, armed with the idea of FDE for code division multiple access (CDMA), we can construct a common receiver structure for CDMA, time division multiple access (TDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and multi‐carrier CDMA (MC‐CDMA) systems. This is an extremely useful idea in enabling a software‐defined radio (SDR) which can operate seamlessly in several environments such as UMTS, the IEEE 802.11a and WiMaX. FDE based receivers could be one important building‐block for the next generation mobile communications. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.