Risultati finali
The Resource Management Unit (RMU) is the component in charge of performing the decision making process that ultimately results in the triggering of the adequate congestion treatment techniques (through the OMC). The RMU receives from the ITMU the information on congestion situations in form of a list of alarmed cells, and executes a matching algorithm to identify the Traffic Load Scenario that best suits the current situations.
The RMU contains most of the intelligence and innovation of the CAUTION platform. To be more specific, starting from a human included basic knowledge about the possible Traffic Load Scenarios and suitable Resource Management Techniques, the RMU builds over time a database of observed congestion cases and applied techniques, and improves its performances by learning from past experiences through a Case Based Reasoning approach.
Searching the database of historical cases allows finding similar situations that occurred in the past and to immediately identify the most successful strategy to deal with the current congestion event. Once a technique has been selected to deal with a congestion event, the parameters necessary to instantiate the technique can be either obtained by similar application cases stored in the database, or can be computed with a fine-tuning model-based approach, which optimises the Resource Management Technique to meet the network operator goals for the current scenario.
All the above key features declare that RMU is a very powerful and innovative resource management tool, which can contribute to efficient emergency handling, higher network performance, better customer satisfaction and higher revenues for the cellular network operator.
Remarkable dissemination activities related to RMU have been carried out. The element has been presented in several conferences and workshops and the dissemination activities are planned to be continued by further publications and presentations to companies.
Currently, RMU is a prototype, successfully tested "in action". To drive it towards a commercial product, more testing would be required and the prototype should be further enhanced. Maintainability, modularity, extensibility and flexibility have guided the design choices of RMU so that it is quite easy to extend it and add new features to it.
RMU could be used after the project in future research activities and projects to meet the evolving requirements of next generation networks. Furthermore, in the possibility of going in market as a product, the customer has the choice to implement to his network separately RMU, if his network fulfils certain requirements. In that way, RMU is an independent product that can be sold separately from the CAUTION platform. Very serious source of income can also claim by the licensing of the above product. To be more specific, the license / authorized use of RMU can be renewed every year by depositing license fees.
CAUTION platform has been conceived with the purpose of tackling the problem of traffic overload in cellular network, by applying a number of possible resources management techniques. Some of these techniques already existed, but they were not efficiently applied. The architecture designed within CAUTION project for an efficient management of traffic congestion includes innovative elements in charge of monitoring cellular networks, detecting congestion situations and applying management techniques to cope with traffic overload. The four new CAUTION network elements, interconnected by means of dedicated wired lines or IP backbone network are the following ones:
- Interface Traffic Monitoring Unit (ITMU)
- Resource Management Unit (RMU)
- Emergency Call Server (ECS)
- Priority Call Server (PCS)
The CAUTION system consists of several network elements. Therefore, many innovative network interfaces are defined over the existing GSM network architecture. The new specified network interfaces are seven (C, A', U, T, I, O', N) and are explained below:
C interface: This interface is defined between the Mobile Switch Centre (MSC) and the Concentrator that collects the network information.
A' interface: This interface is specified between the Concentrator and the ITMU. Via this interface the ITMU concentrates all the information that are required for the desired processing.
U interface: This interface is defined between the Interface Traffic Monitoring Unit (ITMU) and the Emergency Call Server (ECS). Via this interface the ITMU sends the monitoring alarms from the congested cells to the ECS, as well as the ECS sends to the ITMU appropriate queries in order to extract monitoring information from adjacent cells.
T interface: This interface is specified between the Emergency Call Server (ECS) and the Resource Management Unit (RMU). Via this interface the ECS can send to the RMU commands for applying various resource management techniques. The RMU respectively returns to the ECS the acknowledgements of the applied actions.
I interface: This interface is defined between the ITMU module and the RMU module. This is probably the most significant interface into the whole CAUTION architecture. Via this interface the ITMU sends the monitoring alarms from the congested cells to the RMU and more specifically to the TLSR element. The RMU collects and processes this monitoring information and if it is necessary, it sends special queries to the ITMU in order to extract monitoring information for adjacent cells.
O' interface: This interface is specified between the Priority Call Server (PCS) and the RMU. Via this interface the PCS sends to the RMU appropriate commands that change the priority status of some specified user groups. On the other hand, the RMU after the command execution returns to the PCS an acknowledgement.
N interface: This interface is defined between the RMU module and the OMC. Via this interface the RMU forwards the commands with the resource management techniques to the OMC into the appropriate format.
All the above key features declare that the CAUTION platform is an innovative and state-of-the-art resource management platform that can tackle with efficiency the traffic overload problem and contribute to higher network performance, better customer satisfaction and higher revenues for the cellular network operator.
Remarkable dissemination activities related to the CAUTION platform have been carried out. The element has been presented in several conferences and workshops and the dissemination activities are planned to continue through further publications and presentations to companies.
Currently, the CAUTION platform is a prototype, successfully tested "in action". To drive it towards a commercial product, more testing would be required and the prototype should be further enhanced. Maintainability, modularity, extensibility and flexibility have guided the design choices of the platform so that it is quite easy to extend it and add new features to it.
The CAUTION platform could be used after the project in future research activities and projects to meet the evolving requirements of next generation networks. Furthermore, in the possibility of going in market as a product, CAUTION offers a highly effective and sophisticated solution of traffic overload in a well-designed and attractive "package". Very serious sources of income can also be claimed by the licensing of the above product. To be more specific, the license / authorized use of the platform or its elements can be renewed every year by depositing license fees.
The Traffic Generator (TGP) is an exceptional tool to produce traffic and, in addition, there is not such a tool in the market! The TGP produces Circuit Switch traffic, Packet Switched traffic under the GPRS service and signalling traffic for the emulation of SMS, Location Updates and Attach-Detach procedure.
The TGP consists of one PC, running Windows 2000 operating system and a special program that sends commands to the mobile terminals (MTs) for the generation of traffic. This PC controls 16 MTs, which are the generators of the traffic. The MTs are connected with 4 hubs with 4 RS-232 ports each of them. These 4 hubs are connected with the PC via Ethernet IEEE 802.3 connection or IEEE 802.11b in order to have much more freedom to locate the MTs without the need of UTP cables. Also the MTs support GPRS for the generation of packet traffic.
TGP can be used in a test-bed or an actual, working network, where we have to evaluate the results of resource management techniques or/and the network performance under real traffic congestion conditions. In this way, it is a basic requirement to produce telecommunication traffic in radio resources, such as RACH, AGCH, SDCCH, PCH, TCH in a very sophisticated and controllable way. TGP produces efficiently and accurately the traffic required.
All the above key features declare that TGP is a very powerful and innovative traffic generator tool (unique in the market!), which can contribute to better network evaluation, better customer satisfaction and higher revenues for the cellular network operator.
Remarkable dissemination activities related to TGP have been carried out. The element has been presented in several conferences, workshops and companies and the dissemination activities are planned to be continued by further publications and presentations to companies.
Currently, TGP is a prototype, successfully tested "in action". To drive it towards a commercial product, more testing would be required and the prototype should be further enhanced. Maintainability, modularity, extensibility and flexibility have guided the design choices of TGP so that it is quite easy to extend it and add new features to it.
TGP could be used after the project in future research activities and projects to meet the evolving requirements of next generation networks. Furthermore, in the possibility of going in market as a product, the customer has the choice to implement to his network separately TGP, if his network fulfils certain requirements. In that way, TGP is an independent product that can be sold separately from the CAUTION platform. Very serious source of income can also claimed by the licensing of the above product. To be more specific, the license / authorized use of TGP can be renewed every year by depositing license fees.
The Emergency Call Server (ECS) is an important and innovative element in the general CAUTION architecture, as it provides to the operator an online option to apply different resource management techniques to certain cells, immediately and effectively. This is extremely useful in emergency situations (i.e. accidents, earthquakes, and catastrophes), where the automatic mechanism (RMU) cannot recognize or solve the congestion problem immediately. In emergency situations, the RMU, and more specifically, its module, TLSR, may experience difficulties in recognizing the real traffic congestion scenario immediately. Moreover, the SS module may not face up the problem effectively. The main reason is that, in these cases, the increase of the congestion is rapid. In fact, the TLSR cannot predict exactly the duration of the emergency congestion event. It also cannot estimate the total increase of the congestion.
ECS mainly operates as a backup to the automated system. When some severe problems are presented and prevent the properly working of the RMU, then the ECS can take action dominantly and face up the problems immediately. The ECS operator can apply all the resource management techniques, which the automated system can apply too. The operator can select the desired BSC and BTS, where he wants to apply a specific technique, as well as he can set the parameters of any technique at an appropriate form, and after that to send in XML form the command that will be executed.
In addition, ECS is capable of sending emergency messages using the CBCH (Cell Broadcast Channel). These messages will be sent to the subscribers of the problematic cells in order to inform and advise them for the problem and its confrontation. Furthermore, it can send optionally SMS or EMS to the subscribers who are in danger, and to advise them properly. When someone is in danger and cannot make an emergency call, the ECS perceives this problem and makes an operator initiated call to him.
The status of this element in the CAUTION system is dominant. Its decisions and commands override all the actions performed by the RMU. In contrast to the automated processes of the RMU, ECS is fully dependable on the operator�s demand and is manually operated, because of its purpose and importance in an emergency situation. ECS is a distributed element, since it exists behind every ITMU module. It is operated manually, as mentioned above, with the help of a �user friendly� Graphical User Interface (GUI). When the congestion comes to the desirable level, the operator can release the selected technique. Moreover, the element is capable of retrieving extra information from ITMU when is needed with appropriate queries. It also monitors the network via ITMU, and the results from the techniques application.
All the above key features declare that ECS is a very powerful and innovative emergency handling tool, which can contribute to effective confrontation of emergency situations, higher network performance, better customer satisfaction and higher revenues for the cellular network operator.
Remarkable dissemination activities related to ECS have been carried out. The element has been presented in several conferences and workshops and the dissemination activities are planned to be continued by further publications and presentations to companies.
Currently, ECS is a prototype, successfully tested "in action". To drive it towards a commercial product (integrated in the CAUTION platform), more testing would be required and the prototype should be further enhanced. Maintainability, modularity, extensibility and flexibility have guided the design choices of ECS so that it is quite easy to extend it and add new features to it.
ECS could be used after the project in future research activities and projects to meet the evolving requirements of next generation networks, or as an integrated part of the commercial CAUTION platform.
The Priority Call Server (PCS) is an important and innovative element in the general CAUTION architecture, as it provides to the operator an online option to assign different levels of priority to certain users. This is extremely useful in emergency situations (i.e. accidents, catastrophes), where certain user groups or specific users must be prioritised, in order for the emergency to be confronted. The term "priority", of course, means exactly that free network resources are allocated preferably to the selected users.
Among key innovative features, the provision to the operator an online option to activate the pre-emption service (described in eMLPP specification documents) and the queuing service for certain user groups, on demand. In addition, the barring of services such as voice, SMS or data calls for certain user groups in preference to others, in order to reduce the traffic load when necessary.
Typical user groups to receive special treatment are: Ambulances, Police, Fire department, special government groups (i.e. ministers, members of parliament, other authorities), doctors etc.
The status of this element in the CAUTION platform is dominant. Its decisions and commands override all the actions performed by the RMU. In contrast to the automated processes of the RMU, PCS is fully dependable on the operator's demand and manually operated, because of its purpose and importance in an emergency situation. Furthermore, PCS is a centralized element, since it can change the users' priority status without considering their location. It is operated manually, as mentioned above, with the help of a "user friendly" Graphical User Interface (GUI).
It should be noted that the implementation of the prioritisation procedure is a very delicate matter, as it should not be of high complexity or overload the whole system, but it should offer high efficiency on minimum cost. The selection of bandwidth reservation provides both minimum cost and high efficiency, as it exists already in a primitive form, while it can be highly exploited and specialised for the needs of prioritisation.
All the above key features declare that PCS is a very powerful and innovative prioritisation tool, which can contribute to effective confrontation of emergency situations, higher network performance, better customer satisfaction and higher revenues for the cellular network operator.
Remarkable dissemination activities related to PCS have been carried out. The element has been presented in several conferences and workshops and the dissemination activities are planned to be continued by further publications and presentations to companies.
Currently, PCS is a prototype, successfully tested "in action". To drive it towards a commercial product (integrated in the CAUTION platform), more testing would be required and the prototype should be further enhanced. Maintainability, modularity, extensibility and flexibility have guided the design choices of PCS so that it is quite easy to extend it and add new features to it.
PCS could be used after the project in future research activities and projects to meet the evolving requirements of next generation networks, or as an integrated part of the commercial CAUTION platform.
This result is a dynamic system-level simulator for UMTS. It has been implemented using object oriented Visual C++ in Windows environment. In the simulator design, appropriate 3GPP UMTS specifications have been taken into account. Features relevant from the point of view of network monitoring and resource management have been implemented in the simulator (e.g. traffic model, mobility model, soft handover, power control, admission control, congestion control) as well as several resource management techniques proposed in the project for relieving congestion situations and utilizing the network capacity (e.g. Time-Limited calls, Half/Full rate, etc.).
Dissemination activities related to the simulator have been carried out. The simulator has been presented in several conferences and workshops and the dissemination activities are planned to be continued by further publications and presentations to companies. Simulation demonstrations have been prepared in the course of the project so that the simulator is can be easily demonstrated. The input/output functionality and the GUI are already at such a level that the role of the UMTS simulator and its power can be shown.
The simulator can be used to study UMTS network performance prior to network deployment or, after network deployment, to guide the selection of optimal network parameter values. Thus, the simulator can assist in the network-planning phase, help in optimising the network configuration and provide possibilities for evaluating network performance under different scenarios (e.g. different loads and service types). All that can contribute to higher network performance, better customer satisfaction and higher revenues for the cellular network operator. Some cellular network load scenarios occur in real situations very seldom (such as certain emergency situations and earthquakes) that it is very difficult to provide appropriate reservations for them unless some tool, such as this simulator, can be used to artificially create a seldom-occurring scenario and test the network operation and performance in such a scenario. A cellular network operator can use the simulation results as guidelines in the planning and deployment of the actual network to the extent that the results can be seen to represent reality accurately enough.
Among key innovative features of the UMTS simulator are the following. The accuracy of modelling done in the simulator to make it realistic is very high and many relevant things affecting the network performance have been taken into account (users' movement, different traffic characteristics for each service type, variations in the transmission powers, etc.). It is also possible to use quite realistic input data in the simulator such as radio wave propagation losses calculated e.g. with a ray-tracing based propagation tool and vectorized street maps that describe the simulation area.
Furthermore, in order to make the results obtained via simulations as well applicable to real networks as possible, constraints of 3GPP UMTS specifications have been taken into account in the design phase of the simulator so that features modelled in the simulator could be expected to exist in real UMTS networks as well. Also, many useful resource management techniques have been implemented in the simulator and they have been shown to enhance the network performance using simulations carried out during the project. The flexibility and configure-ability of the simulator allows one to perform simulations in many different scenarios by adjusting the input data and parameter values. Different service type and QoS level mixtures and various user distributions and mobility can be created and thus the ability of the network to cope with them can be verified. Testing all that in a real network would imply considerably more work and would also cost a lot more. Naturally, the simulation-based approach has certain drawbacks such as the level of detail to which it corresponds to reality but as long as the deficiencies are kept in mind and taken into account in the result analysis, the simulator can be extremely useful and cost-effective.
The results, UMTS simulator, could be used after the project in future research activities and project to provide further simulation results of UMTS network performance. Furthermore, it could be marketed to companies (e.g. cellular network operators) because they could use it in their network planning activities and thus derive benefit from it. The implemented UMTS simulator prototype can serve as a basis for further development towards a full product.
Currently, the UMTS simulator is a prototype but as such very powerful and versatile. To drive it towards a commercial product, more testing would be required and the prototype should be further enhanced. However, the simulator has been implemented according to good coding conventions and using C++ so that it is quite easy to extend it and add new features to it.
ITMU is an element performing real-time system monitoring. Unfortunately, real-time monitoring is a very difficult task in existing networks. Monitoring tools cannot respond in real-time conditions and, additionally, cannot automatically enable mechanisms to overcome congestion problems.
The innovative idea of ITMU is to exploit all available reporting mechanisms, coming from MSC's, and collect those that can give an idea of the traffic overload. In this way, redundant procedures are avoided and no additional overhead of the system occurs. The system can be monitored in terms of utilization and channel blocking. Therefore, ITMU guarantees the accurate detection of problems and manages the reporting to RMU. On the other hand, despite the implementation difficulties of the distributed monitoring solution, ITMU has not knowledge management mechanisms implemented, in order to ensure safe system rollout.
It should be clarified that the term "real-time monitoring" addresses the Air-interface utilization of the network. The resources that are monitored in real-time are the logical channels of the Air-interface (TCH, SDCCH, RACH, SACH, AGCH, PCH). In addition, ITMU calculates TCH blocking rate, SDCCH blocking rate, percentage of not-normal clear codes and percentage of emergency call attempts. The ITMU compares each of these parameters with a set of threshold values that it maintains stored, to verify whether the threshold value is reached or not. A positive match with the threshold values results in one alarm to be propagated to the RMU, indicating the necessity of initiating a congestion management procedure.
As a component, the ITMU contains a Graphic User Interface that provides to the operator the capability to handle it. In this specific GUI, the operator can observe the ITMU connections status, the monitoring results, as well as to receive the queries from the RMU and ECS for adjacent cells, or adjusting commands from the RMU.
All the above key features declare that ITMU is a very powerful and innovative monitoring tool, which can contribute to higher network performance, better customer satisfaction and higher revenues for the cellular network operator.
Remarkable dissemination activities related to ITMU have been carried out. The element has been presented in several conferences and workshops and the dissemination activities are planned to be continued by further publications and presentations to companies.
Currently, ITMU is a prototype, successfully tested "in action". To drive it towards a commercial product, more testing would be required and the prototype should be further enhanced. Maintainability, modularity, extensibility and flexibility have guided the design choices of ITMU so that it is quite easy to extend it and add new features to it.
ITMU could be used after the project in future research activities and projects to meet the evolving requirements of next generation networks. Furthermore, in the possibility of going in market as a product, the customer has the choice to implement to his network separately ITMU, if his network fulfils certain requirements. In that way, ITMU is an independent product that can be sold separately from the CAUTION platform. Very serious source of income can also be claimed by the licensing of the above product. To be more specific, the license / authorized use of ITMU can be renewed every year by depositing license fees.
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