LTE‐based satellite communications in LEO mega‐constellations

The integration of satellite and terrestrial networks is a promising solution for extending broadband coverage to areas not connected to a terrestrial infrastructure, as also demonstrated by recent commercial and standardisation endeavours. However, the large delays and Doppler shifts over the satellite channel pose severe technical challenges to traditional terrestrial systems, as long‐term evolution (LTE) or 5G. In this paper, 2 architectures are proposed for a low Earth orbit mega‐constellation realising a satellite‐enabled LTE system, in which the on‐ground LTE entity is either an eNB (Sat‐eNB) or a relay node (Sat‐RN). The impact of satellite channel impairments as large delays and Doppler shifts on LTE PHY/MAC procedures is discussed and assessed. The proposed analysis shows that, while carrier spacings, random access and RN attach procedures do not pose specific issues and hybrid automatic repeat request requires substantial modifications. Moreover, advanced handover procedures will be also required due to the satellites' movement.     

CFR: A cooperative link failure recovery scheme in software‐defined networks

Software‐defined networking that separates the control plane from the data plane is envisioned as a promising technology to enable resilient and flexible network management. Tolerating link failures is a fundamental problem in enhancing such network resilience in software‐defined networking. Reactive and proactive fault tolerant schemes for conventional networks may not well balance the fault recovery time and network performance, since the proactive scheme typically underutilizes resources and the reactive scheme usually incurs a longer recovery time. In this paper, we propose a cooperative link failure recovery scheme to find a fine‐grained trade‐off between resource utilization and recovery time by combining reactive and proactive methods. We formalize the problem of link failure recovery as a multiobjective optimization problem and devise a 2‐stage algorithm for it. The first stage of the algorithm guarantees connectivity restoration in an acceptable recovery interval based on fast failover feature supported in OpenFlow protocol, meanwhile it assigns virtual local area network tags to back up paths for achieving a lower memory consumption. The second stage of the algorithm guarantees the quality of service for different applications by adjusting the backup paths after rapid connectivity restoration. Extensive simulations highlight that cooperative link failure recovery scheme can satisfy both the carrier‐grade recovery requirements and quality of service requirements in terms of delay and network bandwidth.     

Software‐defined networking to improve handover in mobile edge networks

Mobility management and handover for a seamless connection are among all‐time challenges of wireless networks. Software‐defined networking (SDN) has opened new horizons toward research by adding intelligence in edge networks while decoupling the control and data planes. The flexibility and centralized nature of SDN further improve the handover decision algorithms. In this paper, we have improved the network performance with respect to the number of handovers and the handover delay by applying an LTE‐SDN architecture and a novel handover decision algorithm based on predicting the future locations of a moving vehicle. The proposed algorithm decouples the handover procedure into two phases of preparation and execution. In the preparation phase, which occurs in the control plane, the handover decision and resource allocation take place, and in the execution phase, handover gets executed similar to the LTE architecture. The results of our research indicate that our proposed LTE‐SDN performance is improved with respect to the number of handovers, handover delay, and signaling overhead by 24%, 16%, and 20%, respectively. On the other hand, average Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) value is decreased by 4% as a tradeoff for the improvements gained.     

SDN/NFV‐based handover management approach for ultradense 5G mobile networks

With the great increase of connected devices and new types of applications, mobile networks are witnessing exponential growth of traffic volume. To meet emerging requirements, it is widely agreed that the fifth‐generation mobile network will be ultradense and heterogeneous. However, the deployment of a high number of small cells in such networks poses challenges for the mobility management, including frequent, undesired, and ping‐pong handovers, not to mention issues related to increased delay and failure of the handover process. The adoption of software‐defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) technologies into 5G networks offers a new way to address the above‐mentioned challenges. These technologies offer tools and mechanisms to make networks flexible, programmable, and more manageable. The SDN has global network control ability so that various functions such as the handover control can be implemented in the SDN architecture to manage the handover efficiently. In this article, we propose a Software‐Defined Handover (SDHO) solution to optimize the handover in future 5G networks. In particular, we design a Software‐Defined Handover Management Engine (SDHME) to handle the handover control mechanism in 5G ultradense networks. The SDHME is defined in the application plane of the SDN architecture, executed by the control plane to orchestrate the data plane. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with the conventional LTE handover strategy, the proposed approach significantly reduces the handover failure ratio and handover delay.     

Power‐efficient routing for SDN with discrete link rates and size‐limited flow tables: A tree‐based particle swarm optimization approach

Software‐defined networking is a promising networking paradigm for achieving programmability and centralized control in communication networks. These features simplify network management and enable innovation in network applications and services such as routing, virtual machine migration, load balancing, security, access control, and traffic engineering. The routing application can be optimized for power efficiency by routing flows and coalescing them such that the least number of links is activated with the lowest link rates. However, in practice, flow coalescing can generally overflow the flow tables, which are implemented in a size‐limited and power‐hungry ternary content addressable memory (TCAM). In this paper, a set of practical constraints is imposed to the software‐defined networking routing problem, namely, size‐limited flow table and discrete link rate constraints, to ensure applicability in real networks. Because the problem is NP‐hard and difficult to approximate, a low‐complexity particle swarm optimization–based and power‐efficient routing (PSOPR) heuristic is proposed. Performance evaluation results revealed that PSOPR achieves more than 90% of the optimal network power consumption while requiring only 0.0045% to 0.9% of the optimal computation time in real‐network topologies. In addition, PSOPR generates shorter routes than the optimal routes generated by CPLEX.     

Leveraging multiuser diversity for adaptive hybrid satellite‐LTE downlink scheduler (H‐MUDoS) in emerging 5G‐satellite network

In order to achieve ubiquitous coverage and service continuity in future 5G network, satellite‐based access is the best solution to complement the terrestrial LTE‐A. In light of this, we introduce a channel‐aware hybrid scheduling technique on the basis of satellite‐LTE spectrum sharing. According to the user‐experienced channel, base stations (eNodeB) and the satellite will work cooperatively. The eNodeB mainly provides service in urban area for high density population. Meanwhile, the satellite will perform either offloading, providing service for under‐served users, or extra coverage for users in rural and remote areas having no coverage of eNodeB. Leveraging the multiuser diversity, we implement a new metrics computation method for hybrid satellite‐LTE downlink scheduler (H‐MUDoS). Compared with other existing schedulers, simulation results clearly demonstrate the high performance of H‐MUDoS in terms of spectral efficiency in addition to improvement of the quality‐of‐service requirements and capacity maximization.     

Research on hierarchical architecture and routing of satellite constellation with IGSO‐GEO‐MEO network

In this paper, a three‐layered medium Earth orbit (MEO), geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), and inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellite network (IGMSN) is presented. Based on the idea of time‐slot division, a novel dynamic hierarchical and distributed QoS (quality of service) routing protocol (HDRP) is investigated, and an adaptive bandwidth‐constrained minimum‐delay path for IGSO/GEO/MEO hierarchical architecture constellation (BMDP‐HAC) algorithm is developed to calculate routing tables efficiently using the QoS metric information composed of delays and bandwidth. The performance of the IGMSN and HDRP is evaluated through simulations and theoretical analysis. And then, the paper further analyzes the performance of the IGMSN structure and the BMDP‐HAC algorithm with failure satellites.     

Service‐oriented 5G network architecture: an end‐to‐end software defining approach

With the ever‐increasing mobile demands and proliferation of mobile services, mobile Internet has penetrated into every aspect of human life. Although the 4G mobile communication system is now being deployed worldwide, simply evolving or incrementally improving the current mobile networks can no longer keep the pace with the proliferation of mobile services. Against this background, aiming to achieve service‐oriented 5G mobile networks, this article proposes an end‐to‐end software defining architecture, which introduces a logically centralized control plane and dramatically simplifies the data‐plane. The control plane decomposes the diversified mobile service requirements and, correspondingly, controls the functions and behaviors of data‐plane devices. Consequently, the network directly orients towards services, and the devices are dynamically operated according to the service requirements. Therefore, the proposed architecture efficiently guarantees the end‐to‐end QoS and quality of experience. The challenges and key technologies of our architecture are also discussed in this article. Real traces‐based simulations validate the performance advantages of proposed architecture, including energy efficiency and the whole performance. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Terminal location method with NLOS exclusion based on unsupervised learning in 5G‐LEO satellite communication systems

We investigate the terminal location method in 5G‐Low Earth Orbit (5G‐LEO) satellite communication systems. To overcome the dependence on the external Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), we propose to use a single LEO satellite in 5G‐LEO satellite communication systems for terminal location and utilize the downlink synchronization detection for pseudorange differential measurement. Then, a data clustering method of unsupervised machine learning is proposed to classify the measured data into line‐of‐sight (LOS) and non‐line‐of‐sight (NLOS) signals. Furthermore, the NLOS data are excluded, and the Taylor series expansion iteration method is used to calculate the terminal coordinates. Simulation results show that the proposed method can effectively reduce the influence of NLOS error on measurement results and improve the accuracy of terminal location. In simulated urban scenario, the average location accuracy is improved from 10 km by traditional methods to 0.7 km and the convergence time is reduced from 400 to 250s.     

A novel architecture of Proxy‐LMA mobility management scheme for software‐based smart factory networking

Mobile users expect a network service, in which seamless handoff occurs while moving on a next generation wireless network. In addition, in smart factories (SFs), communication is required between factory floor and manufacturing zone, as well as connectivity towards office IT, or remote production facilities that are connected via wide area network or internet. For this purpose, interworking between heterogeneous networks is important, but there has been little research on global mobility support. Therefore, this paper proposes Proxy‐LMA technology, a mobile IP‐based global internetworking system, to improve global mobility and interoperability in the SFs network environment. The purpose of the proposed Proxy‐LMA system is to support global mobility by using mobility management protocols such as PMIPv6 and MIPv6 in heterogeneous network environment. As a result of the performance evaluation, Proxy‐LMA system is more efficient than other methods in terms of signaling cost and response delay in heterogeneous network environment. Software‐based networking in SFs enables them to easily adapt the communication network to changing requirements. Similar to cloud‐based systems, such SFs could be seen as production clusters that could be rented and configured as needed. The SF network uses software‐defined networking combined with network functions virtualization, to achieve the required flexibility. Despite the fact that the technology is nowadays not yet ready for deployment in today's manufacturing networks, a novel network architecture for SFs based on software‐defined networking and network virtualization is here proposed, to support smart services, especially for Industrie 4.0.     

Performance evaluation of selected Transmission Control Protocol variants over a digital video broadcasting‐second generation broadband satellite multimedia system with QoS

This paper presents an analysis of several Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) variants working over a digital video broadcasting‐second generation (DVB‐S2) satellite link with the support of the Differentiated Services (DiffServ) architecture to provide quality of service (QoS). This analysis is carried out using the NS‐2 simulator tool. Three TCP variants are considered: SACK TCP, Hybla TCP, and CUBIC TCP. These TCP variants are taken as a starting point because they have proven to be the most suitable variants to deal with long delays present in satellite links. The DVB‐S2 link also introduces the challenge of dealing with variable bandwidth, whereas the DiffServ architecture introduces the challenge of dealing with different priorities. In this paper, we propose a DiffServ model that includes a modified queuing mechanism to enhance the goodput of the assured forwarding traffic class. This modified DiffServ model is simulated and tested, considering the interaction of the selected TCP variants. In addition, we present evaluation metrics, significant simulations results, and conclusions about the performance of these TCP variants evaluated over the proposed scenario. As a general conclusion, we show that CUBIC TCP is the TCP variant that shows the best performance in terms of goodput, latency, and friendliness. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A flexible LEO satellite modem with Ka‐band RF frontend for a data relay satellite system

From a geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellite's perspective, a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite is visible on more than half of its orbit. Albeit the free‐space loss of an inter‐satellite link is much higher than the one of a direct ground link, considerable data rates and download volumes can be achieved. In this paper, we describe the system architecture of an integrated approach for a data relay satellite system and the development of LEO satellite and ground station modems. The approach allows serving several small and inexpensive LEO satellites at the same time both with low rate telemetry/telecommand links and with high rate download of sensor data.     

Telesurgery QoS improvement over SDN based on a Type‐2 fuzzy system and enhanced cuckoo optimization algorithm

Telemedicine is a new area based on the information and communication technology for collecting, storing, organizing, retrieving and exchanging medical information. One of the most important applications of telemedicine is indeed telesurgery in which an efficient telecommunication infrastructure between the surgery room and remote surgeons need to be established. One of the most important issues to be tackled in telesurgery is to find favorable links for routing as well as providing high Quality of Service (QoS). In this paper, an efficient model based on the hybridization of Type‐2 Fuzzy System (T2FS) and Cuckoo Optimization Algorithm (COA) over the Software Defined Networks (SDN) is proposed in order to achieve optimal and reliable routes for telesurgery application. Using T2FS, the fitness of the links is determined; then, a COA is conducted over the Constraint Shortest Path (CSP) problem to find the best routes. Delay is considered as a CSP problem which is satisfied by trying to find the paths with minimum cost. Due to the NP‐completeness of the CSP problem, an Enhanced COA (so‐called E‐COA) is proposed and utilized as a metaheuristic solver. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first SDN‐based communication model that applies both T2FS and E‐COA for assigning proper costs to the network's links, and solves the consequence CSP problem according to the QoS requirement for telesurgery. The model also recognizes and preserves the second‐best routes in order to keep the reliability for such a critical application. In addition to the simulations, the performance evaluation is also conducted on a real experimental scenario. Many comparisons are carried out between the proposed model and other conventional methods, and the evaluation study shows the superiority of the proposed model on all the three QoS‐related metrics, i.e. average end‐to‐end delay, packet loss ratio and PSNR.     

Effect of antenna array on the uplink orthogonal multicarrier DS‐CDMA system with imperfect power control

In this paper we analyze the effects of antenna array (AA) and imperfect power control on the performance of the uplink synchronous and/or asynchronous orthogonal multicarrier (MC) direct sequence‐code division multiple access (DS‐CDMA) system in multipath Rayleigh fading channels. Bit error rate (BER) performance is evaluated in terms of the number of antennas, the number of total subcarriers, power control error (PCE), and the number of users. Our numerical results show that the available user capacity of synchronous uplink is more than 1.5 times higher than that of asynchronous uplink, even though PCE increases. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.