Cellular multimedia network management by optimizing efficiency, QoS level and capacity

Abstract

Growth in the usage of mobile Internet services has complicated quality of service (QoS) management in cellular multimedia networks due to four objectives: maximum system efficiency in bandwidth utilization; enhanced user-perceived QoS level in terms of system protection ratio; maximum system capacity for accommodating ever increasing traffic load; least handoff rate because every handoff interrupts the negotiated QoS parameters and thus affects the application performance to an extent that depends on the period of induced interruption and type of application. Considering a GSM 900 based cellular multimedia network model, the dependency of system efficiency on the diversity of multimedia calls and handoff rate is first established; then, having determined an optimized value of protection ratio, it is established that, regardless of protection ratio value, the system's capacity depends upon the employed MAC (medium access control) protocol and handoff rate. Having confirmed numerical results by using LABVIEW 6.0 simulation software, it is concluded that, for any desired QoS level, the cellular multimedia network management requires intelligent optimization of the system efficiency and the system capacity that also depends on the employed MAC protocol and handoff rate.