Mobile networks are rapidly evolving towards new technologies that are characterized by an increasingly sophisticated radio interface, always with the aim of higher bit rates and ubiquitous coverage. Although 4G network deployments are still in their beginnings, the first upgrades towards LTE-A solutions are already planned by operators and evolutions towards 5G networks are currently under research all over the world. This rapid network evolution is essentially driven by the explosion of mobile traffic; a tendency that is not only predicted, but also observed on the actual networks. In this context, many collaborative projects are proposing new architectures and technologies as key enablers for responding to this traffic boom. Among these technologies, HetNets, composed of macro cells and all kinds of small cells, and cell coordination are regarded as the most promising ones. However, although smartphones and tablets are revolutionizing the usage of mobile networks and generating new traffic profiles, industrials, but also academics, are still evaluating and benchmarking these solutions using tools adapted to classical voice or best effort services. This raises fundamental questions about the validity of the presented performance results and their pertinence in the framework of future networks. Furthermore, technology choices within 3GPP are based on simulation results produced following the commonly agreed full buffer and FTP traffic models. While the former model does not represent any traffic reality, the latter is only adapted to best effort services. The primary aim of IDEFIX project is to radically revisit the way technologies are evaluated and benchmarked by proposing novel performance evaluation tools, based on the latest developments in queuing theory, that are able to tackle the complexity of traffic profiles in future mobile networks. These tools are to be carefully adapted to the different technologies discussed within 3GPP, and then used to benchmark these technologies and perform pertinent choices among them. Furthermore, IDEFIX will not adopt a passive behavior limited to performance evaluation of technologies. It will, on the contrary, propose service and network control mechanisms that enforce Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) of users of different services. For this aim, this project puts together experts on performance evaluation tools and traffic engineering, whose world class research results are recognized in the telecommunication community. This expertise is complemented by another internationally recognized expertise on service and network control mechanisms and, for the first time in this field, by an expertise on network economy and decision-making in strategic investments. These academic and industrial experts will help two top actors in the world telecommunications industry, Alcatel Lucent and Orange, in their perpetual quest for producing the most efficient technologies and deploying networks with the best QoS.
To summarize, the following actions are planned:
– Develop a novel performance evaluation framework for future mobile networks, based on recent advances in queuing theory that considers emerging services.
– Use the developed framework for dimensioning the network under target constraints on QoS/QoE for different typical traffic scenarios (service mix and traffic intensity).
– Propose QoS control and enforcement mechanisms that take into account the environment fluctuations due to users’ mobility and network heterogeneity, while ensuring the lowest possible energy consumption. The most promising mechanisms will be tested using a testbed on small cells provided by ALU and proposed to 3GPP for inclusion in R12/R13.
– Propose a strategic investment framework that allows the operator to plan its investments taking into account the risks related to technology maturity and traffic evolution, integrating the problem of competition/cooperation between the different actors.
PARTENAIRES
ALBLFÂ Alcatel Lucent Bell Labs France
Inria Centre de Recherche Inria Grenoble Rhone-Alpes
IMTÂ Institut Mines Telecom
ORANGE
UAPV Université d’Avignon et des pays de Vaucluse
UPMC Université Pierre et Marie Curie
Aide de l’ANR : 948 737 euros
D̩but et dur̩e : septembre 2013 Р42 mois
Coordinateur du projet :
SALAH EDDINE EL AYOUBI (ORANGE/LINCS)