Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W28/00—Network traffic management; Network resource management
  • H04W28/02—Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
  • H04W28/0231—Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control based on communication conditions
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/02—Services making use of location information
  • H04W4/021—Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
  • H04L43/06—Generation of reports
  • H04L43/062—Generation of reports related to network traffic
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W24/00—Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
  • H04W24/02—Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/02—Services making use of location information
  • H04W4/029—Location-based management or tracking services
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/50—Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W52/00—Power management, e.g. Transmission Power Control [TPC] or power classes
  • H04W52/02—Power saving arrangements
  • H04W52/0203—Power saving arrangements in the radio access network or backbone network of wireless communication networks
  • H04W52/0206—Power saving arrangements in the radio access network or backbone network of wireless communication networks in access points, e.g. base stations
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
  • H04L43/08—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
  • H04L43/0823—Errors, e.g. transmission errors
  • H04L43/0829—Packet loss
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02D—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THEIR OWN ENERGY USE
  • Y02D30/00—Reducing energy consumption in communication networks
  • Y02D30/70—Reducing energy consumption in communication networks in wireless communication networks

Definitions

• the invention relates to the field of wireless telecommunications networks and more particularly the management of a cellular, meshed and ad hoc telecommunications network.
• a cell is defined by a base station that provides radio coverage for terminals within the thus-defined cell.
• cell designates as well an attocell, a femtocell, a pico-cell, a micro-cell, or even a macro-cell.
• a problem is that in a given geographical area, the densification of cells has led to an increase in the energy consumption of networks, some areas of the network may be over-equipped.
• Solutions are known for spatiotemporally defining in a given geographical area how to manage the network.
• An object of the invention is to manage a network in an anticipated manner.
• the invention proposes a method of configuring a telecommunications network located in a geographical area in which there is at least one terminal receiving or transmitting traffic relating to a service, the method comprising: an acquisition of information relating to the traffic received or transmitted by said at least one terminal, said information comprising a duration of the service requested or received by said terminal;
• the estimation step consists in updating, from the information acquired, an initial request profile, which is a function of the profile of each user and which has been initialized;
• the step of determining the network configuration defining an offer profile closest to the traffic request profile comprises integrating an optimization step according to a predetermined criterion
• the predetermined criterion is that said configuration has a minimum energy consumption for a given quality of service level
• each terminal comprises an application loaded into a memory of the terminal, the method comprising a step of extraction by the application of the information relating to said traffic, a step of transmission of the extracted information;
• the network configuration is defined by the number of base stations active in the geographical area, the power of the antennas of the terminals and / or base stations and / or the route relative to each traffic flow;
• the network configuration is implemented either centrally or in a distributed manner.
• the invention is based on a prediction of traffic from information which when the management of the network is based on past measurements are not taken into account.
• the local and point estimate of the requested capacity makes it possible to reconfigure the network in order to avoid so-called "out-of-service” situations and to increase the QoS.
• the reconfiguration can be performed in order to optimize the network according to one or more parameters (such as energy efficiency) chosen by the operator.
• the invention applies to wireless networks: cellular (3G, GSM, GPRS, etc.), ad hoc and mesh networks.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a cellular network deployed in a given geographical region
• FIG. 2 illustrates steps of a method according to the invention
• FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a traffic profile
• FIGS. 4a to 4e illustrate two exemplary embodiments of a method according to the invention
• FIG. 5 illustrates the energy consumption of a configuration of a network obtained according to the method of the invention in comparison with a configuration of a network obtained in a conventional manner.
• a cellular telecommunications network comprises a plurality of base stations 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, arranged in a geographical zone 1 in which there is at least one terminal T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8.
• Each base station 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 defines a cell C1, C2, C3, C4, C5.
• the telecommunication network may be of the mesh type and comprises at least one terminal located in a geographical area. This type of network differs from that of Figure 1 in that it does not include a base station.
• Terminal means a telephone terminal a sensor, a computer, etc.
• At least one terminal T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8 receives or transmits traffic to another terminal.
• the terminal transmits or receives traffic via a base station 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
• a terminal is in connection with a base station.
• the configuration can be done centrally. To do this, a controller is in contact with all the access points of the geographical area and acts as master of the network, the access points being slaves.
• the management can be performed in a distributed manner.
• the elements of the network of the geographical area communicate with each other to configure themselves with respect to each other.
• S1 acquires information relating to the traffic transmitted or received by each terminal T1-T8 in the given geographical area.
• traffic means data packets (for example IP packets) transmitted or received by the terminal, the traffic corresponding to a service requested or received by the terminal.
• the traffic information relates to the traffic content and the traffic sending / receiving context.
• the traffic can come from various applications (or services): telephony, video, SMS, video game.
• the context of transmission / reception of the traffic can be the location of the terminal in the geographical area, the quality of the radio link, the type of communication (outside or inside, which makes it possible to have a degree of mobility of the terminal in the geographical area), the base stations covering the mobile terminal in the geographical area (for example the terminal may be in an area covered by several base stations, in the case of a cellular network), the attenuation of the radio signal , the level of interference, etc.
• the traffic content is relative to the type of data from the services. Traffic is not the same whether it's a phone call or a video.
• the content and context can therefore allow the network to determine a potential flow of different types of content.
• This estimate is already implemented by the services of the type, in English, "web streaming video” (for example youtube®) and music (for example deezer®). These services offer certain types of video / music content that relate to previous user requests.
• the network can begin to transmit the data relating to these predictions to reduce the waiting time and thus improve the quality of the service. This is particularly the case in the case of playlists established by a user.
• the context information used here is information linking a terminal to its current context of use, including information on whether the terminal is inside or outside, or future, for example obtained from the terminal history , that is to say, information drawn from experience: for example regular movements of the terminal, at particular time slots ...
• the traffic transmitted or received by each terminal comprises the information relating to the traffic.
• the information acquired S1 includes a duration of the requested or received service, duration relative to the content.
• duration of the service it can be of two types: if the requested service is a streaming or instant streaming service, which can not be deferred, then duration of service then corresponds to the actual duration of the information that one wishes to obtain in reading; if the requested service is likely to be deferred, the duration of service may then correspond to the amount of data to be exchanged to provide this service.
• the traffic information is transmitted explicitly by the terminal.
• the traffic information can be inserted with the signaling data.
• the communication standard must be adapted.
• each terminal comprises an application loaded into a memory of the terminal, to retrieve the information relating to the traffic.
• the configuration method comprises an extraction step SO 'of the information relating to the traffic, and a transmission step SO' of the information relating to the traffic.
• Such an application can be installed by the operators themselves before marketing a terminal. or to be made available to the users so that they install it on their terminal In the latter case a counterparty can be proposed to the users (a reduction on their subscription for example) Thus, it is the application which transmits SO "Traffic information explicitly.
• traffic data are extracted at the reception of the traffic as such, by a controller of the network, by a technique of inspection of the data packets in depth (in English, “Deep Packet Inspection” (DPI)).
• DPI Deep Packet Inspection
• Such a technique makes it possible to analyze the traffic to establish statistics, to detect intrusions, spam or any other type of content.
• Such a technique is conventionally used for the Internet and is now applied to telecommunication networks.
• R. Bendrath "Global technology trends and national regulation: Explaining Variation in the governance of Deep Packet Inspection," International Studies Annual Convention, New York City, February 15-18, 2009.
• S2 is determined, based on the acquired information, a criterion that is characteristic of a possibility of deferring in time said requested or received service.
• This criterion depends on the type of service depending on whether it is real-time traffic or who can wait (for example a large email).
• the demand profile is the capacity of the requested network in a given geographical area for a given duration.
• the estimation step S3 consists in updating, from the information relating to the acquired traffic, an initial request profile.
• This initial request profile is a function of the profile of each user.
• the profile of each user is derived from past observations that take into account his habits.
• the initial PO demand profile is the average traffic profile that characterizes the given geographic region according to the users present in the given geographical area.
• the new traffic request profile can be represented as a source of traffic to be served by the cellular network by techniques of queuing techniques (in English "Queuing Techniques") and in particular equitable sharing technologies. Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) or Priority Queuing (PQ).
• WFQ Weighted Fair Queuing
• PQ Priority Queuing
• the estimation S3 can be carried out according to different temporal scales:
• the traffic demand profile is a prediction of future traffic in the geographical area and, contrary to known techniques which are based on past observations, here we also use information about the content and context of the current traffic.
• FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a traffic demand profile.
• the profile is three-dimensional: time, space capacity.
• S4 is determined to be a network configuration that makes it possible to obtain an offer profile that is closest to the traffic request profile.
• This determination can be done under duress. In this case we will determine the supply profile closest to the demand profile that best meets the constraint that we will set.
• the configuration of the network is defined by all the activated base stations as well as by their characteristics (number of antennas, power, calculation capacity and cooperation between base stations, etc.).
• the constraint may be that the energy consumption of the network configuration ensuring a given QoS level is minimal. In this way, the constraint on the supply profile ensures the required quality of service and the constraint on the configuration ensures a minimum energy consumption.
• the constraint on the configuration of the network for having the minimum energy consumption can be defined either by a cost function or by a profit function or by a gain function.
• Other metrics relate to spectral efficiency (expressed in bit / s / Hz), deployment efficiency (expressed in bits / euros (or dollars)), and so on.
• the constraint can be temporal or spatial. In other words, for a certain duration and / or as a function of a region of the geographical area, one of the above constraints may be chosen.
• the different optimization constraints can be set by the operator in charge of network deployment.
• the network S5 is configured.
• the configuration of the network consists of adapting the number of active base stations, adapting the transmission power of the base stations, etc.
• the configuration also consists in defining the route relative to each traffic flow (defined by the routing function).
• this profile being derived from experience (this profile can be obtained by averages of the past use of the network, at repeating slots);
• An additional step of physical configuration of the network according to the configuration thus determined can then be provided.
• a step of optimizing the estimated theoretical profile can be provided, taking into account the context of use of the terminal and the content (possibility of deferring the service and its duration).
• a step of optimizing the configuration of the network may also be provided according to predetermined criteria, for example the consumption of the network.
• this service is instantaneous streaming type, that is to say it implies a need for instant transmission and for a specified period, for example the playback of a video.
• This service can not be deferred, but additional content information can be identified: the length of the video in question.
• base stations will be activated to respond to this service in the environment of the terminal, and this during the duration of the video. We can therefore anticipate an increase in the capacity of the network during the video playback time, then a decrease in the capacity of the network at the end of the duration of the video.
• the service considered is known to be deferred (content information). For example, the case of a download of a set of data of a predetermined size (duration of service) can be taken.
• contextual information can be derived that a number of network configurations, in the future, can be used to provide the service.
• Information derived from the terminal experience can also be used to increase the scope of these possibilities.
• the terminal travels a similar route every day, between different types of base stations more or less saturated during the time allocated to provide the service, it is possible to determine several configurations of the possible network over time , to provide the service.
• the choice of the configuration finally used may be made randomly, or by optimization of predetermined criteria such as the consumption of the network, as described below.
• FIGS. 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d and 4e two exemplary embodiments of the method according to the invention are described.
• active base station or active terminal a switched base station / terminal exchanging traffic and operating at a power which depends on its Pin load such that, with P0, ⁇ and Px which respectively indicate the minimum load power, dependence of the power consumption by the load and the radio frequency power necessary to satisfy the demand profile;
• a live base station / terminal that does not exchange traffic and operates at a Pidie ⁇ PO power.
• An M-BS base station of a macro-cell is active in a coverage zone Z;
• a local base station AP1 of a femtocell is active and defines a zone Z1 of coverage
• the UE1 terminal is active and participates in a conference call; according to the agenda on his terminal, this conference call can last another hour and a half; - The UE2 terminal is active and plays a streaming video, there is one minute of video left;
• the UE3 terminal is active and is videoconferencing, according to statistical data, every day at that time a videoconference takes place for similar durations. At the instant tO there are thirty seconds of videoconferencing left;
• the UE4 terminal is active and has just started an application for a video game that downloads real-time data
• the UE5 terminal is active and has sent an email at time tO (this application is characterized by a high latency);
• the UE6 terminal is in standby
• the terminal UE1 is located at the place of work of its user: it will be static for a certain duration;
• UE2, UE3, UE4 and UE5, UE6 are located in the home of their user.
• the traffic demand profile in terms of capacity at time t0 is shown schematically by the vertical bars rising above the terminals UE1, UE2, UE3 in FIG. 4a.
• the traffic information (context and content) acquired and the initial demand profile make it possible to estimate a traffic demand profile in the geographical area considered at a time t1 (short term).
• the information relating to the received or transmitted traffic (context and content information) deduced from the traffic information listed above makes it possible to estimate a traffic demand profile in the geographical area considered at a time t1 (short term). .
• This traffic demand profile at time t1 is shown diagrammatically in FIG. 4b.
• UE4 is covered by the local base station AP1;
• the determination of the traffic offer profile is made under the constraint that the configuration has a minimum energy consumption for the requested QoS level.
• the energy consumption of each element of the network is determined.
• the Pin consumption of the base stations AP1, AP2 and M-BS is determined in the following manner: with Po the power of the base station at minimum load, ⁇ dependence of the power consumption by the load and the power ⁇ radio frequency necessary for the base station to satisfy the demand profile.
• Po and Cl depend on the type of base station.
• the energy consumption of a local base station weakly depends on its load and transmission power ⁇ .
• the energy consumption of a M-BS macrocell base station is almost proportional to its transmission power PTX (OR at its expense).
• the solution that increases the transmission power of the local base station AP1 is the most energy efficient solution of the network and at the same time ensures the quality of service requested for the UE4 terminal. Indeed, enabling the local base station AP2 or increasing the load of the M-BS macrocell base station would significantly increase the energy consumption of the network. Plus the activation of the station Local base AP2 requires a longer reaction time than the available latency to serve the UE4 terminal.
• Figure 4c illustrates the configuration of the network obtained. It can be seen from FIG. 4a that the terminal UE4 is in the coverage area of the local base station AP1, the power of which has been increased.
• the information relating to the traffic (context and content) acquired and the initial demand profile make it possible to estimate a traffic demand profile in the geographical area considered at a time t2. (middle term).
• This traffic demand profile at time t2 is shown schematically in FIG. 4d.
• the UE5, UE6 terminals (located in the home of their user) will initiate a communication and will have to be served;
• the UE2 and UE3 terminals will have finished their applications and will go to sleep.
• the determination of the traffic offer profile is made under the constraint that the network configuration ensuring a level of quality of service given to users has a minimum energy consumption.
• FIG. 4e illustrates the configuration of the network obtained. It can be seen from FIG. 4a that the terminals UE4, UE5 and UE6 are in the coverage area defined by the local base station AP2, and that the local base stations AP1 and AP3 are on standby.
• Femtocells are able to detect the presence / absence of a user and activate / sleep.
• Active femtocells are characterized by energy consumption with P0, ⁇ and Px which respectively indicate the power of the femtocell at minimum load, the dependence of the power consumption by the load and the radio frequency power necessary to satisfy the demand profile.
• femtocells in standby have no data to transmit (no traffic) and are characterized by energy consumption Pidle ⁇ Pin
• FIG. 5 illustrates a comparison of the average energy consumption (in Joule) in the femtocell network when the information of the content is exploited to activate and deactivate the access points (curve C1) with a system which does not exploit this information (curve C2).
• the energy consumption is calculated according to the parameter pd which measures the probability that a femtocell is installed in an apartment.
• Terminals UE1, UE2 are located in a train traveling along a path along which AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4 base stations are deployed.
• a first step information concerning the context of the user terminals such as their position in the train, the train path, the speed of the train and the content of the traffic generated by the applications used by these terminals are acquired.
• This information is then aggregated by user and by geographical area and then used to estimate a profile of traffic request per user then per zone in a given period of time later.
• a benefit function is then defined based on the energy consumption of each base station based on the number of user terminals served by each base station and the expected type of traffic.
• traffic content information can be exploited to establish / allocate in real time the capacity (i.e. bandwidth) required / needed in a specific part of the network.
• This approach increases the efficiency of the system and therefore the number of users that can be served by the network.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

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• 2012
  • 2012-07-18 FR FR1256933A patent/FR2993737B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2013
  • 2013-07-18 US US14/415,326 patent/US20150201348A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2013-07-18 WO PCT/EP2013/065230 patent/WO2014013031A1/fr not_active Ceased
  • 2013-07-18 EP EP13739683.4A patent/EP2875687A1/de not_active Withdrawn

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