A New QoS Provisioning Technology and Its Impact on Future 4G Networks

摘要

Fourth generation (4G) communication systems are undoubtedly the next wireless revolution that promises the integration and convergence of wired and wireless technologies using a fully Internet protocol (IP)-based integrated system. IP version 6 (IPv6) will be an important network-layer technology that can support a large number of wireless-enabled devices. Of paramount importance is the robustness performance of the future Internet in the presence of extreme environments such as very high speed and highly variable delay. This requires rethinking today's quality of service (QoS) provisioning and congestion control mechanisms. In the context of 4G applications, this research aims at developing improved QoS mechanisms for the Internet that will enable real-time QoS monitoring and provide better resource management, network control, and traffic prediction. Central to our research is the development of a novel spectral queuing theory (SQT) that models queuing nodes as linear time-invariant filters based on a translated Poisson point process perspective. We present a number of propositions where convolution and Fourier theory are employed to derive general algorithms to determine instantaneous transient QoS measures. The theory is validated using empirical Internet traffic as it is processed through various queues and an OPNET IT Guru-simulated practical corporate local-area network (LAN) over an IP-based wide-area network (WAN). Observable properties of SQT are also consistent with earlier frequency-domain studies of networks. The ramifications of SQT is that it has the potential to bring the rich field of digital signal processing (DSP) into the realm of networks where existing DSP techniques can be used for efficient network control and management. Possible future hardware implementation with fast Fourier transform (FFT) chips and traffic profilers, shapers, and conditioners hardware has the potential to speed up Internet networks and make an IP-based 4G system closer to becoming a reality.