Stochastic Modeling and Analysis of Telecoms Networks

Preface

 

 

 

In mobile telecommunications, ARCEP (the French Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Postal services) publishes an annual analysis of quality of different mobile radio networks. For voice, the two criteria are the ability to start up a communication and to hold it for 2 or 5 minutes as well as the audio quality of the communication. For each data service, the transmission time and integrity of the message (SMS, MMS) are tested in different situations: urban, semi-urban, for pedestrians, cars, high-speed train, etc.

The results of these tests are often used as commercial arguments. On the contrary, bad results may rapidly alter the image of a telecom operator in the public opinion and thus lead to an economic disaster. Hence, these performance tests are a major challenge for the whole telecom industry. The satisfaction of some of these criteria depends directly on the number of resources allocated to the network, including the capacity of the so-called base stations. The operator must have some quantitative means to anticipate demand and its impact on the design of its network. If we want to move beyond the phase of divination, then modelization is needed. This is about putting into equations, although sometimes with a kabbalistic aspect, the phenomenon which we want to study. To each situation may correspond several models depending on whether one is interested in the microscopic or macroscopic scale, the long or short time behavior, and so on. Ideally, ...