With advances in wireless technology and mobile devices, the number of mobile users using multimedia services has increased significantly in recent years. Mobile devices can be connected and roam on heterogeneous wireless networks. The IEEE 802.21 group has designed a Media Independent Handover (MIH) standard to ensure seamless Vertical Handover (VHO) in heterogeneous networks. However, the standard currently depends on features of the network (e.g. the type of network and available bandwidth) to achieve seamless VHO. This approach is limited, as it does not consider how a Quality of Experience (QoE) can be provided and maintained for customers when delivering multimedia services in heterogeneous wireless networks. The aim of the project is to develop a novel QoE-driven VHO management framework for providing and maintaining an appropriate level of QoE of multimedia services as the mobile user’s actual requirements in heterogeneous wireless networks. A QoE-driven VHO algorithm is more efficient for maintaining this acceptable QoE of multimedia services than traditional network-based or QoS-based VHO algorithms. There are three main contributions during this project. Firstly, A thorough evaluation of the performance of voice and video services via Skype was carried out in terms of the QoE metric (i.e. MOS). This work identified the impact of video content and packet loss on the QoE metric for voice and video communication services over wireless networks. Secondly, a QoE-driven VHO algorithm was developed to provide and maintain an acceptable QoE of mobile video services for mobile users. Compared to a traditional network-based VHO algorithm, this algorithm can provide better QoE and maintain acceptable QoE. Lastly, the User-centric QoE-driven (UCQoE) VHO framework to provide satisfactory QoE of multimedia services according to the mobile user’s requirements. The framework allows users to set their own preferences (e.g. quality-guarantee or cost-free) and carry out VHO operations accordingly. The evaluation showed that the proposed framework can provide a better QoE for delivered video services than QoS-based and network-based VHO algorithms. Furthermore, the proposed framework can be used to avoid unnecessary cost of mobile data when the option of cost-free is preferred by the user. During this project, three international conference papers had been published and a journal paper has been submitted to IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. The main contribution-UCQoE VHO management framework can be developed to maintain QoE of all mobile services in the future.

With the progress of wireless radio technology and telecommunication, various wireless specifications and protocols form the unhandy heterogeneous network. The routing problems in heterogeneous network become popular researches nowadays. In this thesis, we integrate cellular (3G) network and Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) into a hybrid network. This hybrid network is called heterogeneous wireless network(HWN) with multi-cells architecture to overcome the weakness of cellular network and Ad-Hoc network. Based on HWN, we propose a routing algorithm with quality of service (QoS) supported for requirements in the original homogeneous cellular network and Ad-Hoc network. Simulation results show that HWN with the proposed algorithm has lower request block rate and shorter transmission time.

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Wireless network placement of transmitters, such as base stations for 2G and 3G, access points for WLAN, is a NP-hard problem, since many factors have to be considered, like QoS, coverage, cost, etc. In wireless network placement problem, the goal is to find a set of transmitters which achieves the widest coverage on a given map and spends the minimal cost. In this thesis, we propose a novel variable-length genetic algorithm for solving this problem. Most of existing methods for solving wireless network placement problem, to our best knowledge, users must assign an upper bound or a total number of transmitters for placement. Unlike these existing methods, the proposed algorithm can search the optimal number of transmitters automatically. In addition, the proposed algorithm can find near optimal solutions even in heterogeneous transmitters placement problem, i.e., transmitters with different power radius or cost. The results on several benchmarks are very close to the optimal solutions, which validate the capability of the proposed method in finding the numbers, the types, are the positions of transmitters in heterogeneous wireless network environment.

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With increasing mobile data demand there is a push towards heterogeneous networks. Small-scale operators (SSOs) of WLANs are becoming more prevalent, while Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) seek an outlet for their customers' data usage. These conditions prompt the need for an effective relationship between the two parties for the purpose of offloading cellular data traffic to WLANs in a way that is economically beneficial to all involved. This thesis presents a model of such a relationship, in which the SSO sets a strategic offloading price per subscriber and several MNOs can choose how many subscribers they want to offload in order to minimize their costs. We determine the optimal offloading price, identify how the SSO incorporates its own network's quality of service (QoS) into its price decision, and examine the way in which the MNOs' cost structures affect their ability to offload. This model can be applied by both MNOs and SSOs to make informed network deployment decisions, even before engaging in an offloading relationship. / Master of Science

Vu que la modulation multi-porteuses est largement utilisée dans les communications sans fil et la radio cognitive (CR pour “Cognitive Radio”) améliore l’utilisation des ressources radio et du spectre, nous nous concentrons sur les réseaux radio cognitifs (CR) pour faire progresser l’allocation des ressources, le routage, et l’ajustement de la puissance d’émission vers les récepteurs (synthèse de faisceaux ou beamforming) dans cette thèse. Nous étudions deux types de modulations multi-porteuses :Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) à base d’ondelettes (WOFDM pourWavelet OFDM) et OFDM dans sa forme classique ou traditionnelle (OFDM s’appuyant sur la transformation de Fourier pour partager les ressources). WOFDM adopte Wavelet Packet Modulation (WPM) pour obtenir des lobes secondaires beaucoup plus faibles dans la densité spectrale de puissance du signal transmis en comparaison à OFDM. WPM permet de surcroit à WOFDM de s’affranchir du Préfixe Cyclique (indispensable à OFDM) et d’exploiter l’égalisation pour combattre l’Interférence entre Symboles (ISI). Nous évaluons la performance de WOFDM sous différentes conditions du canal radio. Nous comparons la performance de WOFDM, qui s’appuie sur l’égalisation dans le domaine temporel, à celle de OFDM, qui requiert l’utilisation du Préfixe Cyclique et opère dans le domaine fréquentiel / In view of the wide usage of multicarrier modulation in wireless communications and the prominent contribution of Cognitive Radio (CR) to deal with critical shortage of spectrum resource, we focus on multicarrier based cognitive radio networks to investigate general resource allocation issues: subcarrier allocation, power allocation, routing, and beamforming in this thesis. We investigate two types of multicarrier modulation: Wavelet-based Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (WOFDM) and Fourier-based Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). WOFDM adopts Wavelet Packet Modulation (WPM). Compared with fourier-based OFDM, wavelet-based OFDM achieves much lower side lobe in the transmitted signal. Wavelet-based OFDM excludes Cyclic Prefix (CP) which is used in fourier-based OFDM systems. Wavelet-based OFDM turns to exploit equalization to combat Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI). We evaluate the performance of WOFDM under different channel conditions. We compare the performance of wavelet-based OFDM using equalization in the time domain to that of fourier-based OFDM with CP and the equalization in the frequency domain