Detailed Description of the LTE Issues - Essay Example

The challenges that LTE devices faces are called VoWLAN. These include the quality of service security challenges. The paper will also discuss various Cloud-RAN technologies which have been applied to solve these issues.

LTE ISSUES
There are three key issues that the devices using LTE technology faces. These include packet loss, delay, jitter, and issues with the original wireless security standards.
Packet loss

It has been realized that the number of packets that reaches the destination is always less that the number of packets that were sent. This implies that some packets are lost along the network. The loss is attributed to two major ways. The first is through network packet loss as a result of overflow in the router buffer, transmission error, rerouting, and link failures. The other packet loss is a result of the excessive delay (Guan Kolding, & Merz 2010).
Delay

The time that packets take from the source to the destination is a critical factor. The delay originates from different points such as at the receiver, at the network, or at the source. The delay that occurs in either the source or the receiver results from coding such as the transformation of a signal from digital to analog or from analog to digital (Lorca & Cucala 2013). The delay also accrues as a result of packetization while the transmission, propagation, or queuing causes network delay

Jitter
Jitter is the difference in the time taken by a packet to reach the destination. This issue is very common and the only way to handle it is to use a jet buffer that contains both the dynamic software base and the hardware. However, the implementation of jet buffer should be done with intense care as it can cause other delays such as memory over-flows (Fletcher, 2009).

Initial IEEE 802.11 MAC layer
The original MAC layer used by IEEE 802.11 does not incorporate applications to support voice data, especially its sensitivity to delay jitter. This is because the ordinary MAC layer utilizes DCF and PCF to allocate the medium. DCT depends on Carrier Sense Multiple Access with collision avoidance. This property as far as sharing the medium among stations is optional in 802.11 RTS/CTS. The issue with DCF is the delay since the packets will wait until the medium is free in case there is a collision. Such an incident causes delay since the bandwidth is wasted. This is basically because of the absence of Quality of service priority and guarantees for traffic such as data and voice. In addition, when a node detects that the medium is free and start to communicate; all the others have to wait until the communicating node frees the medium (Guan, Kolding, & Merz, 2010). PCF is mostly prominent in LTE since it is optional and only uses the infrastructure setups which are linked by a single access point.

Cloud–RAN capabilities
With the rising need for high data speed, the existing technologies and infrastructure can no longer provide the required performance at a cost-effective level. The current radio access network should be very flexible and able to support various technological standards. It should also be cost-effective and simple to upgrade. Cloud-RAN has proved to be the solution to all the issues in LTE (Chang 2013). Cloud-RAN is a modern RAN topology that solves the issues present in the previous technologies. In the C-RAN configuration, the baseband processing units are concentrated in a single base station. This is referred to as base pooling.

Different baseband is all integrated to come up with a single processor that is centralized (Jimaa, Chai & Alfadhl 2011). The integration facilitates processing aggregation, ensuring dynamic spectrum allocation and efficient sharing of resources. The Baseband processing unit base station is linked to RRH via an optical link that has a CPRI interface. The multiple remote radio heads are lined to the base station pool in daisy-chaining architecture. Cloud- Radio access network is applied in various settings such as micro-, macro indoor coverage, and pico-cells (Kolding, & Merz 2010). The setup not only facilitated cheaper CAPEX and OPEX but also a flexible and intelligent network.

Increased RAN OPEX/CAPEX
The key issue faced by mobile operators is the ability to accommodate ever-increasing consumer needs. They have to expand their network ability to accommodate the broadband massive requirements. The LTE CAPEX and OPEX of RAN are attributed to the network operation construction. OPEX is linked to the operation and management of the network while CAPEX is associated with the network infrastructure architecture (Liu, Sundaresan, Jiang, Rangarajan, & Chang, 2013) Read More