Smart City NetWorks: Through the Internet of Things is composed of research
results, analyses, and ideas, which focus on a diversity of interconnected factors
relating with urbanization, its “smartness,” and overarching “internet of things
(IoT).” The latter refers to interconnected objects and devices – through compu-
tational operations – which can receive signals and actuate systems.
In recent years, cellular voice NetWorks have transformed into powerful packet-switched
access NetWorks for both voice communication and Internet access. Evolving Universal
Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) NetWorks and first Long Term Evolution
(LTE) installations now deliver bandwidths of several megabits per second to individual
users, and mobile access to the Internet from handheld devices and notebooks is no
longer perceived as slower than a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or cable connection.
Bandwidth and capacity demands, however, keep rising because of the increasing number
of people using the NetWorks and because of bandwidth-intensive applications such as
video streaming. Thus, network manufacturers and network operators need to find ways
to continuously increase the capacity and performance of their cellular NetWorks while
reducing the cost.
From the transition of analog to digital communication along with seamless mobility and
high computing power of small handheld devices, the wireless communications industry has
seen tremendous changes leading to the integration of several telecommunication NetWorks,
devices and services over last 30 years. The rate of this progress and growth has increased
particularly in the past decade because people no longer use their devices and NetWorks for
voice only, but demand bundle contents such as data download/streaming, HDTV, HD video ,
3D video conferencing with higher efficiency, seamless connectivity, intelligence, reliability
and better user experience. Although the challenges facing service providers and
telecommunication companies differ by product, region, market size, and their areas of
concentration but time to market, efficient utilization of their assets and revenue expansion,
have impacted significantly how to manage and conduct their business while maintaining
sufficient margin.
The surge of mobile data traffic forces network
operators to cope with capacity shortage. The deployment of
small cells in 5G NetWorks is meant to reduce latency, backhaul
traffic and increase radio access capacity. In this context, mobile
edge computing technology will be used to manage dedicated
cache space in the radio access network. Thus, mobile network
operators will be able to provision OTT content providers with
new caching services to enhance the quality of experience of their
customers on the move.
New applications such as video conferencing, video on demand, multi-
media transcoders, Voice-over-IP (VoIP), intrusion detection, distributed
collaboration, and intranet security require advanced functionality from
NetWorks beyond simple forwarding congestion control techniques.
This book gives a comprehensive overview of the technologies for the advances of
mobile radio access NetWorks. The topics covered include linear transmitters,
superconducting filters and cryogenic radio frequency (RF) front head, radio over
fiber, software radio base stations, mobile terminal positioning, high speed
downlink packet access (HSDPA), multiple antenna systems such as smart
antennas and multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) systems, orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, IP-based radio access NetWorks
(RAN), autonomic NetWorks, and ubiquitous NetWorks.
One traditional view of how wireless NetWorks evolve is of a continuous, inevitable progres-
sion to higher link speeds, combined with greater mobility over wider areas. This standpoint
certainly captures the development from first and second generation cellular systems focused
on voice support, and the early short-range wireless data NetWorks, through to today’s 3G
cellular and mobile broadband systems; there is every confidence that the trend will continue
some way into the future.
At present, there is a strong worldwide push toward bringing fiber closer to indi-
vidual homes and businesses. Fiber-to-the-Home/Business (FTTH/B) or close to it
NetWorks are poised to become the next major success story for optical fiber com-
munications. In fact, FTTH connections are currently experiencing double-digit or
even higher growth rates, e.g., in the United States the annual growth rate was 112%
between September 2006 and September 2007, and their presence can add value of
U.S. $4,000–15,000 to the selling price of a home.
Emerging technologies such as WiFi and WiMAX are profoundly changing the
landscape of wireless broadband. As we evolve into future generation wireless
NetWorks, a primary challenge is the support of high data rate, integrated multi-
media type traffic over a unified platform. Due to its inherent advantages in
high-speed communication, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
has become the modem of choice for a number of high profile wireless systems
(e.g., DVB-T, WiFi, WiMAX, Ultra-wideband).
The telecommunications industry has seen a rapid boost within the last decade. New realities
and visions of functionalities in various telecommunications NetWorks have brought forward the
concept of next-generation NetWorks (NGNs). The competitions among operators for support-
ing various services, lowering of the cost of having mobile and cellular phones and smartphones,
increasing demand for general mobility, explosion of digital traffic, and advent of convergence
network technologies added more dynamism in the idea of NGNs. In fact, facilitating con-
vergence of NetWorks and convergence of various types of services is a significant objective of
NGN
