Improving wireless network capacity by logical discontinuous coverage

Abstract

Mobile cellular networks are now largely deployed, and mobile customers are used to place and to receive calls at any location. The network coverage is continuous, but radio conditions met by users are not homogeneous. Thus, data rate is varying according to user mobility. In this paper, we propose to discriminate terminals by their radio conditions in order to select which data has to be sent. More precisely, terminals are supplied with data only when they are in zones of the cellular network offering good radio quality. With such an approach, continuous cellular networks are exploited in a logical discontinuous way. Our approach is based on a smart scheduling solution that favours data transfer when users have a good radio link. Simulation results highlights the improvements with a QoS policy guided by radio conditions for streaming services. Results are promising, a cache-based architecture contributes to a good service quality with no interruption. Furthermore, simulations show that this approach can increase significantly users density supported by the network.