Radio resource management (RRM) plays a major role in Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning for wireless communication systems. The performance of RRM techniques has a direct impact on each user's individual performance and on the overall network performance. Arriving (new and handoff) calls are granted/denied access to the network by the call admission scheme (CAC) based on predefined criteria, taking the network loading conditions into consideration. CAC in wireless networks has been receiving a great deal of attention during the last two decades due to the growing popularity of wireless communications and the central role that CAC plays in QoS provisioning in terms of the signal quality, call blocking and dropping probabilities, packet delay and loss rate, and transmission rate. In the first and second generation of wireless systems, CAC has been developed for a single service environment. In the third generation and beyond wireless systems, multimedia services such as voice, video, data, and audio are to be offered with various QoS profiles. Hence, more sophisticated CAC schemes are developed to cope with these changes. This article provides a comprehensive survey of CAC schemes in modern wireless networks.

Call admission control in wireless networks: a comprehensive survey

Summary Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication techniques have attracted a great interest in both academia and industry in the past few years for applications in short-range wireless mobile systems. This is due to the potential advantages of UWB transmissions such as low power, high rate, immunity to multipath propagation, less complex transceiver hardware, and low interference. However, tremendous R&D efforts are required to face various technical challenges in developing UWB wireless systems, including UWB channel characterization, transceiver design, coexistence and interworking with other narrowband wireless systems, design of the link and network layers to benefit from UWB transmission characteristics. This paper is to provide an overview of UWB communications, summarize the previous research results, and identify further research issues that need to be tackled. The emphasis is placed on the commercial wireless communications. Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Ultra-Wideband Wireless Communications

Fourth generation (4G) wireless networks will provide high-bandwidth connectivity with quality-of-service (QoS) support to mobile users in a seamless manner. In such a scenario, a mobile user will be able to connect to different wireless access networks such as a wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN), a cellular network, and a wireless local area network (WLAN) simultaneously. We present a game-theoretic framework for radio resource management (that is, bandwidth allocation and admission control) in such a heterogeneous wireless access environment. First, a noncooperative game is used to obtain the bandwidth allocations to a service area from the different access networks available in that service area (on a long-term basis). The Nash equilibrium for this game gives the optimal allocation which maximizes the utilities of all the connections in the network (that is, in all of the service areas). Second, based on the obtained bandwidth allocation, to prioritize vertical and horizontal handoff connections over new connections, a bargaining game is formulated to obtain the capacity reservation thresholds so that the connection-level QoS requirements can be satisfied for the different types of connections (on a long-term basis). Third, we formulate a noncooperative game to obtain the amount of bandwidth allocated to an arriving connection (in a service area) by the different access networks (on a short-term basis). Based on the allocated bandwidth and the capacity reservation thresholds, an admission control is used to limit the number of ongoing connections so that the QoS performances are maintained at the target level for the different types of connections.

A Noncooperative Game-Theoretic Framework for Radio Resource Management in 4G Heterogeneous Wireless Access Networks

Call admission control (CAC) is a key element in the provision of guaranteed quality of service (QoS) in wireless networks. The design of CAC algorithms for mobile cellular networks is especially challenging given the limited and highly variable resources, and the mobility of users encountered in such networks. This article provides a survey of admission control schemes for cellular networks and the research in this area. Our goal is to provide a broad classification and thorough discussion of existing CAC schemes. We classify these schemes based on factors such as deterministic/stochastic guarantees, distributed/local control and adaptivity to traffic conditions. In addition to this, we present some modeling and analysis basics to help in better understanding the performance and efficiency of admission control schemes in cellular networks. We describe several admission control schemes and compare them in terms of performance and complexity. Handoff prioritization is the common characteristic of these schemes. We survey different approaches proposed for achieving handoff prioritization with a focus on reservation schemes. Moreover, optimal and near-optimal reservation schemes are presented and discussed. Also, we overview other important schemes such as those designed for multi-service networks and hierarchical systems as well as complete knowledge schemes and those using pricing for CAC. Finally, the paper concludes on the state of current research and points out some of the key issues that need to be addressed in the context of CAC for future cellular networks. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Call admission control in mobile cellular networks: a comprehensive survey

Handoff is a key element in wireless cellular networks in order to provide quality of service (QoS) to the users and to support users' mobility. Handoff failure will result in the forced termination of an ongoing call. From the user's point of view, the service of a handoff request is more important, as the forced termination of an ongoing call is more annoying than the blocking of new calls. Therefore, in order to support QoS to the users and to provide ubiquitous coverage, the handoff procedure ought to be further investigated. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the basic elements, the different types and phases of the handoff procedure. Moreover, particular interest has been given in the horizontal handoff execution phase by discussing and classifying the most recent handoff prioritization schemes into categories based on the concepts that these schemes adopt, e.g. channel reservation, handoff queueing, channel transferred, subrating, genetic and hybrid schemes and in the vertical handoff decision phase by presenting different decision algorithms.

Handoff prioritization and decision schemes in wireless cellular networks: a survey

Call admission control (CAC) plays a significant role in providing the desired quality of service in wireless networks. Many CAC schemes have been proposed. Analytical results for some performance metrics such as call blocking probabilities are obtained under some specific assumptions. It is observed, however, that due to the mobility, some assumptions may not be valid, which is the case when the average values of channel holding times for new calls and handoff calls are not equal. We reexamine some of the analytical results for call blocking probabilities for some call admission control schemes under more general assumptions and provide some easier-to-compute approximate formulas.

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Yi Zhang

Papers

Call admission control schemes and performance analysis in wireless mobile networks