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Ascom (2015)
TEMS is a trademark of Ascom. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
No part of this document may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holder.
The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to continued progress in methodology, design and
manufacturing. Ascom shall have no liability for any error or damage of any kind resulting from the use of this document.
Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................ 1
1.1 Background ................................................................................ 1
1.2 Aspects of Present-day Mobile Networks That Must
Inform ABM Design.................................................................... 1
1.3 Requirements on ABM for 4G Mobile Networks ..................... 2
3 Examples .................................................................... 9
5 Conclusions ............................................................. 10
6 References................................................................ 10
1.1 Background
Mobile networks are in the process of becoming the worlds leading
medium for data traffic. As ever faster data rates are offered by mobile
network technologies, the use of real-time applications such as media
streaming in such networks is becoming increasingly commonplace.
Now, as is well known, mobile network performance depends crucially on
the radio environment, which is subject to very rapid fluctuations. For
example, Rayleigh fading conditions change on a millisecond basis, as do
scheduling and cross-traffic (such as data from other users). Nonetheless,
mobile network operators are expected to be able to maintain uniform
bandwidth availability to all customers who are paying for a given service
level (or class, or experience). Accomplishing this requires metrics and
measurement tools designed specifically for the wireless environment.
As such measurements are performed in live commercial networks with
paying subscribers, it is important to prevent the measurements from
affecting the subscribers quality of experience. Ascoms patent-pending
approach to Available Bandwidth Measurements (ABM), trademarked as
Blixt, solves this problem by keeping the level of test and measurement
intrusiveness to an absolute minimum. ABM identifies the throughput that
can be delivered over the measured wireless link at a given place and at a
given point in time.
1
UE capabilities are not taken into account in current TEMS product ABM implementations.
2.2.1 Example
Suppose we want to measure available bandwidth in an LTE network with
20 MHz bandwidth using a Category 3 device, whose maximum achievable
downlink throughput in optimal radio conditions is 100 Mbit/s on the
physical layer.
In order to fully load the bit-pipe and be able to attain this maximum
throughput rate, we need to transmit 100 kbit in each Transmission Time
Interval (TTI), since the TTI length in LTE is 1 ms. For the sake of obtaining
a reliable measurement, as further discussed in section 2.2.3, we want to
make use of several consecutive TTIs. To be precise, in this case we will
send 58 packets each of size 1,500 bytes on the application layer, resulting
in about 750,000 bits in total on the physical layer (58 1500 8 = 696,000
bits plus a protocol overhead of about 7%).
Assuming the networks full capacity is available to our ABM-testing UE, the
measurement will be finished in just above 8 ms, meaning that the level of
intrusiveness (the fraction of time occupied with taking the ABM) is as low
as 1.5% if the available bandwidth is measured two times per second
([2 750,000] / 100,000,000 = 1.5%).
The uplink in this configuration has a maximum throughput close to half of
the downlink, or 50 Mbit/s. Consequently, when doing ABM on the uplink,
using the same packet train, the level of intrusiveness will be about twice as
high, but still as low as 3% (see the note on asymmetric load in chapter 4).
bandwidth
Available bandwidth
time
One TTI
Figure 2 Distribution of one ABM data burst across TTIs. The bandwidth allocated to
other users is not represented in this figure; furthermore, optimal radio
conditions are assumed. The point illustrated here is that at the beginning
and end of the burst, the ABM transmission is not competing for the whole
of a TTI.
The ABM packet train properties (packet size and interval) are selected to
suit the particular radio bearer configuration. Consequently, different ABM
setups will typically be used for different networks/operators. Likewise, as a
testing session proceeds, the ABM setup will frequently vary over time as
the UE moves between cells, or to another carrier.
In future Ascom solutions, the plan is to use an even more flexible
implementation which continuously adjusts to the level of cross-traffic and
to the radio environment, further increasing the measurement accuracy
while maintaining the same level of intrusiveness, or in some cases even
reducing it. See chapter 4 for more on this topic.
Comparison of approaches to ABM. The black line curve indicates the true available
bandwidth as a function of time. The red bars represent Ascom ABM data bursts.
Near-maximum bandwidth is attained for the first ABM data burst. The blue area
represents ABM performed by means of an FTP data transfer (1 s segment). The
average throughput over one second is substantially below the maximum throughput
reached.
There is, in fact, an additional and grave shortcoming to using FTP with
currently available UEs: it has proven impossible during LTE network
testing to reach bit rates higher than about 60 Mbit/s (one-second average)
even in perfect radio conditions and with no other users present. The
bottleneck here is the UE processor, whose performance is hampered by
the tasks imposed on it by the UE operating system (running applications,
background processes, etc.). Since the packet trains used in Ascoms ABM
approach minimize the load on the UE processor, measuring and reporting
on the networks full bandwidth is now possible.
5 Conclusions
The current implementation of the Ascom ABM method clearly
demonstrates its advantages over existing methods such as FTP
download. Ascoms approach to ABM has proven to be a good and flexible
solution for current, as well as future, products in the wireless network test
and measurement area.
6 References
IETF RFC 5357: http://tools.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5357.txt