3G and 4G mobile network coverage in East Africa, 2004-19

Author(s):  
Zahariah Manap ◽  
Anis Suhaila Mohd Zain ◽  
Rahaini Mohd Said ◽  
Shawn Shivaneson Balakirisnan

<p><span>This paper proposes an analysis of the coverage performance of 4G cellular services in UTeM Technology Campus. The performance of the cellular services is presented as the network’s coverage profile which is based on the received signal strength indicator (RSSI). The area under study is virtually divided into 64 grid points where the average RSSI measurements are captured by using an open source software namely G-Mon. The measured values are mapped into the network coverage profile which represents the signal reception quality at each of the grid points. A statistical analysis called Two-Way ANOVA is performed to investigate the correlation of the performance of 4G cellular services in UTeM Technology Campus with the mobile phone brands and service operators. Based on the analysis, it is found that the signal reception in outdoor areas are better than that of indoor areas. In addition, the analysis shows that the propagation loss and signal degradation are two factors that contribute to the 4G services’ performance in UTeM Technology Campus. </span></p>


Author(s):  
Balboul Younes ◽  
Fattah Mohammed ◽  
Mazer Saïd ◽  
Moulhime El Bekkali

The launch of the new mobile network technology has paved the way for advanced and more productive industrial applications based on high-speed and low latency services offered by 5G. One of the key success points of the 5G network is the available diversity of cell deployment modes and the flexibility in radio resources allocation based on user’s needs. The concept of Pico cells will become the future of 5G as they increase the capacity and improve the network coverage at a low deployment cost. In addition, the short-range wireless transmission of this type of cells uses little energy and will allow dense applications for the internet of things. In this contribution, we present the advantages of using Pico cells and the characteristics of this type of cells in 5G networks. Then, we will do a simulation study of the interferences impact in uplink transmission in the case of PICO cells densified deployment. Finally, we will propose a solution for interference avoidance between pico cells that also allows flexible management of bands allocated to the users in uplink according to user’s density and bandwidth demand.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Lin ◽  
Zhiqi Shen ◽  
Chunyan Miao ◽  
Siyuan Liu

Purpose With the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) market and requirement, low power wide area (LPWA) technologies have become popular. In various LPWA technologies, Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) and long range (LoRa) are two main leading competitive technologies. Compared with NB-IoT networks, which are mainly built and managed by mobile network operators, LoRa wide area networks (LoRaWAN) are mainly operated by private companies or organizations, which suggests two issues: trust of the private network operators and lack of network coverage. This study aims to propose a conceptual architecture design of a blockchain built-in solution for LoRaWAN network servers to solve these two issues for LoRaWAN IoT solution. Design/methodology/approach The study proposed modeling, model analysis and architecture design. Findings The proposed solution uses the blockchain technology to build an open, trusted, decentralized and tamper-proof system, which provides the indisputable mechanism to verify that the data of a transaction has existed at a specific time in the network. Originality/value To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that integrates blockchain technology and LoRaWAN IoT technology.


Author(s):  
Oluwaseun A. Otekunrin ◽  
Chidimma E. Oliobi

Aims: We employed a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to investigate students’ preferences for mobile telecommunication plans in a South African University. Study design: Locally optimal DCE were constructed for our choice sets using readily available ideas from blocked fractional factorial designs. This is in contrast to other approaches that may be more complex practically especially when the number of attributes is large. Place and duration of study: The study was conducted in August 2017 at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood Campus, Pinetown, South Africa. Methodology: Four hypothetical mobile telecommunication companies were considered and the selected attributes were call rate, data speed, customer service, premiums and network coverage. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select 180 respondents from the student population and data were collected via face-to-face interview. A  blocked fractional factorial design in  blocks each of size four was used to generate the choice sets used to obtain information from the respondents. An extra choice set was included to ascertain the consistency of the choices. Proportion of rational respondents was computed. Multinomial logit model was used to analyze the data and marginal willingness to pay estimates was obtained for the attributes. Results: The proportion of “rational” respondents was 74%. At 0.1% level of significance, the students valued all the attributes except data speed in the process of choosing a particular mobile network. Furthermore, marginal willingness to pay estimates showed that students preferred to pay 51 cents more per minute to have very good customer service. They also preferred to pay extra 13 and 45 cents per minute for more premiums and better network coverage respectively. Conclusion: The results provide empirical evidence of what students perceive as the most important factors influencing their choice of mobile network service providers and these may have decision-making implications for South African-based telecommunication companies.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0241981
Author(s):  
Till Koebe

Mobile sensing data has become a popular data source for geo-spatial analysis, however, mapping it accurately to other sources of information such as statistical data remains a challenge. Popular mapping approaches such as point allocation or voronoi tessellation provide only crude approximations of the mobile network coverage as they do not consider holes, overlaps and within-cell heterogeneity. More elaborate mapping schemes often require additional proprietary data operators are highly reluctant to share. In this paper, I use human settlement information extracted from publicly available satellite imagery in combination with stochastic radio propagation modelling techniques to account for that. I show in a simulation study and a real-world application on unemployment estimates in Senegal that better coverage approximations do not necessarily lead to better outcome predictions.


IEEE Access ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 162945-162960
Author(s):  
Orlando S. Trindade ◽  
Taulant Berisha ◽  
Philipp Svoboda ◽  
Efstathia Bura ◽  
Christoph F. Mecklenbrauker

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Thomson ◽  
Rob Hope ◽  
Tim Foster

The continued expansion of mobile network coverage in rural Africa provides an opportunity for simple and low-cost hydroinformatic innovations to measure and transmit data on handpump use for policy and management improvements. We design, build and test a Waterpoint Data Transmitter to determine its robustness, functionality and scalability. Results demonstrate that this novel application using simple microprocessor, accelerometer and global system for mobile communications (GSM) components has significant potential in recording graduated time-step information flows of lever pumps which can be modelled into a reasonable water volume use approximation. Given the systemic informational deficit for rural waterpoints in Africa, where one in three handpumps is likely to be non-functioning, this innovation has the potential to provide universal, low-cost and immediate data to guide timely maintenance responses and planning decisions, as well as drive greater accountability and transparency in donor and government behaviour.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-163
Author(s):  
Ukoette Jeremiah Ekah ◽  
Chibuzo Emeruwa

The increase in the number of mobile subscribers, coupled with the increase in mobile services is enough reason to monitor the QoS of mobile network operators frequently. This work looks into the QoS of network operators in Calabar, Nigeria, taking into consideration some KPIs ((CSSR, DCR, CST, HOSR, and network quality and network coverage). Analysis of data obtained after a benchmarking drive test shows that Globacom network was within NCC performance threshold for all network KPIs monitored. Also, MTN network performed poorly in HOSR but met the minimum benchmark in other network KPIs. Airtel network failed in the required DCR benchmark but was within the minimum benchmark for other KPIs while 9mobile failed in CSSR and DCR performance threshold but met the performance threshold for other KPIs. This result will be useful to the regulatory body, NCC, those in academic, RF engineers, network subscribers and especially, the network operators which we expect, will optimize their networks immediately.


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