Measuring and Assessing Performance of Mobile Broadband Networks and Future 5G Trends

Mobile broadband (MBB) is one of the critical goals in fifth-generation (5G) networks due to rising data demand. MBB provides very high-speed internet access with seamless connections. Existing MBB, including third-generation (3G) and fourth-generation (4G) networks, also requires monitoring to ensure good network performance. Thus, performing analysis of existing MBB assists mobile network operators (MNOs) in further improving their MBB networks’ capabilities to meet user satisfaction. In this paper, we analyzed and evaluated the multidimensional performance of existing MBB in Oman. Drive test measurements were carried out in four urban and suburban cities: Muscat, Ibra, Sur and Bahla. This study aimed to analyze and understand the MBB performance, but it did not benchmark the performance of MNOs. The data measurements were collected through drive tests from two MNOs supporting 3G and 4G technologies: Omantel and Ooredoo. Several performance metrics were measured during the drive tests, such as signal quality, throughput (downlink and unlink), ping and handover. The measurement results demonstrate that 4G technologies were the dominant networks in most of the tested cities during the drive test. The average downlink and uplink data rates were 18 Mbps and 13 Mbps, respectively, whereas the average ping and pong loss were 53 ms and 0.9, respectively, for all MNOs.

IMBY: Creating a model for density that maintains suburban values

<p>With Greenfield approaches becoming less popular among city councils, forms of densification are being sought out, the most common yet unprecedented form being infill housing. On grounds of this, other methods including apartments are being considered the best solution. For suburban cities, this runs the risk of ignoring fundamental suburban qualities that have been highly desired in New Zealand since settlement, such as open space, autonomous land ownership, and control over one’s own property. Considering ‘the state house’ as a foundational suburban housing model for New Zealand, the Hutt Valley becomes the focus of study for this thesis. This thesis proposes using infill as a viable solution and means of exploring suburban living to produce a model of densification that offers both continuity with and transformation of cultural and architectural traits of suburban living. It argues for more compact and affordable models that are easily applicable to current New Zealand suburbia and are more responsive to current households. By exploring suburbia at different scales and exploring the current housing layout, new forms of suburban density are formed, where flexibility and neighbourliness are prioritized. The resulting dwelling is arranged based on the varying social needs of humans, allowing inhabitants to define private, shared and public areas both internally and externally.</p>

IMBY: Creating a model for density that maintains suburban values

<p>With Greenfield approaches becoming less popular among city councils, forms of densification are being sought out, the most common yet unprecedented form being infill housing. On grounds of this, other methods including apartments are being considered the best solution. For suburban cities, this runs the risk of ignoring fundamental suburban qualities that have been highly desired in New Zealand since settlement, such as open space, autonomous land ownership, and control over one’s own property. Considering ‘the state house’ as a foundational suburban housing model for New Zealand, the Hutt Valley becomes the focus of study for this thesis. This thesis proposes using infill as a viable solution and means of exploring suburban living to produce a model of densification that offers both continuity with and transformation of cultural and architectural traits of suburban living. It argues for more compact and affordable models that are easily applicable to current New Zealand suburbia and are more responsive to current households. By exploring suburbia at different scales and exploring the current housing layout, new forms of suburban density are formed, where flexibility and neighbourliness are prioritized. The resulting dwelling is arranged based on the varying social needs of humans, allowing inhabitants to define private, shared and public areas both internally and externally.</p>

Visions of a polycentric suburb : the evolution of car-centric design

The following thesis investigates emerging issues surrounding car-centric design know as urban sprawl and questions whether or not it is feasible and appropriate for cities to continue sprawling in a car-centric manner given changing conditions. Social, political, environmental and economical concerns have surfaced putting a damper on the once great "American Dream" raising concerns that car-centric design can prove detrimental to humanity. The roots of modernist design are discussed and the ideas behind modernists' intentions analyzed while juxtaposing modernist vision to the real outcomes of modernism. Modernist ideas are compared and contrasted to new and old theories that challenge the modernist ideals in order to propose a new direction for future urban development. The design project takes into account the importance of connection and network through infrastructure in a globalized world. Transit infrastructure (high speed rail, improved commuter rail, rapid transit and light rail) is proposed on a number of scales in the Southern Ontario region to act as a catalyst for responsible growth interconnecting future intensified polycentric suburban cities.

Visions of a polycentric suburb : the evolution of car-centric design

The following thesis investigates emerging issues surrounding car-centric design know as urban sprawl and questions whether or not it is feasible and appropriate for cities to continue sprawling in a car-centric manner given changing conditions. Social, political, environmental and economical concerns have surfaced putting a damper on the once great "American Dream" raising concerns that car-centric design can prove detrimental to humanity. The roots of modernist design are discussed and the ideas behind modernists' intentions analyzed while juxtaposing modernist vision to the real outcomes of modernism. Modernist ideas are compared and contrasted to new and old theories that challenge the modernist ideals in order to propose a new direction for future urban development. The design project takes into account the importance of connection and network through infrastructure in a globalized world. Transit infrastructure (high speed rail, improved commuter rail, rapid transit and light rail) is proposed on a number of scales in the Southern Ontario region to act as a catalyst for responsible growth interconnecting future intensified polycentric suburban cities.

Gender, Land and Food Access in Ghana’s Suburban Cities: A Case of the Adenta Municipality

The disparity in land and food access in Ghana often overlooks the possibility of an underlying gender disparity. This paper explores and interrogates the disparity between land and food access with respect to gender and the evolution of this relationship over the years as a result of the settlement expansion and urban growth within the Adenta Municipality in Ghana. Adopting a mixed pairwise approach of combining spatial analytical tools, vulnerability indexing and resilient indicators, the paper examines the levels and rates of land accessibilities within the stream of modern cities. It assesses the land market system complexities within developing economies and attempts to address the potential threats of gender-land access gaps. The paper finally assigns weights of ranks to model the phenomenon and recommends trends that can facilitate predictions and early cautionary systems for effective urban land governance in Ghana. The paper concludes that though it is noticed that women engage in power structures on a daily basis, this both benefits and burdens them, depending on their socio-cultural status and other factors in terms of access to land and food.

Distance from the nearest grocery stores and frequency of store-specific shopping are associated with dietary intake frequency among the community-dwelling independent elderly population

Background: Low accessibility to grocery stores may change dietary habits and increase health problems for elderly people living in communities. Aim: This study investigated whether the distance from the nearest grocery stores, including supermarkets, convenience stores, and drugstores, and the frequency of store-specific shopping were associated with dietary intake frequency among elderly people. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in two towns of suburban cities. A total of 177 people aged ≥65 years were recruited ( M age=76.7 years). The frequency of intake of 10 food groups and dietary variety scores (DVS) were evaluated. Distances from the districts to the nearest grocery stores and the frequency of shopping during a week at each store were evaluated using a geographic information system. Results: For supermarkets, people living <300 metres from the nearest supermarket showed a higher intake frequency of fruit ( p=0.024) and oil/fat ( p=0.045), and those shopping three or more times a week showed a higher intake frequency of meat ( p=0.025). In the case of drugstores, people shopping one or more times a week showed a higher intake frequency of eggs ( p=0.006) and oil/fat ( p=0.048). People living <300 m from the nearest supermarkets ( p=0.048) and drugstores ( p=0.047) showed higher DVS than those living ≥500 m from the nearest supermarkets and drugstores. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that shopping at supermarkets and drugstores is associated with dietary intake frequency and dietary quality for elderly people living in suburban cities.

Optimal Interdiction of Urban Criminals with the Aid of Real-Time Information

Most violent crimes happen in urban and suburban cities. With emerging tracking techniques, law enforcement officers can have real-time location information of the escaping criminals and dynamically adjust the security resource allocation to interdict them. Unfortunately, existing work on urban network security games largely ignores such information. This paper addresses this omission. First, we show that ignoring the real-time information can cause an arbitrarily large loss of efficiency. To mitigate this loss, we propose a novel NEtwork purSuiT game (NEST) model that captures the interaction between an escaping adversary and a defender with multiple resources and real-time information available. Second, solving NEST is proven to be NP-hard. Third, after transforming the non-convex program of solving NEST to a linear program, we propose our incremental strategy generation algorithm, including: (i) novel pruning techniques in our best response oracle; and (ii) novel techniques for mapping strategies between subgames and adding multiple best response strategies at one iteration to solve extremely large problems. Finally, extensive experiments show the effectiveness of our approach, which scales up to realistic problem sizes with hundreds of nodes on networks including the real network of Manhattan.

Sensitivity of Simulated Urban–Atmosphere Interactions in Oklahoma City to Urban Parameterization

The world’s population is increasingly concentrated in large urban areas. Many observational and modeling studies have explored how these large, population-dense cities modify local and mesoscale atmospheric phenomena. These modeling studies often use an urban canopy model to parameterize urban surfaces. However, it is unclear whether this approach is appropriate for more suburban cities, such as those found in the Great Plains. Thus, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model was run for a week over Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and results were compared with observations. Overall, four configurations were examined. Two simulations used the Noah LSM, one with all urban areas removed (CTRL), and the other with urban areas parameterized by a modified Noah land surface model with three urban categories (LSMMOD). Additional simulations utilized a single-layer urban canopy model (SLUCM) either with default urban fraction values (SLUCM1) or with urban fractions taken from the National Land Cover Database (SLUCM2). Results from the three urban runs compared favorably to high-density temperature observations of the urban heat island. The SLUCM1 run was the most realistic, although the urban fractions applied were the least representative of Oklahoma City. All urban runs also produced a drier and deeper planetary boundary layer over the city. The prediction of near-surface winds was most problematic, with the two SLUCM runs unable to correctly reproduce reduced wind speeds over the city. The modified Noah LSM provided best overall agreement with observations and represents a reasonable option for simulating the urban effects of more-suburban cities.