Voice-over-IP over Enhanced Uplink

Abstract: The traditional voice service in mobile networks is an important service that mobile users expect high quality from. With the convergence of mobile networks towards an all-IP network, an IP-based speech service becomes important which is referred to as Voice-over-IP (VoIP). The traditional voice service is highly optimized and a VoIP service must therefore fulfil strict quality requirements to provide the same speech service quality. The air interface technology, WCDMA, which is used in third generation communication systems in Europe is constantly developed. An improved concept for the mobile-to-network transmission, called the Enhanced Uplink (EUL) provides for higher uplink capacity for packet data services. It also includes features that may provide a sufficient VoIP service quality in mobile networks, when considering the uplink transmission. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the VoIP capacity over EUL and identify crucial aspects of radio resource management in order to increase the capacity. This is done through dynamic system simulations, using a realistic VoIP traffic model. The VoIP capacity is also estimated by a derived theoretical framework.\newline It is shown by simulation results and theoretical estimations, that power control is a vital mechanism in order to increase the capacity. Simulation results indicate that a VoIP over EUL capacity of 65\% of the traditional voice service capacity may be reached. The results also indicate that to improve the capacity for larger cells, the allowed VoIP packet delay must be increased.