An Enhanced Virtual Time Simulator for Studying QoS Provisioning of Multimedia Services in UTRAN

This paper describes an enhanced virtual time simulator for studying the provisioning of new services throughout the UMTS Radio Access Network (UTRAN). Several simulations were run to verify the feasibility of the tool and to investigate the effectiveness of the supported QoS mechanisms. The radio resources utilization is analyzed in terms of cell throughput and transmission power. The quality of experience is assessed separately for each of the offered services by tailored combinations of performance metrics, which determine the degree of satisfaction of the user of the services. The simulation results show the proposed simulator to be an appropriate tool for studying several aspects of radio network management, such as service planning and QoS provisioning.