FACULTY OF BUSINESS SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND MARKETING SCIENCE

INFO405-ADVANCED DATA COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER NETWORKS

Assignment

Name: Godfrey Nyoni

Reg-number: R181378T

Level: 4.1

Year: 2021

Attendance-type: Conventional
Question (a)

3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) it is an umbrella term for a number of standards
organizations which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications. Its best-known work is
the development and maintenance of the most widely used 3G standard, as well as global fourth-
generation (4G) and fifth-generation (5G) standards. Given below is the explanation of 4G and
5G architecture.

4G Architecture

The 4G Architecture is new architecture developed to provide a higher level of performance in

line with the requirements of LTE. It also known as SAE-System Architecture Evolution. It
offers mobile services based on high-speed wireless connections, IP mobility, intelligent
terminals, and World Wide Web type services. The diagram below shows the key components of
4G Architecture.

4G network architecture consists of the following elements/components:

•eNodeB- is part of the E-UTRAN radio access network and is the component that allows UEs to
connect to the LTE network. An eNodeB typically communicates with the UE, with other
eNodeBs, and with the EPC through various interfaces. It performs functions such as radio
resource management which involves admission control that allows or denies radio bearer setup
requests.

• Mobility Management Entity (MME)- handles all of the signaling exchanges between the UEs
and the EPC, as well as those between the eNodeBs and the EPC. The signaling performed by
the MME is also known as the NAS (Non-Access Stratum) signaling, as it done through the NAS
protocol. The MME connects to the eNodeB through the S1-AP interface and performs
authentication. It connects to the HSS and requests the authentication information for the
subscriber trying to connect to the network

• Serving Gateway (S-GW)- It acts like an anchor for handover between neighboring eNodeBs routes
and routes all the user data packets. The S-GW also handles mobility between LTE and other CS
networks. For idle state UEs, the S-GW maintains the UEs’ context, and generates paging
requests when the UE receives downlink data. The S-GW also performs replication of the user
traffic in case of lawful interception.

• Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW)- It ensures the UE’s connectivity to external packet
data networks, acting like the point of exit and entry of traffic for the UE. A UE can be
connected to more than one P-GW while accessing multiple PDNs. The P-GW handles policy
enforcement, user by user packet filtering, charging support, lawful interception and packet
screening. It also acts like Another key role of the P-GW is to act as the anchor for mobility
between 3GPP and non-3GPP technologies such as WiMAX and 3GPP2 (CDMA 1X and
EvDO).

• Home Subscriber Server (HSS)- It is a central database that contains user-related and
subscription-related information. The functions of the HSS include mobility management, call
and session establishment support, user authentication and access authorization. The HSS is
based on the Home Location Register (HLR) and the Authentication Center (AuC) of 2G and 3G
networks.

• Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF )- It is a combination of the Charging Rules
Function (CRF) and the Policy Decision Function (PDF), and ensures the service policy and
sends Quality of Service (QoS) information for each session begun and accounting rule
information. These policies are enforced in the eNodeB.

Advantages and disadvantages of 4G

4G mobile network offers amazing speed, it has higher bandwidth, Increased bandwidth leads to
much faster data transfer speed, that is especially advantageous for the mobile devices, The users
of the 4G network get the benefit of superior, uninterrupted connectivity, especially for the
advanced tasks like video chats & conferences. 4G networks present much more coverage than
the other systems such as Wi-Fi, that forces the users to depend upon hotspots in each area
they visit , Since 4G offers a coverage of 30 miles and more , as also overlapping network ranges
, The users would be assured of complete connectivity at all times.

However, Obtaining the information from the people illegally becomes easier, 4G technology
involves the possibility of some interference though not much, it is capable of being attacked
(jamming frequencies) and the invasion of the privacy increased.

The consumer is forced to buy a new device to support the 4G, New frequencies means new
components in the cell towers, data prices are high for the consumers, Current equipment cannot
be compatible with the 4G network, it has different network bands for different phones and lastly
it is expensive & hard to implement.

5G Architecture

Architecture of 5G is highly advanced, its network elements and various terminals are
characteristically upgraded to afford a new situation. Network functions are split up by service.
That is why this architecture is also called 5G core Service-Based Architecture (SBA). The
following 5G network topology diagram shows the key components of a 5G core network.
According to the diagram above User Equipment (UE) like 5G smartphones or 5G cellular
devices connect over the 5G New Radio Access Network to the 5G core and further to Data
Networks (DN), like the Internet. Then the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)
acts as a single-entry point for the UE connection. Based on the service requested by the UE, the
AMF selects the respective Session Management Function (SMF) for managing the user session.
The User Plane Function (UPF) transports the IP data traffic (user plane) between the User
Equipment (UE) and the external networks. Authentication Server Function (AUSF) allows the
AMF to authenticate the UE and access services of the 5G core. Other functions like the Session
Management Function (SMF), the Policy Control Function (PCF), the Application Function
(AF) and the Unified Data Management (UDM) function provide the policy control framework,
applying policy decisions and accessing subscription information, to govern the network
behavior.

Advantages and disadvantages 5G

the architecture of 5G networks offers better security compared to today's 4G LTE networks.
Furthermore, it offers Faster data transmission speed, up to multi-Gigabit/s speeds. There is
greater capacity, fueling a massive amount of IoT devices per square kilometer. Lastly lower
latency, down to single-digit milliseconds, which is critically important in applications such
as connected vehicles in ITS applications and autonomous vehicles, where near instantaneous
response is necessary.  

However, many of the old devices would not be competent to 5G, hence, all of them need to be
replaced with new one which are expensive, hence it will take some time for the common man to
make use of 5G technology. Developing infrastructure needs high cost and it requires skilled
engineers to install and maintain 5G network. Moreover, 5G equipment are costly. This increases
cost of 5G deployment and maintenance phases. Security and privacy issue yet to be solved It
will take time for security and privacy issues to be resolved fully in 5G network.

Question (b)

i)Sampling

Sampling is defined as a process of measuring the instantaneous values of continuous-time signal

in a discrete form.

Process by which an analog signal is measured, often millions of times per second for video, in
order to convert the analog signal to digital.

The sampling process represents a continuous time domain signal with values measured at
discrete and uniform time intervals. This process determines the maximum bandwidth of the
sampled signal in accordance with the Nyquist Theory. This theory states that the signal
frequency must be less than or equal to one half the sampling frequency to prevent aliasing.

Sample is a piece of data taken from the whole data which is continuous in the time domain.

When a source generates an analog signal and if that has to be digitized, having 1s and 0s i.e.,
High or Low, the signal has to be discretized in time. This discretization of analog signal is
called as Sampling.

The following figure indicates a continuous-time signal x tt and a sampled signal xs tt.

ii)Quantizing

The quantizing of an analog signal is done by discretizing the signal with a number of
quantization levels. It is the essential first step in converting from analog form to digital
form. Quantization is representing the sampled values of the amplitude by a finite set of levels,
which means converting a continuous-amplitude sample into a discrete-time signal.

The following figure shows how an analog signal gets quantized. The blue line represents analog
signal while the brown one represents the quantized signal.

Types of Quantization

There are two types of Quantization - Uniform Quantization and Non-uniform Quantization.

The type of quantization in which the quantization levels are uniformly spaced is termed as
a Uniform Quantization. The type of quantization in which the quantization levels are unequal
and mostly the relation between them is logarithmic, is termed as a Non-uniform Quantization
Question (c)

Telecel Zimbabwe WAN network topology

Question (d)

Software Defined Networks (SDN)

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a network architecture approach that enables the

network to be intelligently and centrally controlled, or ‘programmed,’ using software
applications. This helps operators manage the entire network consistently and holistically,
regardless of the underlying network technology.

There are four critical areas in which SDN technology can make a difference for an organization.

1) Network programmability: SDN enables network behavior to be controlled by the

software that resides beyond the networking devices that provide physical connectivity.
As a result, network operators can tailor the behavior of their networks to support new
services, and even individual customers. By decoupling the hardware from the software,
operators can introduce innovative, differentiated new services rapidly free from the
constraints of closed and proprietary platforms.
2) Logically centralize intelligence and control: SDN is built on logically centralized
network topologies, which enable intelligent control and management of network
resources. Traditional network control methods are distributed. Devices function
autonomously with limited awareness of the state of the network. With the kind of
centralized control an SDN-based network provides, bandwidth management, restoration,
security, and policies can be highly intelligent and optimized and an organization gains a
holistic view of the network.

3) Abstraction of the network: Services and applications running on SDN technology are
abstracted from the underlying technologies and hardware that provide physical
connectivity from network control. Applications will interact with the network through
APIs, instead of management interfaces tightly coupled to the hardware.

4) Openness: SDN architectures usher in a new era of openness, enabling multi-vendor

interoperability as well as fostering a vendor-neutral ecosystem. Openness comes from
the SDN approach itself. The open APIs support a wide range of applications, including
cloud orchestration, OSS/BSS, SaaS, and business-critical networked apps. In addition,
intelligent software can control hardware from multiple vendors with open programmatic
interfaces like OpenFlow. Finally, from within the SDN, intelligent network services and
applications can run within a common software environment.

A key advantage of SDN technology is the ability for network operators to write
programs that utilize SDN APIs and give applications control over network behavior.
SDN allows users to develop network-aware applications, intelligently monitor network
conditions, and automatically adapt the network configuration as needed.