A Dynamic Radio Simulation Platform for the Study of Radio Resource Management Techniques in Heterogeneous Wireless Systems∗

Beyond 3G mobile communication systems are being defined as the integration of diverse radio access technologies into what is generally known as heterogeneous wireless systems. These systems present important challenges in terms of the management of the available radio resources for each radio access technology. Given the complexity of mobile communication systems, the use of simulation tools to analyse their performance is common within the research and industrial communities. The development of such simulation platforms to accuThis work has been supported by the Ministry of Education and Science (Spain) and FEDER funds under the project TEC2005-08211-C02-02, and by the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) under the project GV05/189. 144 MSWiM 2006 Posters and Demos/Tools Proceedings rately investigate radio resource management techniques in heterogeneous wireless systems is a challenging task. In this context, this paper presents SPHERE, a Simulation Platform for HEterogeneous wiREless systems developed at the University Miguel Hernández. The system level simulation platform is currently capable of simultaneously emulating the transmission of GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA at the packet level. Given the modularity of the SPHERE platform and its detailed modelling of each radio access technology, the platform can also be used to investigate the optimisation of radio resource management techniques within each modelled system. This paper not only presents and validates the SPHERE platform, but it also introduces radio resource management investigations currently being conducted using the advanced simulation platform.