Performance Analysis of AAL2 switching/multiplexing in the Iub interface in UMTS Network

User-perceived application-level performance is very important in the adoption and success of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) services and infrastructure. To predict this performance, a detailed end-to-end UMTS network performance simulator was developed. The simulator allows the modeling of application traffic characteristics, network architecture, network elements, and protocols. It has been used to assess architectural alternatives, identify system bottlenecks, and validate performance requirements. This paper illustrates the use of this simulator to study the AAL2 switching effect across the interface Iub between a base station and a RNC. In particular, two architectural alternatives are compared. The results indicate that end-to-end application-level performance must be incorporated in all development phases and the benefit of AAL2 switching in Iub depends heavily on the traffic load. Furthermore, the benefit of AAL2 switching in Iub for data services is less than that for voice service and decreases with offered load per base station.