120

QUALITY OF SERVICE IN MOBILE-SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONSYSTEMS

D. Di Zenobio, E. Russo
Fondazione Ugo Bordoni, Italy
ABSTRACT

In the paper service provision in a future telecommunication network where satellite is integrated in future
Personal Communication Networks (PCN) is studied.
Critical issues regarding objective and subjective measures for the wide range of new telecommunications
services (multimedia, universal personal communications, etc.) and digital technologies are analysed.
After a review of the possible satellite system evolution
toward PCS, service requirements and mobile terminal
features are discussed.
In order to develop and validate new performance
measures the design of a an experiment based on existing technological solutions is presented.
Some observations are made on user-oriented QoS parameters for multimedia services.
1. INTRODUCTION

According to the definition given by the US Federal

Communications Commission (FCC) in its Notice of
Inquiry, Personal Communication System (PCS) is the
system by which every user can exchange information
with anyone, at anytime, in anyplace, through any type
of device, using a single personal telecommunication
number.
Such an innovative system, with its ability to offer
communications that are truly person-to-person rather
than station-to-station not only expands the market for
cellular communications, but also creates opportunities
for newer products. Thus, it is expected that in late 90s
a small handset that allows a user to communicate with
anyone, in a variety of formats from virtually any geographic location, whether from the home, the office, or
on the road will be available, 0 Donne11 (1).
Many studies have been carried out aiming at defining
the standards for the next generation of mobile services,
expected to enter into service at the end of the present
decade. In particular, standardization of the Future
Public Land Mobile Telecommunication System
(FTLMS) have been carried out in Study Group 8/1 of
ITIJ-R on a world-wide basis, somewhat reflected
within the European Telecommunication Standards
Institute (ETSI) SMG-5 into Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS).
Although most discussions on PCS have focused on the
terrestrial system, it is generally agreed that the satellite

mobile system also plays a significant role in the provision of services all over the world, Li and Qiu (2).
However, due to the nature of satellite connections and
the inherent terminal mobility in a network, an array of
problems arise when the standards are translated into a
satellite system. They extend from purely technical
problems to regulatory problems, such as world-wide
recognition of type approvals for mobile earth stations,
the more official term for terminals communicating directly via satellite. Although standardization is not
completed, several new satellite systems, referred to as
Satellite Personal Communication Networks (S-PCN),
(such as Iridium, Globalstar, Odyssey, INMARSAT-P
and the innovative Teledesic network among others,
Fig. 1) have been proposed, Garcia et al(3).
The experience with these S-PCNs will considerably
influence the development of the PCS satellite component, Dondl (4).
In this context experiments and analysis to identify the
most suitable solutions will have to take account of a
number of mutually linked factors, such as: type of
service(s); maximum transmission delay; minimum
elevation angle; service quality and availability specifications; extend and distribution of the expected user
population; number and class of satellites; type of mobile terminals; etc.
To limit the broad range of alternatives we concentrate
on quality of service aspects of future multimedia services. In particular, as satellite multimedia communications services enjoy little or no user experience and are
not well defined relative to user needs and expectations,
we have considered a preparatory experiment using a
geostationary satellite to create a reference set for
Quality of Service data.

Figure 1 Applications of new S-PCNs

Satellite Systems for Mobile Communications and Navigation, 13-15th May 1996,
Conference Publication No. 424 0 IEE, 1996

121

In the remainder of this article, after a review of the

possible Satellite system evolution toward PCS, service
requirements and mobile te
features are discussed. As a pioint of reference a simplified version of
che f u t w portable wireless multhnedia terminal able to
access all the available serv
of the PCN has been
a n sidersd.
In thks last two sections an expeaiment based on existing
techno logical solutions is #resented and s
tions a,$made on user-oriented QoS p
mulhed,ia *rUi&s.

systems. On the contrary, in the second solution the

satellite system is integrated with the cellular network
and therefore plays a cooperative role with the terrestrial system, Del Re et al. (6). In both cases the most
suitable architecture is based on low-earth orbits
(LEOS) or medium-earth orbits (MEOs), as LEOs and
h4EOs allow the generation of small coverage cells,
yielding large frequency reuse factors and transmit
power levels suitable for hand-held terminals.
TABLE 2. A subset of proposed teleservices for thirdj -g
Teleservice

The evolution of w i v f h S S s9stems can be divided into

several stages. Thte p m i s e d W c e s , the required
technologies, and the devel
rimetable of the
three generations oiF wireless syst&l$ are summarized
in Table 1 (Z),Ananzsso F. and Delli priscoli (5).
First generation anallog and second Qeneration digital
mobile radio systems :%re d e s i g d to support Voice
communication with 1imited &t;% communication capabilities.
Concerning mobile sate1lite systems (MSS) of the first
generation, they were
zed by global beam
features and rather 1
teminals, althdtlgii
transportable in prin
tal wireless system is
The main ftsture of this gent:rdliirn is the implementation of digital technology. The @stM~capacity is several times higher than the t r z b i t h ~ Ianalog
More servicl: features are introduced, the service
is improved and the service mst is significaWy reduced. In this scenario, multipk beam mobile Satellite
systems provide services to users with higher m
and smaller terminals like briefcase lap-top-size
nals.
Third generation systems aim to offer a wide variety of
communicatiora services such as that illustrated in Table 2.
There are two possible s~lutionsfor the third generation mobile satellite systems, and which one will prevail is still an open question. The first one is a satellite
communications system able tct provide service to the
mobile users independently of the terrestrial cellular
network and the,refore compel% with the tertestrial

Telephony
Teleconference
Voice mail
Program sound
Video telephony
Remote terminal
User profile editing
Telefax (proup 4)
Voiceband data
Database access
Message broadcast
Unrestricted digital infonnation
Navigation

Location

Throughput
(kbls)
8 - 32
32
32
128
64
1.2-9.6
1.2-9.6
64

64
2.4-768
2.4
64-1920
2.4 - 64
2.4 - 64

Target bit
error rate
1OE -3
1OE -3
1OE -3
1OE -6
10E -7
1OE -6
1OE -6
1OE -6
1OE -6
1OE -6
1OE -6
1OE -6
1OE -6
1OE -6

3. FUTURE PERSONAL COMMUNICATION

TERMINALS

Examples of mobile satellite terminal platforms include

land vehicles, aircraft, marine vessels, and remote data
collection sites. Additionally, services can be provided
to portable terminals, which are currently about the size
of a briefcase, but will be reduced to handheld sizes for
future systems. Such new systems will experience dramatic changes as they evolve toward becoming an integral part of a personal communications infrastructure
capable of providing the named broad range of communication services, without restricting the individuals
location and environment. Research activities carried
out by European standardization bodies on terminal
integration of the satellite component of UMTS suggest

TABLE 1 Time table for develoDmnt of wireless terrestrial and satellite-based communication systems
First generation
Time
Service
Technology

1970s-1980s
-Wireless voice service

Second generation
1980s-1990s
-Advanced wireless voice services
-Advanced wlreless data services

Third generation

Year 2000+
-Integrated wireless voice, data, and imaging
-Advanced wireless data services, e.g., Full motion
video
-Analog cellular and cordless tech- -Digital cellular and cordless technology
-Broader bandwidth radio channels
nology
-Microcellular and picocellular Intelligent -Higher frequency spectrum utilization
-Macrocellular
base station technology
-Advanced intelligent network technology
-Satellite global beam
-Satellite multiple beam
-Non-GEO satellite, Cellular-like beam

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that:

4. QUALITY OF SERVICE

IN MULTIMEDIA

ENVIRONMENTS

Maximum effort should be made to make an integrated mobile and mobile satellite terminal with
automatic roaming and if possible handover between terrestrial and satellite parts of UMTS feasible (i. e. dual mode terminal)
Where both satellite and terrestrial UMTS components are available the sections of access will be by
user preference. This preference, which can be
automated, is based on a number of criteria such as
user profile, service provider preference, network
operator preference, quality of service, capacity,
cost, user location and call termination location,
ETSI (8).
These concepts lead to the design of advanced terminals and communication systems based on the following factors:
0

Flexible air interfaces, including robust propagation

methods that are well-suited for the changing conditions ranging from business and domestic indoor
up to urban, rural or vehicle outdoor environments,
from stationary to high-speed applications, or from
telephony to data and multimedia services.
An intelligent network infrastructure with the necessary mobility information and management capabilities, Armbruster (9).

Terminals will include fiied (F),transportable(T), vehicular (V) and hand-held mobile (H) configurations
that operate at transmission rates varying from a low
bit rate of 4.8-16 kbps up to 1,920-155,520kbps.
More complex terminals (types V, T and F), beside the
telephony, will include complex services. Portable unit
is truly a terminal dedicated to multimedia personal
communications, and not simply a notebook computer
with a wireless LAN/modem attached to it.
Among all the possible options the hand-held mobile
terminal will become the main and most utilized terminal, also available in emergencies , e. g. when climbing
in the mountains. Moreover, present simple speech
terminals will evolve into sophisticated personal communicators that will combine telephone, pager, fax, answering machine, digital diary, and even full-motion
video communicationswithin a single unit.
Such a wireless multimedia terminal will combine a
pen-based input pad a flat panel display. It will include
a notebook, calendar, telefax, electronic mail, access to
language transaction services as well as location and
navigation.(9)
It might be imagined that such a kind of portable termina1,l in an extended vision, could be compatible
with next cellular digital television. network, DiZenobio el al. (10)

,/,

For new services, such as wireless multimedia corgmunications, the primary and most important
ure of service quality should be customer satisfacti$.
This need has encouraged studies that aim at s p Lifying
and meztsuring the quality of telecommunicati~&sewices using parameters that accurately and con/icisely express the users satisfaction (or dissatisfactio@ with the
delivered service. Such parameters are /&scri&xj as
user-orimted or, when the User / is human,
/
perception-based.
Such measures are derived from e l e c ~ c a and
l mathematic& properties of the digitized signals. They are
chosen on the basis of their COrrekAtin with the subjective video olr voice quality assey&mt:nts of human usen
(e.g., viewer or listener puleW. They achieve technology independence by recognizing unportant perceptual
attributes and subsequentry predicxing human reactions
to imperfections in received visuaJ or acoustic infomation.
To develop and VaIiu;?atePerception-based quality measurement a test signal, se1ecw.i to represent the actual
end users applications, is p?,ssed through the transmission system of interest. Tlie resulting impaired destination material is evaluater1 in subjective tests. Objective measures, extracted fr@m the same destination signal is compared to the subjective test responses using
statistical analysis techniques, Seitz et al (1 1).
By utilizing the null jmpairment both the viewers
and the objective me?:surement algorithm have access
to the original, unimpaiiied version of the test signd.
This allows the ust: of differential measurement techniques, Voran (12).
For multimedia, the prclper methodology l:or developing
and combining integrated perfonnarice measures
should consider many aspects.
Voice perfonrmce is more important than video performance, and video performance may be more important than data performance, but how ,can the relative
performance levels of the individual components be
combined to give an overall figure af merit for the
multimedia system? The most relevant result of research activities in this field would probably be the
definition of objective perception-based performance
measures for multimedia service as one global entity. In
fact, separate audio arid video performance test can be
useful in the developijnent stages of a multimedia service, but a customers opinion of the overall quality of
the service will olepend more on the combined services.
Another important quality element is the effectiveness
of the interactions in a two-way communication. Although standard performance evaluation test methods
are recommended by ITU for one-way video and audio
separately, none are available for assessing the performance of two-way interactive services such as mobile multimedia communications effects, Adesanya et d
(13).

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5. QOS EVALUATION PROCESS

Among the large number of issues involved in the development process for perception-based measurements,
our preliminary work has been concentrated on the effects of the satellite communication system.
In particular we have chosen to start our studies with
the analysis of satellites operating in Ka bands.
Test signals have been processed using a simulation
tool able to generate typical impairments induced by a
Ka satellite system on a multimedia signal.
In order to assess the simulation results for a specific
satellite architecture, a field trial based on the Italian
Italsat communication satellite, has been conceived and
planned to be implemented in the immediate future.
The system considered consists of a Main earth-station
and several VSAT and transportable terminals.
The space segment is based on the multibeam payload
that includes six spot beam associated to transponders
with 110 MHz useful bandwidth.
Preliminary results obtained by simulating satellite
channel impairments match the findings achieved by
other authors, (13), Jayant (14).
In particular it has been observed that in a two-way
audio visual link such as teleconferencing, acceptability
of delay is largely guided by the audio channel. On the
other hand, the video and audio delays should be nearly
equalized (within about 10 to 30 ms), to maintain "lipsync" and "eye-sync'' effects ,(14).
CONCLUSIONS

In this paper the concept of future advanced mobile

satellite communication systems able to provide multimedia services is discussed. Various challenges in
planning new communication systems have been
pointed out. In particular, it has been highlighted that
the user of emerging systems expects a minimum guaranteed value of QOS regardless of traffic intensity,
service variety, or network imperfections. Preparatory
work on performance evaluation must be done to define
one or more objective tests that can give results that
correlate well with subjectively determined quality assessment. One important focus of this effort has been
the study of user-oriented, technology-independent
measures of service quality.
Software tools and field trials based on a Ka band satellite have been planned to assess performance of multimedia and two-way interactive systems.
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