The success of service providers in the competitive communications market of the future will be determined by the efficiency with which the services will be developed, and the quality levels at which the services will be provided. A service creation environment (SCE) should provide the service developer with solutions to these problems. In this paper we present an SCE focusing on the service creation practice, the software technologies applied for the development of the service logic, the support of standardised service architectures, through libraries of service components, and the provision of QoS handling related facilities.

The success of third-generation mobile communication systems, e.g., UMTS, will depend on the quality of service (QoS) that the mobile users will perceive, and whether the QoS levels will be provided in a cost efficient manner. In this perspective, the importance of tools for "proper" planning of a mobile system becomes straightforward. In the context of this paper, we present such planning tools related to the design of future mobile communication systems. In addition, we present a platform that enables the assessment of the derived solutions by means of simulation.

Efficient spectrum utilization in third-generation cellular systems has motivated the study of the traffic adaptive channel allocation problem: given the set of channels, the cell structure and the load to be accommodated in each cell find the optimal allocation of channels to cells, subject to the reuse distance constraints. In this paper, we extend this scheme in order to include time fluctuating traffic loads. The extended problem is formulated and solved by reduction to 0-1 (linear and quadratic) programming.

It is envisaged that future cellular systems, e.g., UMTS, will consist of three network segments, namely, core, access, and intelligent. In the context of this paper, we define and solve some of the design problems related to the design of the access and intelligent network segments. In addition, we present a platform that enables the assessment of the derived solutions by means of simulation. Our aim is to analyse, formally state, and theoretically formulate these problems, and to provide a platform for assessing the efficiency of the solutions to these problems.

Frequency reuse is a key property of cellular mobile communication systems. The frequency spectrum can be more effectively exploited if the allocation of the available channels to cells takes into account the traffic distribution. Dynamic channel allocation (DCA) algorithms adapt continuously to the traffic changes. In this paper both static and dynamic algorithms are proposed and studied. The optimization criterion used is the maximization of the total traffic volume, which is accommodated by the mobile system.

Important factors that will determine the success of service providers in the competitive communications market of the future are the efficiency with which the services will be developed, the "quality" of the service deployment, and the quality levels at which the services will be provided. A service creation environment (SCE) should provide the service developer with solutions to these problems. In this paper we present an SCE focusing on some essential characteristics, namely, the service creation practice underlying the operation of the SCE, and realisation in terms of existing software technologies and tools, the support of standardised service architectures.

One of the most central issues in third generation telecommunication systems is efficient spectrum utilisation. This objective has motivated extensive research in the area of channel allocation techniques. The basic version of the channel allocation problem is the following: given a set of channels, the cell structure and the load to be accommodated in each cell, find the optimum allocation of channels to cells, subject to the restrictions concerning the distance of cells, where the same channel can be used. This problem handles a traffic load that is fixed with time. We extend this formulation so as to include time variant traffic loads and, hence, to obtain efficient spectrum utilisation. We consider two approaches to this extension, which are differentiated by the fact that the first involves a total reconfiguration of the channel allocation, while the second only a partial reconfiguration. Both approaches are theoretically formulated and solved. Finally, we present results and draw subsequent conclusions.

A fundamental notion in third generation mobile systems is efficient spectrum utilisation. A first approach of the traffic adaptive spectrum allocation problem is the following: given the set of channels, the cell structure and the load to be accommodated in each cell, find the optimal allocation of channels to cells, subject to the restrictions arising from the minimum permissible distance of cells where the same channel can be used at the same time. This problem presupposes a traffic load that is fixed with time. In this paper we extend this scheme in order to include fluctuating traffic loads. This extended scheme is theoretically formulated, and found to be a difficult problem. Finally, a set of results is presented.