The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has increased demand for Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) that support massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC) in Fifth Generation (5G) ecosystems. However, integrating LPWAN technologies like Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) with 5G infrastructure presents challenges. This paper introduces 6G-LoRaGRAN, a novel testbed framework designed to facilitate research on LoRaWAN and 5G integration. Developed at the University of Granada, this testbed connects a real LoRaWAN network to 5 G cores across multiple pilot sites as part of the European 6G-SANDBOX project. The testbed supports remote experimentation through an Experiment Manager, enabling researchers to explore diverse configurations, including customizable network slices, traffic patterns, and realtime resource management. With over 100 deployed LoRaWAN devices and automated connectivity monitoring, the platform serves as a powerful tool for experimentation within a realworld LoRaWAN-5G testbed. Two experiments are presented. The first compares empirical results to theoretical collision probabilities, demonstrating the testbed's ability to support research on LoRaWAN performance and scalability. The second uses two LoRaWAN slices to demonstrate inter-slice isolation.

Deterministic communications are essential for industrial automation, ensuring strict latency requirements and minimal jitter in packet transmission. Modern production lines, specializing in robotics, require higher flexibility and mobility, which drives the integration of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and 5 G networks in Industry 4.0. TSN achieves deterministic communications by using mechanisms such as the IEEE 802.1Qbv Time-Aware Shaper (TAS), which schedules packet transmissions within precise cycles, thereby reducing latency, jitter, and congestion. 5G networks complement TSN by providing wireless mobility and supporting ultra-Reliable LowLatency Communications. However, 5 G channel effects such as fast fading, interference, and network-induced latency and jitter can disrupt TSN traffic, potentially compromising deterministic scheduling and performance. This paper presents an empirical analysis of 5G network latency and jitter on IEEE 802.1Qbv performance in a $\mathbf{5 G}$-TSN network. We evaluate the impact of $\mathbf{5 G}$ integration on TSN’s deterministic scheduling through a testbed combining IEEE 802.1Qbv-enabled switches, TSN translators, and a commercial 5 G system. Our results show that, with proper TAS configuration in the TSN switch aligned with the 5G system, jitter can be mitigated, maintaining deterministic performance.

Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) has emerged as a leading Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) solution for enabling connectivity in Internet of Things (IoT) wireless networks. The network slicing paradigm facilitates multi-tenancy and allows heterogeneous applications with diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requirements to coexist in various IoT use cases. This article addresses the radio resource allocation problem in a multi-tenant LoRaWAN network, where each tenant may serve multiple applications supported by Network Slicing (NS). To this end, we propose an optimization model to determine the optimal channel and Spreading Factor (SF) allocation for each end device in a multi-operator environment with heterogeneous applications. The model maximizes aggregated normalized throughput while ensuring fairness among Network Operators (NOs), employing linearization strategies to solve the problem efficiently. Our evaluation demonstrates the maximum achievable LoRaWAN network capacity to accommodate diverse IoT smart city applications from different tenants. The results confirm that optimal resource allocations can be achieved within reasonable timeframes while meeting all requirements, including fair resource distribution among slices, compliance with regulatory constraints such as duty cycle limitations, assurance of QoS metrics (throughput, delay, and packet delivery ratio) for each NO, and full isolation of resources allocated to different NOs.

Network Functions Virtualization facilitates the automation of the scaling of softwarized network services (SNSs). However, the realization of such a scenario requires a way to determine the needed amount of resources so that the SNSs performance requisites are met for a given workload. This problem is known as resource dimensioning, and it can be efficiently tackled by performance modeling. In this vein, this paper describes an analytical model based on an open queuing network of G/G/m queues to evaluate the response time of SNSs. We validate our model experimentally for a virtualized Mobility Management Entity (vMME) with a three-tiered architecture running on a testbed that resembles a typical data center virtualization environment. We detail the description of our experimental setup and procedures. We solve our resulting queueing network by using the Queueing Networks Analyzer (QNA), Jackson's networks, and Mean Value Analysis methodologies, and compare them in terms of estimation error. Results show that, for medium and high workloads, the QNA method achieves less than half of error compared to the standard techniques. For low workloads, the three methods produce an error lower than 10 percent. Finally, we show the usefulness of the model for performing the dynamic resource provisioning of the vMME experimentally.

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology emerged in Release 13 as one of the solutions to provide cellular IoT connectivity. NB-IoT is designed to achieve better indoor coverage, support of a massive number of low-throughput devices, with relaxed delay requirements, and lower energy consumption. Particularly, the extensive coverage of NB-IoT poses a great challenge. The goal is to cover devices in areas previously inaccessible by cellular networks due to penetration losses or remote locations. To solve this, NB-IoT utilizes bandwidth reduction and repetitions. However, for the targeted low range of signal to noise ratio (SNR), the coverage gain due to repetitions can be significantly limited by the performance of the channel estimator. In this paper, we provide an analytical evaluation framework to study the performance of NB-IoT. Our analysis includes the limitations due to realistic channel estimation (CE) and delves into the estimation of the SNR. Additionally, the conducted evaluation shows the impact of the coverage extension in the final performance of the NB-IoT user equipment (UE) in terms of uplink packet transmission latency and battery lifetime. Specifically, regarding UE's battery lifetime, for a maximum coupling loss (MCL) of 164 dB, realistic CE evaluations obtain a battery lifetime reduction of approximately 90% compared to ideal CE.

The Internet of Things is one of the hottest topics in communications today, with current revenues of $151B, around 7 billion connected devices, and an unprecedented growth expected for next years. A massive number of sensors and actuators are expected to emerge, requiring new wireless technologies that can extend their battery life and can cover large areas. LoRaWAN is one of the most outstanding technologies which fulfill these demands, attracting the attention of both academia and industry. In this paper, the design of a LoRaWAN testbed to support critical situations, such as emergency scenarios or natural disasters, is proposed. This self-healing LoRaWAN network architecture will provide resilience when part of the equipment in the core network may become faulty. This resilience is achieved by virtualizing and properly orchestrating the different network entities. Different options have been designed and implemented as real prototypes. Based on our performance evaluation, we claim that the usage of microservice orchestration with several replicas of the LoRaWAN network entities and a load balancer produces an almost seamless recovery which makes it a proper solution to recover after a system crash caused by any catastrophic event.

The birth of a premature baby implicitly involves a series of special care focused on the monitoring of the evolution in terms of weight gain, movements of the baby, etc. It is also important to maintain the environmental parameters of the incubator in adequate values to avoid the heat loss of babies. Therefore, this paper presents the proposal of a system for infant incubators based on the use of temperature and humidity sensors, and a set of weight sensors, which allows us to monitor the progress of the baby. Each incubator that has this system is connected to a central network based on Long Range Networks (LoRa) that allows registering the medical data in a database. Finally, the system has a Near Field Communication (NFC) interface that allows the identification of doctors, the view of the patient evolution with tablets and the introduction of new data by the doctor. Finally, the system has been tested in a laboratory environment to ensure the proper functioning of system.

More than forty million people in the world are epilepsy sufferers. Epilepsy is a neurological disease. That is characterized by the presence of seizures in which the patient has convulsions, among other symptoms, that can cause damage, and even lead him to death. For this reason, it is important to develop systems for allowing early detections. Additionally, the cost of this kind of devices is usually quite high, so they are often not accessible to everyone. In this paper, a low-cost monitoring system is presented. It is able to detect early symptoms of epilepsy seizures. The system uses several corporal parameters such as temperature, heart rate, and extremities motion. The device transmits the occurrences of these seizures to a mobile phone, where an application notifies the person or institution in charge of the patient. This application also keeps a record of these parameters and events which can be viewed later by the user. Finally, the system is tested in order to check both its functionality and the correct operation of the system.

In this paper, we study the performance of the YouTube service over 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) by means of dynamic network simulations. We consider a typical configuration of an LTE network for TCP traffic and the traffic generation model for YouTube `Flash' videos downloaded onto a personal computer (PC). Furthermore, in order to achieve more reliable results in the simulations, the main configuration parameters are obtained for TCP Cubic congestion control algorithm used by YouTube media servers. The results obtained show that: the number of pauses experimented by users during video download are heavily influenced by the cell load, but the same is not true for pause duration; most of the packet losses occur during initial burst due to the TCP adaptation to the BDP of the link, and, unlike packet losses during throttling phase, these are not depend on radio link quality; and in most cases the user do not use the maximum data rate achievable in the LTE interface.

This paper presents throughput distributions for EGPRS and GPRS services based on measurements from a real network. First, CIR distributions for different frequency reuses are estimated based on mobile measurements reports and in a method here presented. Second, throughput and spectral efficiency values are calculated considering the estimated CIR distributions by means of mapping tables. Finally, the relative throughput and spectral efficiency gains between EGPRS and GPRS are given for different scenarios at the border and at the center of the cell.

Due to the introduction of new packet switched services as GPRS and EGPRS in the existing GSM networks, the effects on these networks need to be analysed. We address the effect of (E)GPRS services in the signaling capacity of GSM networks. The standards allow one to have separated pools for traffic channels, in order to make the resources for voice calls and data services independent. Nevertheless, the channels used for signaling purposes can be either the same for both services or different. These channels are the common control channel (CCCH) and packet common control channel (PCCCH). CCCH is used in GSM networks for call establishments and other signaling procedures, and it can also be used for (E)GPRS. PCCCH is an independent channel used only for (E)GPRS, which makes it impossible to degrade GSM calls due to signaling, and also, it presents other advantages, i.e. having different frequency lists and cell reselection criteria from the GSM ones, or allowing one to chose the cells that can be selected for each service. This paper presents a study about the signaling capacity for both options. By means of simulations, first the capacity of CCCH for GSM networks is analysed considering all the needed signaling between the mobile and base station. Then, the remaining resources of the CCCH channel are calculated in order to find out the capacity that can be used for (E)GPRS services. The capacity of the PCCCH is also simulated in order to compare its signaling capacity with CCCH.