Paper Info
Title
Robust assessment of changes in cellular networks
Abstract
Cellular network service providers often have to conduct small scale testing in the operational network before a change (e.g., a new feature) is fully rolled out across the entire network. This is referred to as the First Field Application (FFA). However, assessing the effectiveness of FFA changes is challenging because of overlapping external factors: seasonality (foliage, leaves budding), weather (rain, snow, hurricanes, storms), traffic pattern changes due to big events (e.g., games at stadiums, students returning to school after holidays), and network events such as outages or other maintenance activities in different regions. In this paper, we first highlight the technical challenges in assessing the service performance impact of changes in operational cellular networks. We then propose Litmus, a new approach based on a spatial dependency model for robust assessment of changes. We evaluate the effectiveness of Litmus using real-world data from operational cellular networks (GSM, UMTS and LTE). Our operational experiences demonstrate accurate inferences of the service performance impact of changes in the field.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1145/2535372.2535382
CoNEXT
Keywords
Field
DocType
operational network,operational experience,ffa change,cellular network service provider,operational cellular network,new feature,service performance impact,new approach,entire network,robust assessment,network event,cellular networks
GSM,Airfield traffic pattern,UMTS frequency bands,Computer science,Computer network,Litmus,Operations research,Service provider,Cellular network,Spatial Dependency
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
13
0.63
13
Authors
8
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Ajay Mahimkar120617.45
Zihui Ge284755.97
Jennifer Yates379064.51
Chris Hristov4130.63
Vincent Cordaro5130.63
Shane Smith6130.63
Jing Xu7130.63
Mark Stockert8412.29