End-to-End QoS "Smart Queue" Management Algorithms and Traffic Prioritization Mechanisms for Narrow-Band Internet of Things Services in 4G/5G Networks

Abstract

This paper proposes a modified architecture of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) mobile network to provide services for the Internet of Things (IoT). This is achieved by allocating a narrow bandwidth and transferring the scheduling functions from the eNodeB base station to an NB-IoT controller. A method for allocating uplink and downlink resources of the LTE/NB-IoT hybrid technology is applied to ensure the Quality of Service (QoS) from end-to-end. This method considers scheduling traffic/resources on the NB-IoT controller, which allows eNodeB planning to remain unchanged. This paper also proposes a prioritization approach within the IoT traffic to provide End-to-End (E2E) QoS in the integrated LTE/NB-IoT network. Further, we develop "smart queue" management algorithms for the IoT traffic prioritization. To demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, we performed a number of experiments using simulations. We concluded that our proposed approach ensures high end-to-end QoS of the real-time traffic by reducing the average end-to-end transmission delay.