Traffic modelling of software download for reconfigurable terminals

One of the major areas of interest in software radio technology is the envisaged ability to adapt the functionality of a given terminal by downloading software over the wireless link and subsequently installing the software on the device, thereby achieving over-the-air reconfiguration. Downloading modules or functional blocks, from end-user applications to protocol entities, gives users, network operators as well as terminal manufacturers the ability to reconfigure terminals as required in any given situation. This paper proposes a suitable traffic model for a single-source traffic download over the wireless link by describing the statistics of the reconfiguration data as well as the reconfiguration process itself. The proposed model is then extended to encompass the packet-based transmission nature of the transmission service