WLC15-2: A Network Calculus Approach to Probabilistic Quality of Service Analysis of Fading Channels

Network calculus is an established theory for deterministic quality of service analysis of fixed networks. Due to the failures inherent in fading channels it is, however, not applicable to radio systems. Emerging probabilistic equivalents allow closing this gap. Based on the recent network calculus with moment generating functions we present a methodology for performance analysis of fading channels. We use a service curve representation of radio links which facilitates an efficient analysis of radio networks. We investigate fading channels with memory and our results show that the fading speed impacts service guarantees significantly. Numerical performance bounds are provided for an example taken from cellular radio communications for which the effects of opportunistic scheduling are quantified. Simulation results are shown which confirm the efficiency of the approach.