The era of 5G networks is approaching fast and its commercialization is planned for 2020. However, there are still numerous aspects that need to be solved and standardized before an average end-user can benefit from them on a daily basis. The 5G technology is supposed to be faster, provide services of higher quality, and better address the evolving needs of customers. As a consequence, 5th generation network needs to be implemented with efficiency and flexibility in mind, and thus, it fits well with the concepts of virtualization which enable sharing of physical resources among different operators, services, and applications. In this paper, we present an overview of these concepts, resulting from our discussions, i.e. between academic researchers and active network architects, and we describe the operation of a model that is most likely to emerge in such a complex network environment.

The Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic is a versatile algorithmic optimization approach based on the observation of the behaviour of ants. As a result of numerous analyses, ACO has been applied to solving various combinatorial problems. The ant colony metaheuristic proves itself to be efficient in solving NP-hard problems, often generating the best solution in the shortest amount of time. However, not enough attention has been paid to ACO as a means of solving problems that have optimal solutions which can be found using other methods. The shortest path problem is undoubtedly one of the aspects of great significance to navigation and telecommunications. It is used, amongst others, for determining the shortest route between two geographical locations, for routing in packet networks, and to balance and optimize network utilization. Thus, this article introduces ShortestPathACO, an Ant Colony Optimization based algorithm designed to find the shortest path in a graph. The algorithm consists of several subproblems that are presented successively. Each subproblem is discussed from many points of view to enable researchers to find the most suitable solutions to the problems they investigate.

No abstract

No abstract

The planning of metering network infrastructure based on the concept of the Internet of Things primarily involves the choice of available radio technology. Then, regardless of the type and availability of power sources, energy conservation should be one of the main optimization criteria. For this reason, LPWANs operating in unlicensed ISM bands appear to be a suitable solution in urban environments due to their sub 1 GHz propagation properties. High signal penetration and coverage make them applicable in urban areas with buildings and various obstacles. Therefore, this article presents solutions developed to support the planning process of implementing a LoRaWAN network infrastructure aimed at monitoring and collecting electricity meter data in smart cities. To this end, an algorithm has been proposed to support the selection of the number of LoRaWAN gateways and their deployment, as well as the selection of transmission parameters at the measurement nodes with a particular focus on geographic data from real maps.