Fronthaul-Constrained Cloud Radio Access Networks: Insights and Challenges

As a promising paradigm for fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems, cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) have been shown to reduce both capital and operating expenditures, as well as to provide high spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE). The fronthaul in such networks, defined as the transmission link between a baseband unit (BBU) and a remote radio head (RRH), requires high capacity, but is often constrained. This article comprehensively surveys recent advances in fronthaul-constrained C-RANs, including system architectures and key techniques. In particular, key techniques for alleviating the impact of constrained fronthaul on SE/EE and quality of service for users, including compression and quantization, large-scale coordinated processing and clustering, and resource allocation optimization, are discussed. Open issues in terms of software-defined networking, network function virtualization, and partial centralization are also identified.Comment: 5 Figures, accepted by IEEE Wireless Communications. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1407.3855 by other author

Dynamic Radio Cooperation for Downlink Cloud-RANs with Computing Resource Sharing

A novel dynamic radio-cooperation strategy is proposed for Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RANs) consisting of multiple Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) connected to a central Virtual Base Station (VBS) pool. In particular, the key capabilities of C-RANs in computing-resource sharing and real-time communication among the VBSs are leveraged to design a joint dynamic radio clustering and cooperative beamforming scheme that maximizes the downlink weighted sum-rate system utility (WSRSU). Due to the combinatorial nature of the radio clustering process and the non-convexity of the cooperative beamforming design, the underlying optimization problem is NP-hard, and is extremely difficult to solve for a large network. Our approach aims for a suboptimal solution by transforming the original problem into a Mixed-Integer Second-Order Cone Program (MI-SOCP), which can be solved efficiently using a proposed iterative algorithm. Numerical simulation results show that our low-complexity algorithm provides close-to-optimal performance in terms of WSRSU while significantly outperforming conventional radio clustering and beamforming schemes. Additionally, the results also demonstrate the significant improvement in computing-resource utilization of C-RANs over traditional RANs with distributed computing resources.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted to IEEE MASS 201

Resource Allocation Energy Efficient Algorithm for H-CRAN in 5G

In today's generation, the demand for data rates has also increased due to the rapid surge in the number of users. With this increasing growth, there is a need to develop the next fifth generation network keeping in mind the need to replace the current 4G cellular network. The fifth generation (5G) design in mobile communication technology has been developed keeping in mind all the communication needs of the users. Heterogeneous Cloud Radio Access Network (H-CRAN) has emerged as a capable architecture for the newly emerging network infrastructure for energy efficient networks and high data rate enablement. It is considered as the main technology. Better service quality has been achieved by developing small cells into macro cells through this type of network. In addition, the reuse of radio resources is much better than that of homogeneous networks. In the present paper, we propose the H-CRAN energy-efficient methods. This energy-efficient algorithm incorporates an energy efficient resource allocation management design to deal to heterogeneous cloud radio access networks in 5G. System throughput fulfillment is elevating by incorporating an efficient resource allocation design by the energy consumption model. The simulation results have been demonstrated by comparing the efficiency of the introduced design with the existing related design

Soft-Defined Heterogeneous Vehicular Network: Architecture and Challenges

Heterogeneous Vehicular NETworks (HetVNETs) can meet various quality-of-service (QoS) requirements for intelligent transport system (ITS) services by integrating different access networks coherently. However, the current network architecture for HetVNET cannot efficiently deal with the increasing demands of rapidly changing network landscape. Thanks to the centralization and flexibility of the cloud radio access network (Cloud-RAN), soft-defined networking (SDN) can conveniently be applied to support the dynamic nature of future HetVNET functions and various applications while reducing the operating costs. In this paper, we first propose the multi-layer Cloud RAN architecture for implementing the new network, where the multi-domain resources can be exploited as needed for vehicle users. Then, the high-level design of soft-defined HetVNET is presented in detail. Finally, we briefly discuss key challenges and solutions for this new network, corroborating its feasibility in the emerging fifth-generation (5G) era