Interworking Architectures in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks: An Algorithmic Overview

The scarce availability of spectrum and the proliferation of smartphones, social networking applications, online gaming etc., mobile network operators (MNOs) are faced with an exponential growth in packet switched data requirements on their networks. Haven invested in legacy systems (such as HSPA, WCDMA, WiMAX, Cdma2000, LTE, etc.) that have hitherto withstood the current and imminent data usage demand, future and projected usage surpass the capabilities of the evolution of these individual technologies. Hence, a more critical, cost-effective and flexible approach to provide ubiquitous coverage for the user using available spectrum is of high demand. Heterogeneous Networks make use of these legacy systems by allowing users to connect to the best network available and most importantly seamlessly handover active sessions amidst them. This paper presents a survey of interworking architectures between IMT 2000 candidate networks that employ the use of IEFT protocols such as MIP, mSCTP, HIP, MOBIKE, IKEV2 and SIP etc. to bring about this much needed capacity

Next Generation M2M Cellular Networks: Challenges and Practical Considerations

In this article, we present the major challenges of future machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular networks such as spectrum scarcity problem, support for low-power, low-cost, and numerous number of devices. As being an integral part of the future Internet-of-Things (IoT), the true vision of M2M communications cannot be reached with conventional solutions that are typically cost inefficient. Cognitive radio concept has emerged to significantly tackle the spectrum under-utilization or scarcity problem. Heterogeneous network model is another alternative to relax the number of covered users. To this extent, we present a complete fundamental understanding and engineering knowledge of cognitive radios, heterogeneous network model, and power and cost challenges in the context of future M2M cellular networks

Energy efficiency in heterogeneous wireless access networks

In this article, we bring forward the important aspect of energy savings in wireless access networks. We specifically focus on the energy saving opportunities in the recently evolving heterogeneous networks (HetNets), both Single- RAT and Multi-RAT. Issues such as sleep/wakeup cycles and interference management are discussed for co-channel Single-RAT HetNets. In addition to that, a simulation based study for LTE macro-femto HetNets is presented, indicating the need for dynamic energy efficient resource management schemes. Multi-RAT HetNets also come with challenges such as network integration, combined resource management and network selection. Along with a discussion on these challenges, we also investigate the performance of the conventional WLAN-first network selection mechanism in terms of energy efficiency (EE) and suggest that EE can be improved by the application of intelligent call admission control policies

Control-data separation architecture for cellular radio access networks: a survey and outlook

Conventional cellular systems are designed to ensure ubiquitous coverage with an always present wireless channel irrespective of the spatial and temporal demand of service. This approach raises several problems due to the tight coupling between network and data access points, as well as the paradigm shift towards data-oriented services, heterogeneous deployments and network densification. A logical separation between control and data planes is seen as a promising solution that could overcome these issues, by providing data services under the umbrella of a coverage layer. This article presents a holistic survey of existing literature on the control-data separation architecture (CDSA) for cellular radio access networks. As a starting point, we discuss the fundamentals, concepts, and general structure of the CDSA. Then, we point out limitations of the conventional architecture in futuristic deployment scenarios. In addition, we present and critically discuss the work that has been done to investigate potential benefits of the CDSA, as well as its technical challenges and enabling technologies. Finally, an overview of standardisation proposals related to this research vision is provided

An Efficient Requirement-Aware Attachment Policy for Future Millimeter Wave Vehicular Networks

The automotive industry is rapidly evolving towards connected and autonomous vehicles, whose ever more stringent data traffic requirements might exceed the capacity of traditional technologies for vehicular networks. In this scenario, densely deploying millimeter wave (mmWave) base stations is a promising approach to provide very high transmission speeds to the vehicles. However, mmWave signals suffer from high path and penetration losses which might render the communication unreliable and discontinuous. Coexistence between mmWave and Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication systems has therefore been considered to guarantee increased capacity and robustness through heterogeneous networking. Following this rationale, we face the challenge of designing fair and efficient attachment policies in heterogeneous vehicular networks. Traditional methods based on received signal quality criteria lack consideration of the vehicle's individual requirements and traffic demands, and lead to suboptimal resource allocation across the network. In this paper we propose a Quality-of-Service (QoS) aware attachment scheme which biases the cell selection as a function of the vehicular service requirements, preventing the overload of transmission links. Our simulations demonstrate that the proposed strategy significantly improves the percentage of vehicles satisfying application requirements and delivers efficient and fair association compared to state-of-the-art schemes.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, accepted to the 30th IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposiu

Joint Access-Backhaul Perspective on Mobility Management in 5G Networks

The ongoing efforts in the research development and standardization of 5G, by both industry and academia, have resulted in the identification of enablers (Software Defined Networks, Network Function Virtualization, Distributed Mobility Management, etc.) and critical areas (Mobility management, Interference management, Joint access-backhaul mechanisms, etc.) that will help achieve the 5G objectives. During these efforts, it has also been identified that the 5G networks due to their high degree of heterogeneity, high QoS demand and the inevitable density (both in terms of access points and users), will need to have efficient joint backhaul and access mechanisms as well as enhanced mobility management mechanisms in order to be effective, efficient and ubiquitous. Therefore, in this paper we first provide a discussion on the evolution of the backhaul scenario, and the necessity for joint access and backhaul optimization. Subsequently, and since mobility management mechanisms can entail the availability, reliability and heterogeneity of the future backhaul/fronthaul networks as parameters in determining the most optimal solution for a given context, a study with regards to the effect of future backhaul/fronthaul scenarios on the design and implementation of mobility management solutions in 5G networks has been performed.Comment: IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications & Networking, September 2017, Helsinki, Finlan