3,355 research outputs found
A survey of self organisation in future cellular networks
This article surveys the literature over the period of the last decade on the emerging field of self organisation as applied to wireless cellular communication networks. Self organisation has been extensively studied and applied in adhoc networks, wireless sensor networks and autonomic computer networks; however in the context of wireless cellular networks, this is the first attempt to put in perspective the various efforts in form of a tutorial/survey. We provide a comprehensive survey of the existing literature, projects and standards in self organising cellular networks. Additionally, we also aim to present a clear understanding of this active research area, identifying a clear taxonomy and guidelines for design of self organising mechanisms. We compare strength and weakness of existing solutions and highlight the key research areas for further development. This paper serves as a guide and a starting point for anyone willing to delve into research on self organisation in wireless cellular communication networks
Separation Framework: An Enabler for Cooperative and D2D Communication for Future 5G Networks
Soaring capacity and coverage demands dictate that future cellular networks
need to soon migrate towards ultra-dense networks. However, network
densification comes with a host of challenges that include compromised energy
efficiency, complex interference management, cumbersome mobility management,
burdensome signaling overheads and higher backhaul costs. Interestingly, most
of the problems, that beleaguer network densification, stem from legacy
networks' one common feature i.e., tight coupling between the control and data
planes regardless of their degree of heterogeneity and cell density.
Consequently, in wake of 5G, control and data planes separation architecture
(SARC) has recently been conceived as a promising paradigm that has potential
to address most of aforementioned challenges. In this article, we review
various proposals that have been presented in literature so far to enable SARC.
More specifically, we analyze how and to what degree various SARC proposals
address the four main challenges in network densification namely: energy
efficiency, system level capacity maximization, interference management and
mobility management. We then focus on two salient features of future cellular
networks that have not yet been adapted in legacy networks at wide scale and
thus remain a hallmark of 5G, i.e., coordinated multipoint (CoMP), and
device-to-device (D2D) communications. After providing necessary background on
CoMP and D2D, we analyze how SARC can particularly act as a major enabler for
CoMP and D2D in context of 5G. This article thus serves as both a tutorial as
well as an up to date survey on SARC, CoMP and D2D. Most importantly, the
article provides an extensive outlook of challenges and opportunities that lie
at the crossroads of these three mutually entangled emerging technologies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 201
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
Load balancing using cell range expansion in LTE advanced heterogeneous networks
The use of heterogeneous networks is on the increase, fueled by consumer demand for more data. The main objective of heterogeneous networks is to increase capacity. They offer solutions for efficient use of spectrum, load balancing and improvement of cell edge coverage amongst others. However, these solutions have inherent challenges such as inter-cell interference and poor mobility management. In heterogeneous networks there is transmit power disparity between macro cell and pico cell tiers, which causes load imbalance between the tiers. Due to the conventional user-cell association strategy, whereby users associate to a base station with the strongest received signal strength, few users associate to small cells compared to macro cells. To counter the effects of transmit power disparity, cell range expansion is used instead of the conventional strategy. The focus of our work is on load balancing using cell range expansion (CRE) and network utility optimization techniques to ensure fair sharing of load in a macro and pico cell LTE Advanced heterogeneous network. The aim is to investigate how to use an adaptive cell range expansion bias to optimize Pico cell coverage for load balancing. Reviewed literature points out several approaches to solve the load balancing problem in heterogeneous networks, which include, cell range expansion and utility function optimization. Then, we use cell range expansion, and logarithmic utility functions to design a load balancing algorithm. In the algorithm, user and base station associations are optimized by adapting CRE bias to pico base station load status. A price update mechanism based on a suboptimal solution of a network utility optimization problem is used to adapt the CRE bias. The price is derived from the load status of each pico base station. The performance of the algorithm was evaluated by means of an LTE MATLAB toolbox. Simulations were conducted according to 3GPP and ITU guidelines for modelling heterogeneous networks and propagation environment respectively. Compared to a static CRE configuration, the algorithm achieved more fairness in load distribution. Further, it achieved a better trade-off between cell edge and cell centre user throughputs. [Please note: this thesis file has been deferred until December 2016
Coordinated Dynamic Spectrum Management of LTE-U and Wi-Fi Networks
This paper investigates the co-existence of Wi-Fi and LTE in emerging
unlicensed frequency bands which are intended to accommodate multiple radio
access technologies. Wi-Fi and LTE are the two most prominent access
technologies being deployed today, motivating further study of the inter-system
interference arising in such shared spectrum scenarios as well as possible
techniques for enabling improved co-existence. An analytical model for
evaluating the baseline performance of co-existing Wi-Fi and LTE is developed
and used to obtain baseline performance measures. The results show that both
Wi-Fi and LTE networks cause significant interference to each other and that
the degradation is dependent on a number of factors such as power levels and
physical topology. The model-based results are partially validated via
experimental evaluations using USRP based SDR platforms on the ORBIT testbed.
Further, inter-network coordination with logically centralized radio resource
management across Wi-Fi and LTE systems is proposed as a possible solution for
improved co-existence. Numerical results are presented showing significant
gains in both Wi-Fi and LTE performance with the proposed inter-network
coordination approach.Comment: Accepted paper at IEEE DySPAN 201
- …