Downlink Cellular Interference Alignment

Cellular networks have been notoriously interference-limited systems in dense urban areas, where base stations are deployed in close proximity to one-another. Recently, a signal processing method called Interference Alignment has emerged, making use of the increasing signal dimensions available in the system through multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technologies. In this report, we review the state of the art of interference alignment since its foundation, and we detail algorithms and baseline comparisons to make when applying interference alignment schemes to downlink cellular networks. We also propose a number of research directions of interest which are not yet answered in the current literature.Les réseaux cellulaires ont été l'exemple typique de réseaux dont les performances sont limités par les interférences, particulièrement dans les régions urbaines. Récemment, une nouvelle technique de traitement du signal appelée "alignement d'interférences" a été dévelopée, et permet d'utiliser les dimensions du signal reçu à travers les technologies MIMO (multiple input multiple output) et OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) pour annuler tout ou partie de l'interférence reçue par les mobiles. Dans ce rapport, nous évaluons la littérature liée à l'alignement d'interférence et nous détaillons les algorithmes existants et leur application aux réseaux cellulaires en voie descendante. Nous proposons ensuite un ensemble de directions de recherche d'intérêt par rapport à l'état de l'art actuel

Review on Radio Resource Allocation Optimization in LTE/LTE-Advanced using Game Theory

Recently, there has been a growing trend toward ap-plying game theory (GT) to various engineering fields in order to solve optimization problems with different competing entities/con-tributors/players. Researches in the fourth generation (4G) wireless network field also exploited this advanced theory to overcome long term evolution (LTE) challenges such as resource allocation, which is one of the most important research topics. In fact, an efficient de-sign of resource allocation schemes is the key to higher performance. However, the standard does not specify the optimization approach to execute the radio resource management and therefore it was left open for studies. This paper presents a survey of the existing game theory based solution for 4G-LTE radio resource allocation problem and its optimization

D13.1 Fundamental issues on energy- and bandwidth-efficient communications and networking

Deliverable D13.1 del projecte europeu NEWCOM#The report presents the current status in the research area of energy- and bandwidth-efficient communications and networking and highlights the fundamental issues still open for further investigation. Furthermore, the report presents the Joint Research Activities (JRAs) which will be performed within WP1.3. For each activity there is the description, the identification of the adherence with the identified fundamental open issues, a presentation of the initial results, and a roadmap for the planned joint research work in each topic.Preprin

D13.2 Techniques and performance analysis on energy- and bandwidth-efficient communications and networking

Deliverable D13.2 del projecte europeu NEWCOM#The report presents the status of the research work of the various Joint Research Activities (JRA) in WP1.3 and the results that were developed up to the second year of the project. For each activity there is a description, an illustration of the adherence to and relevance with the identified fundamental open issues, a short presentation of the main results, and a roadmap for the future joint research. In the Annex, for each JRA, the main technical details on specific scientific activities are described in detail.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Enhancing physical layer security in wireless networks with cooperative approaches

Motivated by recent developments in wireless communication, this thesis aims to characterize the secrecy performance in several types of typical wireless networks. Advanced techniques are designed and evaluated to enhance physical layer security in these networks with realistic assumptions, such as signal propagation loss, random node distribution and non-instantaneous channel state information (CSI). The first part of the thesis investigates secret communication through relay-assisted cognitive interference channel. The primary and secondary base stations (PBS and SBS) communicate with the primary and secondary receivers (PR and SR) respectively in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. The SBS is allowed to transmit simultaneously with the PBS over the same spectrum instead of waiting for an idle channel. To improve security, cognitive relays transmit cooperative jamming (CJ) signals to create additional interferences in the direction of the eavesdroppers. Two CJ schemes are proposed to improve the secrecy rate of cognitive interference channels depending on the structure of cooperative relays. In the scheme where the multiple-antenna relay transmits weighted jamming signals, the combined approach of CJ and beamforming is investigated. In the scheme with multiple relays transmitting weighted jamming signals, the combined approach of CJ and relay selection is analyzed. Numerical results show that both these two schemes are effective in improving physical layer security of cognitive interference channel. In the second part, the focus is shifted to physical layer security in a random wireless network where both legitimate and eavesdropping nodes are randomly distributed. Three scenarios are analyzed to investigate the impact of various factors on security. In scenario one, the basic scheme is studied without a protected zone and interference. The probability distribution function (PDF) of channel gain with both fading and path loss has been derived and further applied to derive secrecy connectivity and ergodic secrecy capacity. In the second scenario, we studied using a protected zone surrounding the source node to enhance security where interference is absent. Both the cases that eavesdroppers are aware and unaware of the protected zone boundary are investigated. Based on the above scenarios, further deployment of the protected zones at legitimate receivers is designed to convert detrimental interference into a beneficial factor. Numerical results are investigated to check the reliability of the PDF for reciprocal of channel gain and to analyze the impact of protected zones on secrecy performance. In the third part, physical layer security in the downlink transmission of cellular network is studied. To model the repulsive property of the cellular network planning, we assume that the base stations (BSs) follow the Mat´ern hard-core point process (HCPP), while the eavesdroppers are deployed as an independent Poisson point process (PPP). The distribution function of the distances from a typical point to the nodes of the HCPP is derived. The noise-limited and interference-limited cellular networks are investigated by applying the fractional frequency reuse (FFR) in the system. For the noise-limited network, we derive the secrecy outage probability with two different strategies, i.e. the best BS serve and the nearest BS serve, by analyzing the statistics of channel gains. For the interference-limited network with the nearest BS serve, two transmission schemes are analyzed, i.e., transmission with and without the FFR. Numerical results reveal that both the schemes of transmitting with the best BS and the application of the FFR are beneficial for physical layer security in the downlink cellular networks, while the improvement du

Hybrid Radio Resource Management with Limited Channel Feedback Information in Relay enhanced OFDMA Networks

In orthogonal frequency division multiple access based mobile networks buffer aided nontransparent in-band half duplex decode-and-forward relay nodes aim to improve coverage and capacity under fairness considerations. The existing centralized radio resource management and inter-cell interference coordination schemes can achieve this goals, although at the cost of a heavy signalling overhead. This cost is a critical issue, particularly for the frequency division duplex downlink transmission. On the other hand, the fully decentralized schemes often focus on different types of frequency reuse schemes with smaller amount of necessary feedback. Here, it is often overseen that in a practical deployment, the backhaul link quality is the bottleneck of the two-hop transmission, and the backhaul link is often modelled way too optimistically. Moreover, it is necessary to allocate radio resources to single hop mobile stations as well, which further limits the possible data rates of the relay-attached users. The research presented in this Thesis aims to improve the backhaul link quality in relay-assisted cellular networks under full consideration of practical constraints. In order to minimize the required channel feedback overhead this work proposes a hybrid radio resource management scheme consisting of three adapted procedures. The hybrid radio resource management scheme includes an adapted decentralized cell selection metric which improves the possibility to gain from the relays in the system for each user. A macro cell-centralized synchronous procedure is proposed, which is responsible to allocate the radio resources in each transmission time interval. Furthermore, an asynchronous network-centralized subband power allocation scheme with very limited feedback is proposed to maximize the wireless backhaul link quality with no losses for single-hop Mobile Station (MS)s. Comprehensive system level simulation results show stable fairness and improved throughput of the proposed hybrid radio resource management scheme. In addition possible energy savings for the shared channel are presented

Design of static intercell interference coordination schemes for realistic lte-based cellular networks

Today, 3.5 and 4G systems including Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) support packet-based services and provide mobile broadband access for bandwidth-hungry applications. In this context of fast evolution, new and challenging technical issues must be e ectively addressed. The nal target is to achieve a signi cant step forward toward the improvement of the Quality of Experience (QoE). To that end, interference management has been recognized by the industry as a key enabler for cellular technologies based on OFDMA. Indeed, with a low frequency reuse factor, intercell interference (ICI) becomes a major concern since the Quality of Service (QoS) is not uniformly delivered across the network, it remarkably depends on user position. Hence, cell edge performance is an important issue in LTE and LTE-A. Intercell Interference Coordination (ICIC) encompasses strategies whose goal is to keep ICI at cell edges as low as possible. This alleviates the aforementioned situation. For this reason, the novelties presented in this Ph.D. thesis include not only developments of static ICIC mechanisms for data and control channels, but also e orts towards further improvements of the energy e ciency perspective. Based on a comprehensive review of the state of the art, a set of research opportunities were identi ed. To be precise, the need for exible performance evaluation methods and optimization frameworks for static ICIC strategies. These mechanisms are grouped in two families: the schemes that de ne constraints on the frequency domain and the ones that propose adjustments on the power levels. Thus, Soft- and Fractional Frequency Reuse (SFR and FFR, respectively) are identi ed as the base of the vast majority of static ICIC proposals. Consequently, during the rst part of this Ph.D. thesis, interesting insights into the operation of SFR and FFR were identi ed beyond well-known facts. These studies allow for the development of a novel statistical framework to evaluate the performance of these schemes in realistic deployments. As a result of the analysis, the poor performance of classic con gurations of SFR and FFR in real-world contexts is shown, and hence, the need for optimization is established. In addition, the importance of the interworking between static ICIC schemes and other network functionalities such as CSI feedback has also been identi ed. Therefore, novel CSI feedback schemes, suitable to operate in conjunction with SFR and FFR, have been developed. These mechanisms exploit the resource allocation pattern of these static ICIC techniques in order to improve the accuracy of the CSI feedback process. The second part is focused on the optimization of SFR and FFR. The use of multiobjective techniques is investigated as a tool to achieve e ective network-speci c optimization. The approach o ers interesting advantages. On the one hand, it allows for simultaneous optimization of several con icting criteria. On the other hand, the multiobjective nature results in outputs composed of several high quality (Pareto e cient) network con gurations, all of them featuring a near-optimal tradeo between the performance criteria. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithms allow employing complex mathematical structures without the need for relaxation, thus capturing accurately the system behavior in terms of ICI. The multiobjective optimization formulation of the problem aims at achieving e ective adjustment of the operational parameters of SFR and FFR both at cell level and network-wide. Moreover, the research was successfully extended to the control channels, both the PDCCH and ePDCCH. Finally, in an e ort to further improve the network energy e ciency (an aspect always considered throughout the thesis), the framework of Cell Switch O (CSO), having close connections with ICIC, is also introduced. By means of the proposed method, signi cant improvements with respect to traditional approaches, baseline con gurations, and previous proposals can be achieved. The gains are obtained in terms of energy consumption, network capacity, and cell edge performance.Actualmente los sistemas 3.5 y 4G tales como Long Term Evolution (LTE) y LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) soportan servicios basados en paquetes y proporcionan acceso de banda ancha m ovil para aplicaciones que requieren elevadas tasas de transmisi on. En este contexto de r apida evoluci on, aparecen nuevos retos t ecnicos que deben ser resueltos e cientemente. El objetivo ultimo es conseguir un salto cualitativo importante en la experiencia de usuario (QoE). Con tal n, un factor clave que ha sido reconocido en las redes celulares basadas en Orthogonal Frequency- Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) es la gesti on de interferencias. De hecho, la utilizaci on de un factor de reuso bajo permite una elevada e ciencia espectral pero a costa de una distribuci on de la calidad de servicio (QoS) que no es uniforme en la red, depende de la posici on del usuario. Por lo tanto, el rendimiento en los l mites de la celda se ve muy penalizado y es un problema importante a resolver en LTE y LTE-A. La coordinaci on de interferencias entre celdas (ICIC, del ingl es Intercell Interfe- rence Coordination) engloba las estrategias cuyo objetivo es mantener la interferencia intercelular (ICI) lo m as baja posible en los bordes de celda. Esto permite aliviar la situaci on antes mencionada. La contribuci on presentada en esta tesis doctoral incluye el dise~no de nuevos mecanismos de ICIC est atica para los canales de datos y control, as como tambi en mejoras desde el punto de vista de e ciencia energ etica. A partir de una revisi on completa del estado del arte, se identi caron una serie de retos abiertos que requer an esfuerzos de investigaci on. En concreto, la necesidad de m etodos de evaluaci on exibles y marcos de optimizaci on de las estrategias de ICIC est aticas. Estos mecanismos se agrupan en dos familias: los esquemas que de nen restricciones sobre el dominio de la frecuencia y los que proponen ajustes en los niveles de potencia. Es decir, la base de la gran mayor a de propuestas ICIC est aticas son la reutilizaci on de frecuencias de tipo soft y fraccional (SFR y FFR, respectivamente). De este modo, durante la primera parte de esta tesis doctoral, se han estudiado los aspectos m as importantes del funcionamiento de SFR y FFR, haciendo especial enfasis en las conclusiones que van m as all a de las bien conocidas. Ello ha permitido introducir un nuevo marco estad stico para evaluar el funcionamiento de estos sistemas en condiciones de despliegue reales. Como resultado de estos an alisis, se muestra el pobre desempe~no de SFR y FFR en despliegues reales cuando funcionan con sus con guraciones cl asicas y se establece la necesidad de optimizaci on. Tambi en se pone de mani esto la importancia del funcionamiento conjunto entre esquemas ICIC est aticos y otras funcionalidades de la red radio, tales como la informaci on que env an los usuarios sobre el estado de su canal downlink (feedback del CSI, del ingl es Channel State Information). De este modo, se han propuesto diferentes esquemas de feedback apropiados para trabajar conjuntamente con SFR y FFR. Estos mecanismos explotan el patr on de asignaci on de recursos que se utiliza en ICIC est atico para mejorar la precisi on del proceso. La segunda parte se centra en la optimizaci on de SFR y FFR. Se ha investigado el uso de t ecnicas multiobjetivo como herramienta para lograr una optimizaci on e caz, que es espec ca para cada red. El enfoque ofrece ventajas interesantes, por un lado, se permite la optimizaci on simult anea de varios criterios contradictorios. Por otro lado, la naturaleza multiobjetivo implica obtener como resultado con guraciones de red de elevada calidad (Pareto e cientes), todas ellas con un equilibrio casi- optimo entre las diferentes m etricas de rendimiento. Los algoritmos evolucionarios multiobjetivo permiten la utilizaci on de estructuras matem aticas complejas sin necesidad de relajar el problema, de este modo capturan adecuadamente su comportamiento en t erminos de ICI. La formulaci on multiobjetivo consigue un ajuste efectivo de los par ametros operacionales de SFR y FFR, tanto a nivel de celda como a nivel de red. Adem as, la investigaci on se extiende con resultados satisfactorios a los canales de control, PDCCH y ePDCCH. Finalmente, en un esfuerzo por mejorar la e ciencia energ etica de la red (un aspecto siempre considerado a lo largo de la tesis), se introduce en el an alisis global el apagado inteligente de celdas, estrategia con estrechos v nculos con ICIC. A trav es del m etodo propuesto, se obtienen mejoras signi cativas con respecto a los enfoques tradicionales y propuestas previas. Las ganancias se obtienen en t erminos de consumo energ etico, capacidad de la red, y rendimiento en el l mite de las celdas.Actualment els sistemes 3.5 i 4G tals com Long Term Evolution (LTE) i LTE- Advanced (LTE-A) suporten serveis basats en paquets i proporcionen acc es de banda ampla m obil per a aplicacions que requereixen elevades taxes de transmissi o. En aquest context de r apida evoluci o, apareixen nous reptes t ecnics que han de ser resolts e cientment. L'objectiu ultim es aconseguir un salt qualitatiu important en l'experi encia d'usuari (QoE). Amb tal , un factor clau que ha estat reconegut a les xarxes cel lulars basades en Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) es la gesti o d'interfer encies. De fet, la utilizaci o d'un factor de re us baix permet una elevada e ci encia espectral per o a costa d'una distribuci o de la qualitat de servei (QoS) que no es uniforme a la xarxa, dep en de la posici o de l'usuari. Per tant, el rendiment en els l mits de la cel la es veu molt penalitzat i es un problema important a resoldre en LTE i LTE-A. La coordinaci o d'interfer encies entre cel les (ICIC, de l'angl es Intercell Interfe- rence Coordination) engloba les estrat egies que tenen com a objectiu mantenir la interfer encia intercel lular (ICI) el m es baixa possible en les vores de la cel la. Aix o permet alleujar la situaci o abans esmentada. La contribuci o presentada en aquesta tesi doctoral inclou el disseny de nous mecanismes de ICIC est atica per als canals de dades i control, aix com tamb e millores des del punt de vista d'e ci encia energ etica. A partir d'una revisi o completa de l'estat de l'art, es van identi car una s erie de reptes oberts que requerien esfor cos de recerca. En concret, la necessitat de m etodes d'avaluaci o exibles i marcs d'optimitzaci o de les estrat egies de ICIC est atiques. Aquests mecanismes s'agrupen en dues fam lies: els esquemes que de neixen restriccions sobre el domini de la freq u encia i els que proposen ajustos en els nivells de pot encia. Es a dir, la base de la gran majoria de propostes ICIC est atiques s on la reutilitzaci o de freq u encies de tipus soft i fraccional (SFR i FFR, respectivament). D'aquesta manera, durant la primera part d'aquesta tesi doctoral, s'han estudiat els aspectes m es importants del funcionament de SFR i FFR, fent especial emfasi en les conclusions que van m es enll a de les ben conegudes. Aix o ha perm es introduir un nou marc estad stic per avaluar el funcionament d'aquests sistemes en condicions de desplegament reals. Com a resultat d'aquestes an alisis, es mostra el pobre acompliment de SFR i FFR en desplegaments reals quan funcionen amb les seves con guracions cl assiques i s'estableix la necessitat d'optimitzaci o. Tamb e es posa de manifest la import ancia del funcionament conjunt entre esquemes ICIC est atics i altres funcionalitats de la xarxa radio, tals com la informaci o que envien els usuaris sobre l'estat del seu canal downlink (feedback del CSI, de l'angl es Channel State Information). D'aquesta manera, s'han proposat diferents esquemes de feedback apropiats per treballar conjuntament amb SFR i FFR. Aquests mecanismes exploten el patr o d'assignaci o de recursos que s'utilitza en ICIC est atic per millorar la precisi o del proc es. La segona part se centra en l'optimitzaci o de SFR i FFR. S'ha investigat l' us de t ecniques multiobjectiu com a eina per aconseguir una optimitzaci o e ca c, que es espec ca per a cada xarxa. L'enfocament ofereix avantatges interessants, d'una banda, es permet l'optimitzaci o simult ania de diversos criteris contradictoris. D'altra banda, la naturalesa multiobjectiu implica obtenir com resultat con guracions de xarxa d'elevada qualitat (Pareto e cients), totes elles amb un equilibri gaireb e optim entre les diferents m etriques de rendiment. Els algorismes evolucionaris multiobjectiu permeten la utilitzaci o d'estructures matem atiques complexes sense necessitat de relaxar el problema, d'aquesta manera capturen adequadament el seu comportament en termes de ICI. La formulaci o multiobjectiu aconsegueix un ajust efectiu dels par ametres operacionals de SFR i FFR, tant a nivell de cel la com a nivell de xarxa. A m es, la recerca s'est en amb resultats satisfactoris als canals de control, PDCCH i ePDCCH. Finalment, en un esfor c per millorar l'e ci encia energ etica de la xarxa (un aspecte sempre considerat al llarg de la tesi), s'introdueix en l'an alisi global l'apagat intel ligent de cel les, estrat egia amb estrets vincles amb ICIC. Mitjan cant el m etode proposat, s'obtenen millores signi catives pel que fa als enfocaments tradicionals i propostes pr evies. Els guanys s'obtenen en termes de consum energ etic, capacitat de la xarxa, i rendiment en el l mit de les cel les

Efficient resource allocation algorithm for dense femtocell networks

La couverture d'intérieur pauvre et la basse capacité d'utilisateur représentent deux défis importants pour les opérateurs cellulaires. Plusieurs solutions (telles que les antennes distribuées) ont été proposées pour résoudre ces problèmes. Cependant, aucune de ces solutions ne fournit le niveau désiré de l'évolutivité et elles manquent l'aspect pratique. Pour ces raisons, une solution attrayante caractérisée par sa faible puissance et son prix faible connue sous le nom de femto-cellule a été introduite pour offrir une meilleure capacité et couverture d'utilisateur. Malgré tous les avantages provoqués par l'intégration de cette nouvelle technologie femto-cellule, plusieurs nouveaux défis ont émergé. Ces défis sont principalement présentés dans deux genres d'interférences ; connu comme interférence cross-tier et interférence co-tier. Tandis que l'impact d'interférence cross-tier (provoqué en partageant le spectre de fréquence) peut être réduit en mettant en application des algorithmes efficaces de réutilisation de fréquence, l'interférence co-tier continue à présenter un défi difficile pour les opérateurs et les chercheurs dans le domaine de réseaux cellulaires. Le déploiement non planifié et mal organisé des stations de base femto-cellule a comme conséquence une réduction radicale de la capacité d'utilisateur qui peut mener à une déconnexion des utilisateurs. L'impact de l'interférence co-tier devient plus provocant dans un déploiement dense des femto-cellule où les utilisateurs demandent des services en temps réel (par exemple, taux de données constant). Afin de réduire l'interférence co-tier, plusieurs solutions ont été proposées dans la littérature comprenant des algorithmes de contrôle de puissance, des techniques de détection avancées et des schémas d'allocation de ressources intelligentes. Dans ce projet, nous proposons une stratégie intelligente d'attribution des fréquences avec une stratégie avancée d'association de station de base femto-cellule pour les réseaux femto-cellule basés sur LTE. L'objectif des deux stratégies proposées est d'atténuer l'interférence co-tier et de réduire la probabilité de panne des utilisateurs en augmentant le nombre d'utilisateurs actifs par station de base femto-cellule. Nous montrons par simulations l'efficacité de notre solution proposée.\ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : femtocell base station, interference management, resource block assignment, base station assignment, outage probability