Multicast Scheduling and Resource Allocation Algorithms for OFDMA-Based Systems: A Survey

Multicasting is emerging as an enabling technology for multimedia transmissions over wireless networks to support several groups of users with flexible quality of service (QoS)requirements. Although multicast has huge potential to push the limits of next generation communication systems; it is however one of the most challenging issues currently being addressed. In this survey, we explain multicast group formation and various forms of group rate determination approaches. We also provide a systematic review of recent channel-aware multicast scheduling and resource allocation (MSRA) techniques proposed for downlink multicast services in OFDMA based systems. We study these enabling algorithms, evaluate their core characteristics, limitations and classify them using multidimensional matrix. We cohesively review the algorithms in terms of their throughput maximization, fairness considerations, performance complexities, multi-antenna support, optimality and simplifying assumptions. We discuss existing standards employing multicasting and further highlight some potential research opportunities in multicast systems

Policy-Based Radio Resource Management in Multicast OFDMA Systems

Η ασύρματηφασματική αποδοτικότητα είναι ένας, όλο και περισσότερο, σημαντικός παράγοντας εξαιτίας της ταχείας ανάπτυξης των ασύρματων υπηρεσιών ευρείας ζώνης. Η σχεδίαση ενός συστήματος με πολλά φέροντα, όπως είναι ένα σύστημα OFDMA,επιτρέπει στα συστήματα να έχουν υψηλή χωρητικότητα για να ικανοποιήσουν τις απαιτήσεις των υπηρεσιών ευρείας ζώνης.Αυτή η αυξημένη χωρητικότητα των συστημάτων μπορεί να βελτιστοποιηθεί περαιτέρω εκμεταλλευόμενοι καλύτερα τα χαρακτηριστικά των ασύρματων καναλιών. Ηθεμελιώδηςιδέα ενός σχήματος κατανομής πόρων είναι η αποτελεσματική κατανομή των διαθέσιμων ασύρματων πόρων, όπως είναι οι υποφορείς και η ισχύς εκπομπής, μεταξύ των χρηστών του συστήματος. Σχετικά με τα προβλήματα της κατανομής πόρων σε ασύρματα συστήματα τηλεπικοινωνιών βασισμένα στην τεχνική OFDMA, η περισσότερη έρευνα επικεντρώνεται στην αναζήτηση πολιτικών ανάθεσης υποφορέων και ισχύος. Οι διαθέσιμες τεχνικές της βιβλιογραφίας δεν μπορούν να εφαρμοστούν όπως είναι σε συστήματα πολυεκπομπής. Επιπλέον, οι υπάρχουσες τεχνικές δεν μπορούν να εφαρμοστούν αμετάβλητες σε πραγματικά συστήματα στα οποία υπάρχει μεγάλος αριθμός OFDMυποφορέων, καθώς η υπολογιστική πολυπλοκότητα είναι πολύ μεγάλη. Ο βασικός στόχος της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η πρόταση ικανών μηχανισμών κατανομής των διαθέσιμων υποφορέων σε ασύρματα συστήματα πολυεκπομπής χρησιμοποιώντας την τεχνολογία OFDMA. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, σχετικά με τα συστήματα πολυεκπομπής, θεωρούμε ότι τόσο ο σταθμός βάσης όσο και κάθε χρήστης είναι εφοδιασμένοι με μοναδική κεραία και η μονάδα κατανομής δεν είναι ο υποφορέας, όπως στα συμβατικά συστήματα OFDMA, αλλά μία ομάδα γειτονικώνυποφορέων, η οποία ονομάζεται τεμάχιο, με σκοπό τη μείωση της μεγάλης υπολογιστικής πολυπλοκότητας. Ένας αποτελεσματικός αλγόριθμος προτείνεται του οποίου ο στόχος είναι η μεγιστοποίηση του συνολικού ρυθμού μετάδοσης δεδομένων με περιορισμούς στη συνολική διαθέσιμη ισχύ, στο BERανά τεμάχιο και στους αναλογικούς περιορισμούς μεταξύ των ρυθμών μετάδοσης δεδομένων των ομάδων χρηστών. Η προσομοίωση και η ανάλυση της πολυπλοκότητας που παρουσιάζονται, υποστηρίζουν τα πλεονεκτήματα της κατανομής πόρων σε συστήματα πολυεκπομπήςOFDMA τα οποία βασίζονται σε κατανομή τεμαχίων και έχουν ως στόχος την εξασφάλιση της αναλογικότητας μεταξύ των ρυθμών μετάδοσης δεδομένων των ομάδων χρηστών.Wireless spectral efficiency is increasingly important due to the rapid growth of demand for high data rate wideband wireless services. The design of a multi-carrier system, such as an OFDMA system, enables high system capacity suited for these wideband wireless services. This system capacity can be further optimized with a resource allocation scheme by exploiting the characteristics of the wireless fading channels. The fundamental idea of a resource allocation scheme is to efficiently distribute the available wireless resources, such as the subcarriers and transmission power, among all admitted users in the system. Regarding the problems of resource allocation in OFDMA-based wireless communicationsystems, much of the research effort mainly focuses on finding efficient power controland subcarrier assignment policies. With systems employing multicast transmission,the available schemes in literature are not always applicable. Moreover, the existing approachesare particularly inaccessible in practical systems in which there are a large numberof OFDM subcarriers being utilized, as the required computational burden is prohibitivelyhigh. The ultimate goal of this Thesis is therefore to propose affordable mechanisms toflexibly and effectively share out the available resources in multicast wireless systems deployingOFDMA technology. Specifically, according to multicast system, it is assumed thatboth the BS and each user are equipped witha single antenna and the allocation unit is not the subcarrier,as in conventional OFDMA systems, but a set of contiguoussubcarriers, which is called chunk, in order to alleviate the heavy computational burden. An efficient algorithmis proposed whose aim is to maximize the total throughput subject to constraints on totalavailable power,BER over a chunk, and proportional data rates constraints among multicast groups. Simulation and complexity analysis are provided to support thebenefits of chunk-based resource allocation to multicast OFDMA systems with targeting proportional data rates among multicast groups

A Combined User-order and Chunk-order Algorithm to Minimize The Average BER for Chunk Allocation in SC-FDMA Systems

A Chunk by chunk-based allocation is an emerging subcarrier allocation in Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) due to its low complexity. In this paper, a combined user-order  and chunk-order allocation for solving chunk allocation problem which minimizes the average BER of all users while improving the throughput in SC-FDMA uplink is proposed. The subcarrier grouping into a chunk of all users on both-order allocations are performed by averaging the BER of a contiguous subcarriers within a chunk. The sequence of allocation is according to the average of users’ BER on user-order allocation and the average of chunks’ BER on chunk-order allocation. The best allocation is determined by choosing one of both-order allocations which provides the smaller BER systems. The simulation results showed that the proposed algorithm can outperform the previous algorithms in term of  average BER and throughput without increase the time complexity.

Combined-order Algorithm using Promethee Method Approach and Analytic Hierarchy Decision for Chunk Allocation in LTE Uplink Systems

The problem of chunk-based resource allocation for the uplink of Long Term Evolution is investigated. In this paper, a combined order using the promethee method and analytic hierarchy decision for chunk allocation algorithm is proposed. The utility of each order is sorted based on promethee method approach so that the utility of each order could be approximated as the average of all criteria on each order. To decide the best allocation, analytic hierarchy process score is assigned to its order based on their decision criteria weighting factor to find the best allocation. Using a particular weighting factor, the proposed algorithms outperform the previous mean greedy algorithms which use user-order allocation in term of spectral efficiency and data rate fairness without increase the time complexity. It also outperform iterative swapping chunk algorithm in term of  data rate fairness

Hybrid Digital-to-Analog Beamforming for Millimeter-Wave Systems with High User Density

Millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) systems with hybrid digital-to-analog beamforming (D-A BF) have the potential to fulfill 5G traffic demands. The capacity of mmWave systems is severely limited as each radio frequency (RF) transceiver chain in current base station (BS) architectures support only a particular user. In order to overcome this problem when high density of users are present, a new algorithm is proposed in this paper. This algorithm operates on the principle of selection combining (SC). This algorithm is compared with the state of the art hybrid D-A BF. The simulation results show that our proposed hybrid D-A BF using SC supports higher density of users per RF chain. Furthermore, our proposed algorithm achieves higher capacity than what is achieved by the current hybrid D-A BF systems

Enhancements in spectrum management techniques for heterogeneous 5G future networks

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorIn the last decade, cellular networks are undergoing with a radical change in their basic design foundations. The huge increase in traffic demand requires a novel design of future cellular networks. Driven by this increase, a network densification phenomena is occurring thereby, which in turns requires to devise efficient and reliable mechanisms to deal with the interference problems resulting from such densification. The architecture and mechanisms resulting from such drastic re-design of the network are commonly referred under the term ’5G network’. In this context, this work unveils that current networking solutions are no longer sufficient to (i) provide the required network spectral efficiency, and (ii) guarantee the desired level of quality of experience from the user side. In order to address this problem, in this thesis we propose a novel SDN-like framework that incorporates the needed mechanisms to improve spectral efficiency while delivering the desired quality of experience to users. In particular, our architecture includes the following two approaches: Our first approach addresses the intercell interference issues resulting from high network densification. To this end, we propose novel mechanisms to mitigate the inter-cell interference problem. We address the design of such schemes from two angles: (i) a controller-aided mechanism, which gathers all the information of the network at a centralized point and, based on this information, optimally schedules the transmission from different users, and (ii) a semi-distributed mechanism, which limits the signaling overhead involved in sending the information to a centralized point while providing close to optimal performance. One of the key novelties of our scheduling algorithms is that they are based on the Almost Blank SubFrame (ABSF) scheme; indeed, this scheme has been standardized only recently and very little work has addressed the design of algorithm to use it. Our second approach addresses spectral efficiency from a complementary angle: cellular traffic offloading for content update applications. This approach leverages high user mobility to offload the cellular downlink traffic through a device-to-device communication. In this context, we propose an adaptive algorithm to decide how to optimally transmit content to base stations in order to maximize traffic offload. By relying on control theory techniques, our approach delivers near optimally performance. A third key contribution of this thesis is the design of a solution that combines the above two approaches. In particular, our solution takes into account that traffic offload is taking place in the network and addresses the design of an optimal scheduling algorithm that leverages on the Almost Blank SubFrame (ABSF) scheme. Indeed, the combination of these kind of approaches has received little attention from the literature. The feasibility and performance of the approaches described above are thoroughly evaluated and compared against state-of-the-art solutions through an exhaustive simulation campaign. Our results show that the proposed approaches outperform conventional eICIC techniques as well as standard offloading mechanisms, respectively, and confirm their feasibility in terms of overhead and computational complexity. To the best of our knowledge, this thesis is the first attempt to design an unified framework which is able to optimally perform offloading for content-update distribution applications while boosting the network performance in terms of spectral efficiency.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ingeniería TelemáticaPresidente: Pablo Serrano Yáñez-Mingot.- Secretario: Juan José Alacaraz Espín.- Vocal: Matteo Cesan

Long Term Evolution-Advanced and Future Machine-to-Machine Communication

Long Term Evolution (LTE) has adopted Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) as the downlink and uplink transmission schemes respectively. Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning is one of the primary objectives of wireless network operators. In LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), several additional new features such as Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Relay Nodes (RNs) have been introduced by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). These features have been designed to deal with the ever increasing demands for higher data rates and spectral efficiency. The RN is a low power and low cost device designed for extending the coverage and enhancing spectral efficiency, especially at the cell edge. Wireless networks are facing a new challenge emerging on the horizon, the expected surge of the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) traffic in cellular and mobile networks. The costs and sizes of the M2M devices with integrated sensors, network interfaces and enhanced power capabilities have decreased significantly in recent years. Therefore, it is anticipated that M2M devices might outnumber conventional mobile devices in the near future. 3GPP standards like LTE-A have primarily been developed for broadband data services with mobility support. However, M2M applications are mostly based on narrowband traffic. These standards may not achieve overall spectrum and cost efficiency if they are utilized for serving the M2M applications. The main goal of this thesis is to take the advantage of the low cost, low power and small size of RNs for integrating M2M traffic into LTE-A networks. A new RN design is presented for aggregating and multiplexing M2M traffic at the RN before transmission over the air interface (Un interface) to the base station called eNodeB. The data packets of the M2M devices are sent to the RN over the Uu interface. Packets from different devices are aggregated at the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer of the Donor eNodeB (DeNB) into a single large IP packet instead of several small IP packets. Therefore, the amount of overhead data can be significantly reduced. The proposed concept has been developed in the LTE-A network simulator to illustrate the benefits and advantages of the M2M traffic aggregation and multiplexing at the RN. The potential gains of RNs such as coverage enhancement, multiplexing gain, end-to-end delay performance etc. are illustrated with help of simulation results. The results indicate that the proposed concept improves the performance of the LTE-A network with M2M traffic. The adverse impact of M2M traffic on regular LTE-A traffic such as voice and file transfer is minimized. Furthermore, the cell edge throughput and QoS performance are enhanced. Moreover, the results are validated with the help of an analytical model

Resource allocation and optimization techniques in wireless relay networks

Relay techniques have the potential to enhance capacity and coverage of a wireless network. Due to rapidly increasing number of smart phone subscribers and high demand for data intensive multimedia applications, the useful radio spectrum is becoming a scarce resource. For this reason, two way relay network and cognitive radio technologies are required for better utilization of radio spectrum. Compared to the conventional one way relay network, both the uplink and the downlink can be served simultaneously using a two way relay network. Hence the effective bandwidth efficiency is considered to be one time slot per transmission. Cognitive networks are wireless networks that consist of different types of users, a primary user (PU, the primary license holder of a spectrum band) and secondary users (SU, cognitive radios that opportunistically access the PU spectrum). The secondary users can access the spectrum of the licensed user provided they do not harmfully affect to the primary user. In this thesis, various resource allocation and optimization techniques have been investigated for wireless relay and cognitive radio networks

Performance analysis of biological resource allocation algorithms for next generation networks.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Abstract available in PDF.Publications listed on page iii