A low complexity resource allocation algorithm for multicast service delivery in OFDMA networks

Allocating and managing radio resources to multicast transmissions in Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems is the challenging research issue addressed by this paper. A subgrouping technique, which divides the subscribers into subgroups according to the experienced channel quality, is considered to overcome the throughput limitations of conventional multicast data delivery schemes. A low complexity algorithm, designed to work with different resource allocation strategies, is also proposed to reduce the computational complexity of the subgroup formation problem. Simulation results, carried out by considering the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system based on OFDMA, testify the effectiveness of the proposed solution, which achieves a near-optimal performance with a limited computational load for the system

Multimedia content delivery for emerging satellite networks

Multimedia content delivery over satellite systems is considered as a promising service in the emerging networks. The aim of this work is to design a novel radio resource management (RRM) algorithm for efficiently managing multicast multimedia content transmission over satellite network. The proposed approach performs the spectrum management on a per-group basis, by splitting multicast terminals into different subgroups according to the experienced channel qualities. We demonstrate that subgrouping policy defined by the authors as multicast subgrouping-maximum satisfaction index (MS-MSI), is based on a new metric (i.e., MSI), which overcomes the weakness of the previous techniques proposed in literature and provides the best trade-off between user throughput and fairness. As a further result, we demonstrate that MS-MSI is robust to the long propagation delay of satellite links. An extensive simulation campaign has been conducted by considering several satellite environments

Modeling network-controlled device-to-device communications in SimuLTE

In Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A), network-controlled device-to-device (D2D) communications allow User Equipments (UEs) to communicate directly, without involving the Evolved Node-B in data relaying, while the latter still retains control of resource allocation. The above paradigm allows reduced latencies for the UEs and increased resource efficiency for the network operator, and is therefore foreseen to support several services, from Machine-to-machine to vehicular communications. D2D communications introduce research challenges that might affect the performance of applications and upper-layer protocols, hence simulations represent a valuable tool for evaluating these aspects. However, simulating D2D features might pose additional com-putational burden to the simulation environment. To this aim, a careful modeling is required in order to reduce computational overhead. In this paper we describe our modeling of net-work-controlled D2D communications in SimuLTE, a system-level LTE-A simulation library based on OMNeT++. We describe the core modeling choices of SimuLTE, and show how these allow an easy extension to D2D communications. Moreover, we describe in detail the modeling of specific problems arising with D2D communications, such as scheduling with frequency reuse, connection mode switching and broadcast transmission. We document the computational efficiency of our modeling choices, showing that simulation of D2D communications is not more complex than simulation of classical cellular communications of comparable scale. Results show that the heaviest computational burden of D2D communication lies in estimating the Sidelink channel quality. We show that SimuLTE allows one to evaluate the interplay between D2D communication and end-to-end performance of UDP- and TCP-based services. Moreover, we assess the accuracy of using a binary interference model for frequency reuse, and we evaluate the trade-off between speed of execution and accuracy in modeling the reception probability

셀룰러 사이드링크 성능 향상을 위한 상위계층 기법

학위논문 (박사) -- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 전기·정보공학부, 2020. 8. 박세웅.In typical cellular communications, User Equipments (UEs) have always had to go through a Base Station (BS) to communicate with each other, e.g., a UE transmits a packet to a BS via uplink and then the BS transmits the packet to another UE via downlink. Although the communication method can serve UEs efficiently, the communication method can cause latency problems and overload problems in BS. Thus, sidelink has been proposed to overcome these problems in 3GPP release 12. Through sidelink, UEs can communicate directly with each other. There are two representative communications using sidelink, i.e., Device-to-Device (D2D) communication and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication. In this dissertation, we consider three strategies to enhance the performances of D2D and V2V communications: (i) efficient feedback mechanism for D2D communications, (ii) context-aware congestion control scheme for V2V communication, and (iii) In-Device Coexistence (IDC)-aware LTE and NR sidelink resource allocation scheme. Firstly, in the related standard, there is no feedback mechanism for D2D communication because D2D communications only support broadcast-type communications. A feedback mechanism is presented for D2D communications. Through our proposed mechanism, UEs can use the feedback mechanism without the help of BS and UEs do not need additional signals to allocate feedback resources. We also propose a rate adaptation algorithm, which consider in-band emission problem, on top of the proposed feedback mechanism. We find that our rate adaptation achieves higher and stable throughput compared with the legacy scheme that complies to the standard. Secondly, we propose a context-aware congestion control scheme for LTE-V2V communication. Through LTE-V2V communication, UEs transmit Cooperative Awareness Message (CAM), which is a periodic message, and Decentralized Environmental Notification Message (DENM), which is a event-driven message and allows one-hop relay. The above two messages have different characteristics and generation rule. Thus, it is difficult and inefficient to apply the same congestion control scheme to two messages. We propose a congestion control schemes for each message. Through the proposed congestion control schemes, UEs decide whether to transmit according to their situation. Through simulation results, we show that our proposed schemes outperform comparison schemes as well as the legacy scheme. Finally, we propose a NR sidelink resource allocation scheme based on multi-agent reinforcement learning, which awares a IDC problem between LTE and NR in Intelligent Transport System (ITS) band. First, we model a realistic IDC interference based on spectrum emission mask specified at the standard. Then, we formulate the resource allocation as a multi-agent reinforcement learning with fingerprint method. Each UE achieves its local observation and rewards, and learns its policy to increase its rewards through updating Q-network. Through simulation results, we observe that the proposed resource allocation scheme further improves Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) performances compared to the legacy scheme.전형적인 셀룰러 통신에서는, 단말들은 서로 통신하기 위해 항상 기지국을 거쳐야 한다. 예를 들면, 단말이 uplink를 통해 기지국에게 패킷을 전송한 다음 기지국은 downlink를 통해 해당 패킷을 전송해준다. 이러한 통신방식은 단말들에게 효율적으로 서비스를 제공할 수 있지만, 상황에 따라서는 지연문제와 기지국의 과부하 문제를 야기할 수 있다. 따라서 3GPP release12에서 이러한 문제점들을 극복하기 위해 sidelink가 제안되었다. 덕분에 단말들은 sidelink를 통해서 서로 직접 통신을 할 수 있게 되었다. Sidelink를 사용하는 두 가지 대표적인 통신은 D2D(Device-to-Device) 통신과 V2V(Vehicle-to-Vehicle) 통신이다. 본 논문에서는 D2D 와 V2V 통신 성능을 향상시키기 위한 세가지 전략을 고려한다. (i) D2D 통신을 위한 효율적인 피드백 메커니즘, (ii) V2V 통신을 위한 상황인식기반 혼잡제어 기법, 그리고 (iii) IDC(In-Device Coexistence) 인지 기반 sidelink 자원 할당 방식. 첫째, 관련 표준에는 D2D 통신이 브로드캐스트 유형의 통신만을 지원하기 때문에 D2D 통신에 대한 피드백 메커니즘이 없다. 우리는 이러한 한계점을 극복하고자 D2D 통신을 위한 피드백 메커니즘을 제안한다. 제안된 메커니즘을 통해, 단말은 기지국의 도움없이 피드백 메커니즘을 사용할 수 있으며 피드백 자원을 할당하기 위한 추가 신호를 필요로 하지 않는다. 우리는 또한 제안된 피드백 메커니즘위에서 동작할 수 있는 data rate 조절 기법을 제안하였다. 우리는 시뮬레이션 결과를 통하여, 제안한 data rate 조절 기법이 기존 방식보다 더 높고 안정적인 수율을 제공하는 것을 확인하였다. 둘째, LTE-V2V 통신을 위한 상황 인지 기반 혼잡 제어 기법을 제안한다. LTE-V2V 통신에서 단말들은 주기적인 메시지인 CAM(Cooperative Awareness Message) 및 비주기적 메시지이며 one-hop릴레이를 허용하는 DENM(Decentralized Environmental Notification Message)를 전송한다. 위의 두 메시지는 특성과 생성 규칙이 다르기 때문에 동일한 혼잡 제어 기법을 적용하는 것은 비효율적이다. 따라서 우리는 각 메시지에 적용할 수 있는 혼잡 제어 기법들을 제안한다. 제안된 기법들을 통해서 단말들은 그들의 상황에 따라서 전송 여부를 결정하게 된다. 시뮬레이션 결과를 통해 제안된 기법이 기존 표준 방식 뿐만 아니라 최신의 비교 기법들보다 우수한 성능을 얻는 것을 확인하였다. 마지막으로 ITS(Intelligent Transport System)대역에서 LTE와 NR사이의 IDC문제를 고려하는 NR sidelink 자원할당 기법을 제안한다. 먼저, 표준에 지정된 스펙트럼 방출 마스크를 기반으로 현실적인 IDC 간섭을 모델링한다. 그런 다음 다중 에이전트 강화학습으로 자원할당 기법을 제안한다. 각 단말들은 자신들의 주변 환경을 관측하고 관측된 환경을 기반으로 행동하여 보상을 얻고 Q-network을 자신의 보상을 증가시키도록 정책을 업데이트 및 학습한다. 우리는 시뮬레이션 결과를 통하여 제안된 자원할당 박식이 기존기법 대비하여 PDR(Packet Delivery Ratio) 성능을 향상시키는 것을 확인하였다.Introduction 1 Efficient feedback mechanism for LTE-D2D Communication 8 CoCo: Context-aware congestion control scheme for C-V2X communications 35 IDC-aware resource allocation based on multi-agents reinforcement learning 67 Concluding remarks 84 Abstract(In Korean) 96 감사의 글 99Docto

Software Defined Networks based Smart Grid Communication: A Comprehensive Survey

The current power grid is no longer a feasible solution due to ever-increasing user demand of electricity, old infrastructure, and reliability issues and thus require transformation to a better grid a.k.a., smart grid (SG). The key features that distinguish SG from the conventional electrical power grid are its capability to perform two-way communication, demand side management, and real time pricing. Despite all these advantages that SG will bring, there are certain issues which are specific to SG communication system. For instance, network management of current SG systems is complex, time consuming, and done manually. Moreover, SG communication (SGC) system is built on different vendor specific devices and protocols. Therefore, the current SG systems are not protocol independent, thus leading to interoperability issue. Software defined network (SDN) has been proposed to monitor and manage the communication networks globally. This article serves as a comprehensive survey on SDN-based SGC. In this article, we first discuss taxonomy of advantages of SDNbased SGC.We then discuss SDN-based SGC architectures, along with case studies. Our article provides an in-depth discussion on routing schemes for SDN-based SGC. We also provide detailed survey of security and privacy schemes applied to SDN-based SGC. We furthermore present challenges, open issues, and future research directions related to SDN-based SGC.Comment: Accepte

Satellite integration in 5G : contribution on network architectures and traffic engineering solutions for hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile backhauling

The recent technological advances in the satellite domain such as the use of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) with throughput rates that are magnitudes higher than with previous ones, or the use of large non- Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites constellations, etc, are reducing the price per bit and enhancing the Quality of Service (QoS) metrics such as latency, etc., changing the way that the capacity is being brought to the market and making it more attractive for other services such as satellite broadband communications. These new capabilities coupled with the advantages offered by satellite communications such as the unique wide-scale geographical coverage, inherent broadcast/multicast capabilities and highly reliable connectivity, anticipate new opportunities for the integration of the satellite component into the 5G ecosystem. One of the most compelling scenarios is mobile backhauling, where satellite capacity can be used to complement the terrestrial backhauling infrastructure, not only in hard to reach areas, but also for more efficient traffic delivery to Radio Access Network (RAN) nodes, increased resiliency and better support for fast, temporary cell deployments and moving cells. In this context, this thesis work focuses on achieving better satellite-terrestrial backhaul network integration through the development of Traffic Engineering (TE) strategies to manage in a better way the dynamically steerable satellite provisioned capacity. To do this, this thesis work first takes the steps in the definition of an architectural framework that enables a better satellite-terrestrial mobile backhaul network integration, managing the satellite capacity as a constituent part of a Software Defined Networking (SDN) -based TE for mobile backhaul network. Under this basis, this thesis work first proposes and assesses a model for the analysis of capacity and traffic management strategies for hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile backhauling networks that rely on SDN for fine-grained traffic steering. The performance analysis is carried out in terms of capacity gains that can be achieved when the satellite backhaul capacity is used for traffic overflow, taking into account the placement of the satellite capacity at different traffic aggregation levels and considering a spatial correlation of the traffic demand. Later, the thesis work presents the development of SDN-based TE strategies and algorithms that exploits the dynamically steerable satellite capacity provisioned for resilience purposes to better utilize the satellite capacity by maximizing the network utility under both failure and non-failure conditions in some terrestrial links, under the consideration of elastic, inelastic and unicast and multicast traffic. The performance analysis is carried out in terms of global network utility, fairness and connexion rejection rates compared to non SDN-based TE applications. Finally, sustained in the defined architectural framework designs, the thesis work presents an experimental Proof of Concept (PoC) and validation of a satellite-terrestrial backhaul links integration solution that builts upon SDN technologies for the realization of End-to-End (E2E) TE applications in mobile backhauling networks with a satellite component, assessing the feasibility of the proposed SDN-based integration solution under a practical laboratory setting that combines the use of commercial, experimentation-oriented and emulation equipment and software.Los recientes avances tecnológicos en el dominio de los satélites, como el uso de satélites de alto rendimiento (HTS) con tasas de rendimiento que son magnitudes más altas que los anteriores, o el uso de grandes constelaciones de satélites de órbita no geoestacionaria (GEO), etc. están reduciendo el precio por bit y mejorando las métricas de Calidad de Servicio (QoS) como la latencia, etc., cambiando la forma en que la capacidad se está llevando al mercado, y haciéndola más atractiva para otros servicios como las comunicaciones de banda ancha por satélite. Estas nuevas capacidades, junto con las ventajas ofrecidas por las comunicaciones por satélite, como la cobertura geográfica a gran escala, las inherentes capacidades de difusión / multidifusión y la conectividad altamente confiable, anticipan nuevas oportunidades para la integración de la componente satelital al ecosistema 5G. Uno de los escenarios más atractivos es el backhauling móvil, donde la capacidad del satélite se puede usar para complementar la infraestructura de backhauling terrestre, no solo en áreas de difícil acceso, sino también para la entrega de tráfico de manera más eficiente a los nodos de la Red de Acceso (RAN), una mayor resiliencia y mejor soporte para implementaciones rápidas y temporales de células, así como células en movimiento. En este contexto, este trabajo de tesis se centra en lograr una mejor integración de la red híbrida de backhaul satélital-terrestre, a través del desarrollo de estrategias de ingeniería de tráfico (TE) para gestionar de una mejor manera la capacidad dinámicamente orientable del satélite. Para hacer esto, este trabajo de tesis primero toma los pasos en la definición de un marco de arquitectura que permite una mejor integración de una red híbrida satelital-terrestre de backhaul móvil, gestionando la capacidad del satélite como parte constitutiva de un TE basado en Software Defined Networking (SDN). Bajo esta base, este trabajo de tesis primero propone y evalúa un modelo para el análisis de la capacidad y las estrategias de gestión del tráfico para redes híbridas satelital-terrestre de backhaul móvil basadas en SDN para la dirección de tráfico. El análisis de rendimiento se lleva a cabo en términos de aumento de capacidad que se puede lograr cuando la capacidad de la red de backhaul por satélite se utiliza para el desborde de tráfico, teniendo en cuenta la ubicación de la capacidad del satélite en diferentes niveles de agregación de tráfico y considerando una correlación espacial de la demanda de tráfico. Posteriormente, el trabajo de tesis presenta el desarrollo de estrategias y algoritmos de TE basados en SDN que explotan la capacidad dinámicamente orientable del satelite, provista con fines de resiliencia para utilizar de mejor manera la capacidad satelital al maximizar la utilidad de red en condiciones de falla y no falla en algunos enlaces terrestres, y bajo la consideración de tráfico elástico, inelástico y de unidifusión y multidifusión. El análisis de rendimiento se lleva a cabo en términos de tasas de rechazo, de utilidad, y equidad en comparación con las aplicaciones de TE no basadas en SDN. Finalmente, basado en la definición del diseño de marco de arquitectura, el trabajo de tesis presenta una Prueba de concepto (PoC) experimental y la validación de una solución de integración de enlaces de backhaul satelital-terrestre que se basa en las tecnologías SDN para la realización de aplicaciones de TE de extremo a extremo (E2E) en redes de backhaul móviles, evaluando la viabilidad de la solución propuesta de integración basada en SDN en un entorno práctico de laboratorio que combina el uso de equipos y software comerciales, orientados a la experimentación y emulación.Postprint (published version

Radio resource allocation algorithms for multicast OFDM systems

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorVideo services have become highly demanded in mobile networks leading to an unprecedented traffic growth. It is expected that traffic from wireless and mobile devices will account for nearly 70 percent of total IP traffic by the year 2020, and the video services will account for nearly 75 percent of mobile data traffic by 2022. Multicast transmission is one of the key enablers towards a more spectral and energy efficient distribution of multimedia content in current and envisaged mobile networks. It is worth noting that multicast is a mechanism that efficiently delivers the same content to many users, not only focusing on video broadcasting, but also distributing many other media, such as software updates, weather forecast or breaking news. Although multicast services are available in Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks, new improvements are needed in some areas to handle the demands expected in the near future. Resource allocation techniques for multicast services are one of the main challenging issues, since it is required the development of novel schemes to meet the demands of their evolution towards the next generation. Most multicast techniques adopt rather conservative strategies that select a very robust modulation and coding scheme (MCS), whose characteristics are determined by the propagation conditions experienced by the worst user in the group in order to ensure that all users in a multicast group are able to correctly decode the received data. Obviously, this robustness comes at the prize of a low spectral efficiency. This thesis presents an exhaustive study of broadcast/multicast technology for current mobile networks, especially focusing on the scheduling and resource allocation (SRA) strategies to maximize the potential benefits that multicast transmissions imply on the spectral efficiency. Based on that issue, some contributions have been made to the state of the art in the radio resource management (RRM) for current and beyond mobile multicast services. • In the frame of LTE/LTE-A, the evolved multimedia broadcast and multicast service (eMBMS) shares the physical layer resources with the unicast transmission mode (at least up to Release 12). Consequently, the time allocation to multicast transmission is limited to a maximum of a 60 percent, and the remaining subframes (at least 40 percent) are reserved for unicast transmissions. With the aim of achieving the maximum aggregated data rate (ADR) among the multicast users, we have implemented several innovative SRA schemes that combine the allocation of multicast and unicast resources in the LTE/LTE-A frame, guaranteeing the prescribed quality of service (QoS) requirements for every user. • In the specific context of wideband communication systems, the selection of the multicast MCS has often relied on the use of wideband channel quality indicators (CQIs), providing rather imprecise information regarding the potential capacity of the multicast channel. Only recently has the per-subband CQI been used to improve the spectral efficiency of the system without compromising the link robustness. We have proposed novel subband CQI-based multicast SRA strategies that, relying on the selection of more spectrally efficient transmission modes, lead to increased data rates while still being able to fulfill prescribed QoS metrics. • Mobile broadcast/multicast video services require effective and low complexity SRA strategies. We have proposed an SRA strategy based on multicast subgrouping and the scalable video coding (SVC) technique for multicast video delivery. This scheme focuses on reducing the search space of solutions and optimizes the ADR. The results in terms of ADR, spectral efficiency, and fairness among multicast users, along with the low complexity of the algorithm, show that this new scheme is adequate for real systems. These contributions are intended to serve as a reference that motivate ongoing and future investigation in the challenging field of RRM for broadcast/ multicast services in next generation mobile networks.La demanda de servicios de vídeo en las redes móviles ha sufrido un incremento exponencial en los últimos años, lo que a su vez ha desembocado en un aumento sin precedentes del tráfico de datos. Se espera que antes del año 2020, el trafico debido a dispositivos móviles alcance cerca del 70 por ciento del tráfico IP total, mientras que se prevé que los servicios de vídeo sean prácticamente el 75 por ciento del tráfico de datos en las redes móviles hacia el 2022. Las transmisiones multicast son una de las tecnologías clave para conseguir una distribución más eficiente, tanto espectral como energéticamente, del contenido multimedia en las redes móviles actuales y futuras. Merece la pena reseñar que el multicast es un mecanismo de entrega del mismo contenido a muchos usuarios, que no se enfoca exclusivamente en la distribución de vídeo, sino que también permite la distribución de otros muchos contenidos, como actualizaciones software, información meteorológica o noticias de última hora. A pesar de que los servicios multicast ya se encuentran disponibles en las redes Long Term Evolution (LTE) y LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), la mejora en algunos ámbitos resulta necesaria para manejar las demandas que se prevén a corto plazo. Las técnicas de asignación de recursos para los servicios multicast suponen uno de los mayores desafíos, ya que es necesario el desarrollo de nuevos esquemas que nos permitan acometer las exigencias que supone su evolución hacia la próxima generación. La mayor parte de las técnicas multicast adoptan estrategias conservadoras, seleccionando esquemas de modulación y codificación (MCS) impuestos por las condiciones de propagación que experimenta el usuario del grupo con peor canal, para así asegurar que todos los usuarios pertenecientes al grupo multicast sean capaces de decodificar correctamente los datos recibidos. Como resulta obvio, la utilización de esquemas tan robustos conlleva el precio de sufrir una baja eficiencia espectral. Esta tesis presenta un exhaustivo estudio de la tecnología broadcast/ multicast para las redes móviles actuales, que se centra especialmente en las estrategias de asignación de recursos (SRA), cuyo objetivo es maximizar los beneficios que la utilización de transmisiones multicast potencialmente implica en términos de eficiencia espectral. A partir de dicho estudio, hemos realizado varias contribuciones al estado del arte en el ámbito de la gestión de recursos radio (RRM) para los servicios multicast, aplicables en las redes móviles actuales y futuras. • En el marco de LTE/LTE-A, el eMBMS comparte los recursos de la capa física con las transmisiones unicast (al menos hasta la revisión 12). Por lo tanto, la disponibilidad temporal de las transmisiones multicast está limitada a un máximo del 60 por ciento, reservándose las subtramas restantes (al menos el 40 por ciento) para las transmisiones unicast. Con el objetivo de alcanzar la máxima tasa total de datos (ADR) entre los usuarios multicast, hemos implementado varios esquemas innovadores de SRA que combinan la asignación de los recursos multicast y unicast de la trama LTE/LTE-A, garantizando los requisitos de QoS a cada usuario. • En los sistemas de comunicaciones de banda ancha, la selección del MCS para transmisiones multicast se basa habitualmente en la utilización de CQIs de banda ancha, lo que proporciona información bastante imprecisa acerca de la capacidad potencial del canal multicast. Recientemente se ha empezado a utilizar el CQI por subbanda para mejorar la eficiencia espectral del sistema sin comprometer la robustez de los enlaces. Hemos propuesto nuevas estrategias para SRA multicast basadas en el CQI por subbanda que, basándose en la selección de los modos de transmisión con mayor eficiencia espectral, conducen a mejores tasas de datos, a la vez que permiten cumplir los requisitos de QoS. • Los servicios móviles de vídeo broadcast/multicast precisan estrategias eficientes de SRA con baja complejidad. Hemos propuesto una estrategia de SRA basada en subgrupos multicast y la técnica de codificación de vídeo escalable (SVC) para la difusión de vídeo multicast, la cual se centra en reducir el espacio de búsqueda de soluciones y optimizar el ADR. Los resultados obtenidos en términos de ADR, eficiencia espectral y equidad entre los usuarios multicast, junto con la baja complejidad del algoritmo, ponen de manifiesto que el esquema propuesto es adecuado para su implantación en sistemas reales. Estas contribuciones pretenden servir de referencia que motive la investigación actual y futura en el interesante ámbito de RRM para los servicios broadcast/multicast en las redes móviles de próxima generación.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Multimedia y ComunicacionesPresidente: Atilio Manuel Da Silva Gameiro.- Secretario: Víctor Pedro Gil Jiménez.- Vocal: María de Diego Antó