1,508 research outputs found
Exploiting channel memory for joint estimation and scheduling in downlink networks
We address the problem of opportunistic multiuser scheduling in downlink networks with Markov-modeled outage channels. We consider the scenario in which the scheduler does not have full knowledge of the channel state information, but instead estimates the channel state information by exploiting the memory inherent in the Markov channels along with ARQ-styled feedback from the scheduled users. Opportunistic scheduling is optimized in two stages: (1) Channel estimation and rate adaptation to maximize the expected immediate rate of the scheduled user; (2) User scheduling, based on the optimized immediate rate, to maximize the overall long term sum-throughput of the downlink. The scheduling problem is a partially observable Markov decision process with the classic ‘exploitation vs exploration ’ trade-off that is difficult to quantify. We therefore study the problem in the framework of restless multi-armed bandit processes and perform a Whit-tle’s indexability analysis. Whittle’s indexability is traditionally known to be hard to establish and the index policy derived based on Whittle’s indexability is known to have optimality properties in various settings. We show that the problem of downlink scheduling under imperfect channel state information is Whittle indexable and derive the Whittle’s index policy in closed form. Via extensive numerical experiments, we show that the index policy has near-optimal performance. Our work reveals that, under incomplete channel state infor-mation, exploiting channel memory for opportunistic scheduling can result in significant performance gains and that almost all of these gains can be realized using an easy-to-implement index policy
AirSync: Enabling Distributed Multiuser MIMO with Full Spatial Multiplexing
The enormous success of advanced wireless devices is pushing the demand for
higher wireless data rates. Denser spectrum reuse through the deployment of
more access points per square mile has the potential to successfully meet the
increasing demand for more bandwidth. In theory, the best approach to density
increase is via distributed multiuser MIMO, where several access points are
connected to a central server and operate as a large distributed multi-antenna
access point, ensuring that all transmitted signal power serves the purpose of
data transmission, rather than creating "interference." In practice, while
enterprise networks offer a natural setup in which distributed MIMO might be
possible, there are serious implementation difficulties, the primary one being
the need to eliminate phase and timing offsets between the jointly coordinated
access points.
In this paper we propose AirSync, a novel scheme which provides not only time
but also phase synchronization, thus enabling distributed MIMO with full
spatial multiplexing gains. AirSync locks the phase of all access points using
a common reference broadcasted over the air in conjunction with a Kalman filter
which closely tracks the phase drift. We have implemented AirSync as a digital
circuit in the FPGA of the WARP radio platform. Our experimental testbed,
comprised of two access points and two clients, shows that AirSync is able to
achieve phase synchronization within a few degrees, and allows the system to
nearly achieve the theoretical optimal multiplexing gain. We also discuss MAC
and higher layer aspects of a practical deployment. To the best of our
knowledge, AirSync offers the first ever realization of the full multiuser MIMO
gain, namely the ability to increase the number of wireless clients linearly
with the number of jointly coordinated access points, without reducing the per
client rate.Comment: Submitted to Transactions on Networkin
Multiuser Scheduling in a Markov-modeled Downlink using Randomly Delayed ARQ Feedback
We focus on the downlink of a cellular system, which corresponds to the bulk
of the data transfer in such wireless systems. We address the problem of
opportunistic multiuser scheduling under imperfect channel state information,
by exploiting the memory inherent in the channel. In our setting, the channel
between the base station and each user is modeled by a two-state Markov chain
and the scheduled user sends back an ARQ feedback signal that arrives at the
scheduler with a random delay that is i.i.d across users and time. The
scheduler indirectly estimates the channel via accumulated delayed-ARQ feedback
and uses this information to make scheduling decisions. We formulate a
throughput maximization problem as a partially observable Markov decision
process (POMDP). For the case of two users in the system, we show that a greedy
policy is sum throughput optimal for any distribution on the ARQ feedback
delay. For the case of more than two users, we prove that the greedy policy is
suboptimal and demonstrate, via numerical studies, that it has near optimal
performance. We show that the greedy policy can be implemented by a simple
algorithm that does not require the statistics of the underlying Markov channel
or the ARQ feedback delay, thus making it robust against errors in system
parameter estimation. Establishing an equivalence between the two-user system
and a genie-aided system, we obtain a simple closed form expression for the sum
capacity of the Markov-modeled downlink. We further derive inner and outer
bounds on the capacity region of the Markov-modeled downlink and tighten these
bounds for special cases of the system parameters.Comment: Contains 22 pages, 6 figures and 8 tables; revised version including
additional analytical and numerical results; work submitted, Feb 2010, to
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, revised April 2011; authors can be
reached at [email protected]/[email protected]/[email protected]
Fundamental Limits in MIMO Broadcast Channels
This paper studies the fundamental limits of MIMO broadcast channels from a high level, determining the sum-rate capacity of the system as a function of system paramaters, such as the number of transmit antennas, the number of users, the number of receive antennas, and the total transmit power. The crucial role of channel state information at the transmitter is emphasized, as well as the emergence of opportunistic transmission schemes. The effects of channel estimation errors, training, and spatial correlation are studied, as well as issues related to fairness, delay and differentiated rate scheduling
Dynamic Radio Cooperation for Downlink Cloud-RANs with Computing Resource Sharing
A novel dynamic radio-cooperation strategy is proposed for Cloud Radio Access
Networks (C-RANs) consisting of multiple Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) connected to
a central Virtual Base Station (VBS) pool. In particular, the key capabilities
of C-RANs in computing-resource sharing and real-time communication among the
VBSs are leveraged to design a joint dynamic radio clustering and cooperative
beamforming scheme that maximizes the downlink weighted sum-rate system utility
(WSRSU). Due to the combinatorial nature of the radio clustering process and
the non-convexity of the cooperative beamforming design, the underlying
optimization problem is NP-hard, and is extremely difficult to solve for a
large network. Our approach aims for a suboptimal solution by transforming the
original problem into a Mixed-Integer Second-Order Cone Program (MI-SOCP),
which can be solved efficiently using a proposed iterative algorithm. Numerical
simulation results show that our low-complexity algorithm provides
close-to-optimal performance in terms of WSRSU while significantly
outperforming conventional radio clustering and beamforming schemes.
Additionally, the results also demonstrate the significant improvement in
computing-resource utilization of C-RANs over traditional RANs with distributed
computing resources.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted to IEEE MASS 201
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