1,458 research outputs found
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
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
Green Cellular Networks: A Survey, Some Research Issues and Challenges
Energy efficiency in cellular networks is a growing concern for cellular
operators to not only maintain profitability, but also to reduce the overall
environment effects. This emerging trend of achieving energy efficiency in
cellular networks is motivating the standardization authorities and network
operators to continuously explore future technologies in order to bring
improvements in the entire network infrastructure. In this article, we present
a brief survey of methods to improve the power efficiency of cellular networks,
explore some research issues and challenges and suggest some techniques to
enable an energy efficient or "green" cellular network. Since base stations
consume a maximum portion of the total energy used in a cellular system, we
will first provide a comprehensive survey on techniques to obtain energy
savings in base stations. Next, we discuss how heterogeneous network deployment
based on micro, pico and femto-cells can be used to achieve this goal. Since
cognitive radio and cooperative relaying are undisputed future technologies in
this regard, we propose a research vision to make these technologies more
energy efficient. Lastly, we explore some broader perspectives in realizing a
"green" cellular network technologyComment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
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Scalable base station switching framework for green cellular networks
With the recent unprecedented growth in the wireless market, network operators are obliged not only to find new techniques including dense deployment of base stations (BSs) in order to support high data rate services and high user density, but also to reduce the operating costs and energy consumption of various network elements. To solve these challenges, powering down certain BSs during low-traffic periods, so-called BS sleeping, has emerged as an effective green communications paradigm. While BS sleeping offers the potential to significantly lower energy consumption, it also raises many challenges, since when a BS is switched off, this can lead to, for example, coverage holes, sudden degradation in quality of service (QoS), higher transmit power dissipation in off-cell mobile stations (MSs), an inability to rapidly power up/down equipment and finally, a failure to uphold regulatory requirements. In order to realise greener network designs which both maximise energy savings whilst guaranteeing QoS, innovative BS switching mechanisms need to be developed.
This thesis presents a novel BS switching framework which improves energy efficiency (EE) in comparison with existing approaches, while guaranteeing the minimum QoS and seamless services. The major technical contributions in this framework are: i) a new BS to relay station (RS) switching model where certain BSs are switched to RS mode rather than being turned off, firstly using a fixed threshold based switching algorithm utilizing temporal traffic diversity, and ii) then subsequently by means of an adaptive threshold by exploiting the inherently asymmetric traffic profile between cells, i.e., by exploiting both the temporal and spatial traffic diversity; iii) a traffic-and-interference-aware BS switching strategy that considers the impact of inter-cell interference in the decision making process to dynamically determine the best BS set to be kept active for improved EE; and finally iv) a novel scalable multimode BS switching model which enables each BS to operate in different power modes i.e., macro/micro/sleep to explore energy savings potential even at higher traffic conditions.
The thesis findings conclusively confirm this new BS switching framework provides significant EE improvements from both BS and MS perspectives, under diverse network conditions and represents a notable step towards greener communications
Energy Efficiency and Coverage Trade-Off in 5G for Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Cellular Networks
Recently, cellular networks’ energy efficiency has garnered research interest from academia
and industry because of its considerable economic and ecological effects in the near future. This study
proposes an approach to cooperation between the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and next-generation
wireless networks. The fifth-generation (5G) wireless network aims to negotiate a trade-off between
wireless network performance (sustaining the demand for high speed packet rates during busy traffic
periods) and energy efficiency (EE) by alternating 5G base stations’ (BSs) switching off/on based
on the traffic instantaneous load condition and, at the same time, guaranteeing network coverage
for mobile subscribers by the remaining active LTE BSs. The particle swarm optimization (PSO)
algorithm was used to determine the optimum criteria of the active LTE BSs (transmission power,
total antenna gain, spectrum/channel bandwidth, and signal-to-interference-noise ratio) that achieves
maximum coverage for the entire area during the switch-off session of 5G BSs. Simulation results
indicate that the energy savings can reach 3.52 kW per day, with a maximum data rate of up to
22.4 Gbps at peak traffic hours and 80.64 Mbps during a 5G BS switched-off session along with
guaranteed full coverage over the entire region by the remaining active LTE BSs
Will SDN be part of 5G?
For many, this is no longer a valid question and the case is considered
settled with SDN/NFV (Software Defined Networking/Network Function
Virtualization) providing the inevitable innovation enablers solving many
outstanding management issues regarding 5G. However, given the monumental task
of softwarization of radio access network (RAN) while 5G is just around the
corner and some companies have started unveiling their 5G equipment already,
the concern is very realistic that we may only see some point solutions
involving SDN technology instead of a fully SDN-enabled RAN. This survey paper
identifies all important obstacles in the way and looks at the state of the art
of the relevant solutions. This survey is different from the previous surveys
on SDN-based RAN as it focuses on the salient problems and discusses solutions
proposed within and outside SDN literature. Our main focus is on fronthaul,
backward compatibility, supposedly disruptive nature of SDN deployment,
business cases and monetization of SDN related upgrades, latency of general
purpose processors (GPP), and additional security vulnerabilities,
softwarization brings along to the RAN. We have also provided a summary of the
architectural developments in SDN-based RAN landscape as not all work can be
covered under the focused issues. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on
the state of the art of SDN-based RAN and clearly points out the gaps in the
technology.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figure
Life is short. The impact of power states on base station lifetime
We study the impact of power state transitions on the lifetime of base stations (BSs) in mobile networks. In particular, we propose a model to estimate the lifetime decrease/increase as a consequence of the application of power state changes. The model takes into account both hardware (HW) parameters, which depend on the materials used to build the device, and power state parameters, that instead depend on how and when power state transitions take place. More in depth, we consider the impact of different power states when a BS is active, and one sleep mode state when a BS is powered off. When a BS reduces the power consumption, its lifetime tends to increase. However, when a BS changes the power state, its lifetime tends to be decreased. Thus, there is a tradeoff between these two effects. Our results, obtained over universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) and long term evolution (LTE) case studies, indicate the need of a careful management of the power state transitions in order to not deteriorate the BS lifetime, and consequently to not increase the associated reparation/replacement costs
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