A survey of machine learning techniques applied to self organizing cellular networks

In this paper, a survey of the literature of the past fifteen years involving Machine Learning (ML) algorithms applied to self organizing cellular networks is performed. In order for future networks to overcome the current limitations and address the issues of current cellular systems, it is clear that more intelligence needs to be deployed, so that a fully autonomous and flexible network can be enabled. This paper focuses on the learning perspective of Self Organizing Networks (SON) solutions and provides, not only an overview of the most common ML techniques encountered in cellular networks, but also manages to classify each paper in terms of its learning solution, while also giving some examples. The authors also classify each paper in terms of its self-organizing use-case and discuss how each proposed solution performed. In addition, a comparison between the most commonly found ML algorithms in terms of certain SON metrics is performed and general guidelines on when to choose each ML algorithm for each SON function are proposed. Lastly, this work also provides future research directions and new paradigms that the use of more robust and intelligent algorithms, together with data gathered by operators, can bring to the cellular networks domain and fully enable the concept of SON in the near future

Risk-Informed Interference Assessment for Shared Spectrum Bands: A Wi-Fi/LTE Coexistence Case Study

Interference evaluation is crucial when deciding whether and how wireless technologies should operate. In this paper we demonstrate the benefit of risk-informed interference assessment to aid spectrum regulators in making decisions, and to readily convey engineering insight. Our contributions are: we apply, for the first time, risk assessment to a problem of inter-technology spectrum sharing, i.e. Wi-Fi/LTE in the 5 GHz unlicensed band, and we demonstrate that this method comprehensively quantifies the interference impact. We perform simulations with our newly publicly-available tool and we consider throughput degradation and fairness metrics to assess the risk for different network densities, numbers of channels, and deployment scenarios. Our results show that no regulatory intervention is needed to ensure harmonious technical Wi-Fi/LTE coexistence: for the typically large number of channels available in the 5 GHz band, the risk for Wi-Fi from LTE is negligible, rendering policy and engineering concerns largely moot. As an engineering insight, Wi-Fi coexists better with itself in dense, but better with LTE, in sparse deployments. Also, both main LTE-in-unlicensed variants coexist well with Wi-Fi in general. For LTE intra-technology inter-operator coexistence, both variants typically coexist well in the 5 GHz band, but for dense deployments, implementing listen-before-talk causes less interference

Application of radio environment maps for dynamic broadband access in TV bands in urban areas

Spectrum sharing based on the dedicated databases, particularly in the context of TV band, is widely considered as a promising tool for better spectrum utilization in the future wireless networks. Practical realization of this paradigm entails the need for the true protection of the incumbent system, and at the same time the guarantee of the quality of the services offered to the secondary users. In this respect, this papers discusses the results achieved in numerous measurement campaigns performed for last years in two European cities, i.e., Poznan, Poland and Barcelona, Spain. Both indoor and outdoor measurements of the TV band have been compared with the main purpose of true identification of key practical considerations for spectrum sharing in the TV white spaces. As such the paper constitutes a concise summary of various analyzes and provides pragmatic guidelines for deployment of radio-environment maps (REM) based systems. Based on the conducted measurements and achieved results, the set of practical conclusions for REMs has been deduced, and the prospective procedure of deployment of such a network has been proposed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version