Optimisation de la gestion des interférences inter-cellulaires et de l'attachement des mobiles dans les réseaux cellulaires LTE

Driven by an exponential growth in mobile broadband-enabled devices and a continue dincrease in individual data consumption, mobile data traffic has grown 4000-fold over the past 10 years and almost 400-million-fold over the past 15 years. Homogeneouscellular networks have been facing limitations to handle soaring mobile data traffic and to meet the growing end-user demand for more bandwidth and betterquality of experience. These limitations are mainly related to the available spectrumand the capacity of the network. Telecommunication industry has to address these challenges and meet exploding demand. At the same time, it has to guarantee a healthy economic model to reduce the carbon footprint which is caused by mobile communications.Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets), composed of macro base stations and low powerbase stations of different types, are seen as the key solution to improve spectral efficiency per unit area and to eliminate coverage holes. In such networks, intelligent user association and interference management schemes are needed to achieve gains in performance. Due to the large imbalance in transmission power between macroand small cells, user association based on strongest signal received is not adapted inHetNets as only few users would attach to low power nodes. A technique based onCell Individual Offset (CIO) is therefore required to perform load balancing and to favor some Small Cell (SC) attraction against Macro Cell (MC). This offset is addedto users’ Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurements and hence inducing handover towards different eNodeBs. As Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular networks use the same frequency sub-bands, mobile users may experience strong inter-cellxv interference, especially at cell edge. Therefore, there is a need to coordinate resource allocation among the cells and minimize inter-cell interference. To mitigate stronginter-cell interference, the resource, in time, frequency and power domain, should be allocated efficiently. A pattern for each dimension is computed to permit especially for cell edge users to benefit of higher throughput and quality of experience. The optimization of all these parameters can also offer gain in energy use. In this thesis,we propose a concrete versatile dynamic solution performing an optimization of user association and resource allocation in LTE cellular networks maximizing a certainnet work utility function that can be adequately chosen. Our solution, based on gametheory, permits to compute Cell Individual Offset and a pattern of power transmission over frequency and time domain for each cell. We present numerical simulations toillustrate the important performance gain brought by this optimization. We obtain significant benefits in the average throughput and also cell edge user through put of40% and 55% gains respectively. Furthermore, we also obtain a meaningful improvement in energy efficiency. This work addresses industrial research challenges and assuch, a prototype acting on emulated HetNets traffic has been implemented.Conduit par une croissance exponentielle dans les appareils mobiles et une augmentation continue de la consommation individuelle des données, le trafic de données mobiles a augmenté de 4000 fois au cours des 10 dernières années et près de 400millions fois au cours des 15 dernières années. Les réseaux cellulaires homogènes rencontrent de plus en plus de difficultés à gérer l’énorme trafic de données mobiles et à assurer un débit plus élevé et une meilleure qualité d’expérience pour les utilisateurs.Ces difficultés sont essentiellement liées au spectre disponible et à la capacité du réseau.L’industrie de télécommunication doit relever ces défis et en même temps doit garantir un modèle économique pour les opérateurs qui leur permettra de continuer à investir pour répondre à la demande croissante et réduire l’empreinte carbone due aux communications mobiles. Les réseaux cellulaires hétérogènes (HetNets), composés de stations de base macro et de différentes stations de base de faible puissance,sont considérés comme la solution clé pour améliorer l’efficacité spectrale par unité de surface et pour éliminer les trous de couverture. Dans de tels réseaux, il est primordial d’attacher intelligemment les utilisateurs aux stations de base et de bien gérer les interférences afin de gagner en performance. Comme la différence de puissance d’émission est importante entre les grandes et petites cellules, l’association habituelle des mobiles aux stations de bases en se basant sur le signal le plus fort, n’est plus adaptée dans les HetNets. Une technique basée sur des offsets individuelles par cellule Offset(CIO) est donc nécessaire afin d’équilibrer la charge entre les cellules et d’augmenter l’attraction des petites cellules (SC) par rapport aux cellules macro (MC). Cette offset est ajoutée à la valeur moyenne de la puissance reçue du signal de référence(RSRP) mesurée par le mobile et peut donc induire à un changement d’attachement vers différents eNodeB. Comme les stations de bases dans les réseaux cellulaires LTE utilisent les mêmes sous-bandes de fréquences, les mobiles peuvent connaître une forte interférence intercellulaire, en particulier en bordure de cellules. Par conséquent, il est primordial de coordonner l’allocation des ressources entre les cellules et de minimiser l’interférence entre les cellules. Pour atténuer la forte interférence intercellulaire, les ressources, en termes de temps, fréquence et puissance d’émission, devraient être alloués efficacement. Un modèle pour chaque dimension est calculé pour permettre en particulier aux utilisateurs en bordure de cellule de bénéficier d’un débit plus élevé et d’une meilleure qualité de l’expérience. L’optimisation de tous ces paramètres peut également offrir un gain en consommation d’énergie. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une solution dynamique polyvalente effectuant une optimisation de l’attachement des mobiles aux stations de base et de l’allocation des ressources dans les réseaux cellulaires LTE maximisant une fonction d’utilité du réseau qui peut être choisie de manière adéquate.Notre solution, basée sur la théorie des jeux, permet de calculer les meilleures valeurs pour l’offset individuelle par cellule (CIO) et pour les niveaux de puissance à appliquer au niveau temporel et fréquentiel pour chaque cellule. Nous présentons des résultats des simulations effectuées pour illustrer le gain de performance important apporté par cette optimisation. Nous obtenons une significative hausse dans le débit moyen et le débit des utilisateurs en bordure de cellule avec 40 % et 55 % de gains respectivement. En outre, on obtient un gain important en énergie. Ce travail aborde des défis pour l’industrie des télécoms et en tant que tel, un prototype de l’optimiseur a été implémenté en se basant sur un trafic HetNets émulé

Towards UAV Assisted 5G Public Safety Network

Ensuring ubiquitous mission-critical public safety communications (PSC) to all the first responders in the public safety network is crucial at an emergency site. The first responders heavily rely on mission-critical PSC to save lives, property, and national infrastructure during a natural or human-made emergency. The recent advancements in LTE/LTE-Advanced/5G mobile technologies supported by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have great potential to revolutionize PSC. However, limited spectrum allocation for LTE-based PSC demands improved channel capacity and spectral efficiency. An additional challenge in designing an LTE-based PSC network is achieving at least 95% coverage of the geographical area and human population with broadband rates. The coverage requirement and efficient spectrum use in the PSC network can be realized through the dense deployment of small cells (both terrestrial and aerial). However, there are several challenges with the dense deployment of small cells in an air-ground heterogeneous network (AG-HetNet). The main challenges which are addressed in this research work are integrating UAVs as both aerial user and aerial base-stations, mitigating inter-cell interference, capacity and coverage enhancements, and optimizing deployment locations of aerial base-stations. First, LTE signals were investigated using NS-3 simulation and software-defined radio experiment to gain knowledge on the quality of service experienced by the user equipment (UE). Using this understanding, a two-tier LTE-Advanced AG-HetNet with macro base-stations and unmanned aerial base-stations (UABS) is designed, while considering time-domain inter-cell interference coordination techniques. We maximize the capacity of this AG-HetNet in case of a damaged PSC infrastructure by jointly optimizing the inter-cell interference parameters and UABS locations using a meta-heuristic genetic algorithm (GA) and the brute-force technique. Finally, considering the latest specifications in 3GPP, a more realistic three-tier LTE-Advanced AG-HetNet is proposed with macro base-stations, pico base-stations, and ground UEs as terrestrial nodes and UABS and aerial UEs as aerial nodes. Using meta-heuristic techniques such as GA and elitist harmony search algorithm based on the GA, the critical network elements such as energy efficiency, inter-cell interference parameters, and UABS locations are all jointly optimized to maximize the capacity and coverage of the AG-HetNet

A distributed power-saving framework for LTE Het-Nets exploiting Almost Blank Subframes

Almost Blank Subframes (ABS) have been defined in LTE as a means to coordinate transmissions in heterogeneous networks (HetNets), composed of macro and micro eNodeBs: the macro issues ABS periods, and refrains from transmitting during ABSs, thus creating interference-free subframes for the micros. Micros report their capacity demands to the macro via the X2 interface, and the latter provisions the ABS period accordingly. Existing algorithms for ABS provisioning usually share resources proportionally among HetNet nodes in a long-term perspective (e.g., based on traffic forecast). We argue instead that this mechanism can be exploited to save power in the HetNet: in fact, during ABSs, the macro consumes less power, since it only transmits pilot signals. Dually, the micros may inhibit data transmission themselves in some subframes, and optimally decide when to do this based on knowledge of the ABS period. This allows us to define a power saving framework that works in the short term, modifying the ABS pattern at the fastest possible pace, serving the HetNet traffic at reduced power cost. Our framework is designed using only standard signaling. Simulations show that the algorithm consumes less power than its competitors, especially at low loads, and improves the UE QoS

Load balancing using cell range expansion in LTE advanced heterogeneous networks

The use of heterogeneous networks is on the increase, fueled by consumer demand for more data. The main objective of heterogeneous networks is to increase capacity. They offer solutions for efficient use of spectrum, load balancing and improvement of cell edge coverage amongst others. However, these solutions have inherent challenges such as inter-cell interference and poor mobility management. In heterogeneous networks there is transmit power disparity between macro cell and pico cell tiers, which causes load imbalance between the tiers. Due to the conventional user-cell association strategy, whereby users associate to a base station with the strongest received signal strength, few users associate to small cells compared to macro cells. To counter the effects of transmit power disparity, cell range expansion is used instead of the conventional strategy. The focus of our work is on load balancing using cell range expansion (CRE) and network utility optimization techniques to ensure fair sharing of load in a macro and pico cell LTE Advanced heterogeneous network. The aim is to investigate how to use an adaptive cell range expansion bias to optimize Pico cell coverage for load balancing. Reviewed literature points out several approaches to solve the load balancing problem in heterogeneous networks, which include, cell range expansion and utility function optimization. Then, we use cell range expansion, and logarithmic utility functions to design a load balancing algorithm. In the algorithm, user and base station associations are optimized by adapting CRE bias to pico base station load status. A price update mechanism based on a suboptimal solution of a network utility optimization problem is used to adapt the CRE bias. The price is derived from the load status of each pico base station. The performance of the algorithm was evaluated by means of an LTE MATLAB toolbox. Simulations were conducted according to 3GPP and ITU guidelines for modelling heterogeneous networks and propagation environment respectively. Compared to a static CRE configuration, the algorithm achieved more fairness in load distribution. Further, it achieved a better trade-off between cell edge and cell centre user throughputs. [Please note: this thesis file has been deferred until December 2016

An Innovative RAN Architecture for Emerging Heterogeneous Networks: The Road to the 5G Era

The global demand for mobile-broadband data services has experienced phenomenal growth over the last few years, driven by the rapid proliferation of smart devices such as smartphones and tablets. This growth is expected to continue unabated as mobile data traffic is predicted to grow anywhere from 20 to 50 times over the next 5 years. Exacerbating the problem is that such unprecedented surge in smartphones usage, which is characterized by frequent short on/off connections and mobility, generates heavy signaling traffic load in the network signaling storms . This consumes a disproportion amount of network resources, compromising network throughput and efficiency, and in extreme cases can cause the Third-Generation (3G) or 4G (long-term evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A)) cellular networks to crash. As the conventional approaches of improving the spectral efficiency and/or allocation additional spectrum are fast approaching their theoretical limits, there is a growing consensus that current 3G and 4G (LTE/LTE-A) cellular radio access technologies (RATs) won\u27t be able to meet the anticipated growth in mobile traffic demand. To address these challenges, the wireless industry and standardization bodies have initiated a roadmap for transition from 4G to 5G cellular technology with a key objective to increase capacity by 1000Ã? by 2020 . Even though the technology hasn\u27t been invented yet, the hype around 5G networks has begun to bubble. The emerging consensus is that 5G is not a single technology, but rather a synergistic collection of interworking technical innovations and solutions that collectively address the challenge of traffic growth. The core emerging ingredients that are widely considered the key enabling technologies to realize the envisioned 5G era, listed in the order of importance, are: 1) Heterogeneous networks (HetNets); 2) flexible backhauling; 3) efficient traffic offload techniques; and 4) Self Organizing Networks (SONs). The anticipated solutions delivered by efficient interworking/ integration of these enabling technologies are not simply about throwing more resources and /or spectrum at the challenge. The envisioned solution, however, requires radically different cellular RAN and mobile core architectures that efficiently and cost-effectively deploy and manage radio resources as well as offload mobile traffic from the overloaded core network. The main objective of this thesis is to address the key techno-economics challenges facing the transition from current Fourth-Generation (4G) cellular technology to the 5G era in the context of proposing a novel high-risk revolutionary direction to the design and implementation of the envisioned 5G cellular networks. The ultimate goal is to explore the potential and viability of cost-effectively implementing the 1000x capacity challenge while continuing to provide adequate mobile broadband experience to users. Specifically, this work proposes and devises a novel PON-based HetNet mobile backhaul RAN architecture that: 1) holistically addresses the key techno-economics hurdles facing the implementation of the envisioned 5G cellular technology, specifically, the backhauling and signaling challenges; and 2) enables, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the support of efficient ground-breaking mobile data and signaling offload techniques, which significantly enhance the performance of both the HetNet-based RAN and LTE-A\u27s core network (Evolved Packet Core (EPC) per 3GPP standard), ensure that core network equipment is used more productively, and moderate the evolving 5G\u27s signaling growth and optimize its impact. To address the backhauling challenge, we propose a cost-effective fiber-based small cell backhaul infrastructure, which leverages existing fibered and powered facilities associated with a PON-based fiber-to-the-Node/Home (FTTN/FTTH)) residential access network. Due to the sharing of existing valuable fiber assets, the proposed PON-based backhaul architecture, in which the small cells are collocated with existing FTTN remote terminals (optical network units (ONUs)), is much more economical than conventional point-to-point (PTP) fiber backhaul designs. A fully distributed ring-based EPON architecture is utilized here as the fiber-based HetNet backhaul. The techno-economics merits of utilizing the proposed PON-based FTTx access HetNet RAN architecture versus that of traditional 4G LTE-A\u27s RAN will be thoroughly examined and quantified. Specifically, we quantify the techno-economics merits of the proposed PON-based HetNet backhaul by comparing its performance versus that of a conventional fiber-based PTP backhaul architecture as a benchmark. It is shown that the purposely selected ring-based PON architecture along with the supporting distributed control plane enable the proposed PON-based FTTx RAN architecture to support several key salient networking features that collectively significantly enhance the overall performance of both the HetNet-based RAN and 4G LTE-A\u27s core (EPC) compared to that of the typical fiber-based PTP backhaul architecture in terms of handoff capability, signaling overhead, overall network throughput and latency, and QoS support. It will also been shown that the proposed HetNet-based RAN architecture is not only capable of providing the typical macro-cell offloading gain (RAN gain) but also can provide ground-breaking EPC offloading gain. The simulation results indicate that the overall capacity of the proposed HetNet scales with the number of deployed small cells, thanks to LTE-A\u27s advanced interference management techniques. For example, if there are 10 deployed outdoor small cells for every macrocell in the network, then the overall capacity will be approximately 10-11x capacity gain over a macro-only network. To reach the 1000x capacity goal, numerous small cells including 3G, 4G, and WiFi (femtos, picos, metros, relays, remote radio heads, distributed antenna systems) need to be deployed indoors and outdoors, at all possible venues (residences and enterprises)

Radio resource management strategies for interference mitigation in 4G heterogeneous wireless networks

The new era of mobile communications is dictated by the user demand for robust and high speed connections, data hungry applications and seamless connectivity. Operators and researchers all over the world are challenged to fulfill these requirements by providing enhanced coverage, increased capacity and efficient usage of the scarce spectrum. The introduction of the fourth generation systems (4G), LTE and LTE-A, have set the initiative for a technology evolution that offers new possibilities and is able to satisfy the user requirements and overcome the imposed challenges. However, and despite the improvements brought by the LTE and LTE-A systems, there are certain constraints that still need to be surpassed. LTE for example adopts innovating technologies, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access (OFDMA) that improves the spectral efficiency and reduces the Intra-Cell Interference. Nevertheless, Inter-Cell Interference (ICI) remains a constraining factor that can degrade the system capacity and limit the overall performance of the network. On that respect, Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC) techniques are adopted with target the interference mitigation. One of the limitations of these techniques is that follow static configurations lacking of flexibility and adaptation on network changes. Moreover, LTE-A employs enhanced and new techniques and involves alternative strategies. A promising solution lies on the introduction of Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets), which are networks that include low power small cells under the already existing macro cellular network and exploit several other technologies, such as WiFi. HetNets can further improve the network capacity, enhance the coverage and provide higher speed data transfer. However, due to the heterogeneous nature of the network, traditional methods for the user association, resource allocation and interference mitigation may not always be suitable since their design was based on homogeneous deployments. As such, new and enhanced methods are introduced, such as enhanced ICIC (eICIC), with their accompanied requirements and challenges. Motivated by the abovementioned aspects, this thesis has been focused on the study of ICIC and eICIC schemes, the identification of the related challenges, the enhancement of existing schemes and the proposal of novel solutions. In particular in the initial stages of the work, ICIC techniques have been studied and analyzed. A distributed algorithm that performs dynamic channel allocation has been developed for homogeneous deployments and extended later on to include heterogeneous networks. The solution has been optimized with the use of the Gibbs Sampler, while the setting of algorithm related parameters has been addressed through a detailed analysis. Moreover, a possible implementation of the solution has been presented in detail. The efficiency of the proposed schemes has been demonstrated through simulations and comparisons with benchmark schemes. In the next steps, the work has targeted eICIC techniques with purpose the investigation and analysis of the main constraining issues related to the user association, resource management and interference mitigation. Novel eICIC schemes that aim a better resource management and the overall capacity improvement have been developed and presented in detail, while the performance of the solutions has been shown through simulations and comparisons with reference schemes. Moreover, an optimized eICIC solution has been implemented based on genetic algorithms. Simulation results and comparisons with reference schemes have demonstrated the efficiency of the solution, while the selected configurations are discussed and analyzed.La nueva era de las comunicaciones móviles viene marcada por la demanda de los usuarios por conseguir conexiones robustas de alta velocidad que permitan soportar aplicaciones de datos de elevados requerimientos. El cumplimiento de estos requisitos conlleva la necesidad de mejorar la cobertura, incrementar la capacidad y utilizar el espectro eficientemente. La introducción de los sistemas de cuarta generación (4G), LTE y LTE-A, ha dado lugar a una tecnología que ofrece nuevas posibilidades y es capaz de satisfacer las necesidades de los usuarios y superar los retos impuestos. Sin embargo, y a pesar de las mejoras introducidas por estos sistemas, hay ciertas limitaciones que todavía tienen que ser superadas. LTE, por ejemplo, adopta tecnologías tales como OFDMA que mejora la eficiencia espectral y reduce la interferencia intracelular. Sin embargo, la interferencia intercelular (ICI) sigue siendo un factor limitante que puede degradar la capacidad del sistema y limitar el rendimiento global de la red. En ese sentido, se requieren técnicas de coordinación de interferencias intercelulares (ICIC) con el objetivo de mitigar dicha interferencia. Una de las limitaciones de estas técnicas es que siguen configuraciones estáticas que carecen de flexibilidad y capacidad de adaptación a los cambios de la red. Por otra parte, LTE-A introduce nuevas mejoras, como las redes heterogéneas (HetNets), que son redes que incluyen pequeñas células de baja potencia conjuntamente con la red macrocellular y también pueden explotar diferentes tecnologías, como WiFi. Las HetNets pueden mejorar aún más la capacidad de la red, mejorar la cobertura y facilitar la transferencia de datos de mayor velocidad. Sin embargo, debido a la naturaleza heterogénea de la red, los métodos tradicionales para la asociación de usuarios, asignación de recursos y reducción de la interferencia pueden no ser siempre adecuados, ya que su diseño se basó en despliegues homogéneos. En este sentido, es preciso introducir técnicas mejoradas de ICIC, denominadas en inglés eICIC (enhanced-ICIC), que involucran nuevos requerimientos y retos. En base a todos estos aspectos, esta tesis se ha centrado en el estudio de los sistemas de ICIC y eICIC en redes celulares, incluyendo la identificación de los retos relacionados con la mejora de los sistemas existentes y la propuesta de soluciones novedosas. En particular, en las etapas iniciales de la tesis se han estudiado y analizado las técnicas ICIC, y se ha desarrollado un algoritmo distribuido que realiza la asignación dinámica de canales para despliegues homogéneos, ampliándose posteriormente para su utilización en redes heterogéneas. La solución opera de forma optimizada mediante el uso de la técnica denominada Gibbs Sampler, mientras que el ajuste de parámetros relacionado con el algoritmo se ha abordado a través de un análisis detallado basado en simulaciones. Por otra parte, una posible implementación de la solución se ha presentado en detalle. La eficiencia de los esquemas propuestos se ha demostrado a través de simulaciones y comparaciones con sistemas de referencia. En los siguientes pasos, el trabajo se ha centrado en las técnicas eICIC con el propósito de investigar y analizar los principales problemas relacionadas con la asociación de usuarios, gestión de recursos y mitigación de la interferencia. A partir de aquí se han desarrollado nuevos esquemas de eICIC que tienen como objetivo una mejor gestión de los recursos y la mejora general de la capacidad. El rendimiento de las soluciones se ha demostrado a través de simulaciones y comparaciones con sistemas de referencia. Por otra parte, se ha propuesto una solución eICIC optimizada basada en algoritmos genéticos. La eficacia de dicha solución se ha demostrado mediante simulaciones, a la vez que se han analizado las diferentes configuraciones seleccionadas por el proceso de optimización.Postprint (published version

A Study about Heterogeneous Network Issues Management based on Enhanced Inter-cell Interference Coordination and Machine Learning Algorithms

Under the circumstance of fast growing demands for mobile data, Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) has been considered as one of the key technologies to solve 1000 times mobile data challenge in the coming decade. Although the unique multi-tier topology of HetNets has achieved high spectrum efficiency and enhanced Quality of Service (QoS), it also brings a series of critical issues. In this thesis, we present an investigation on understanding the cause of HetNets challenges and provide a research on state of arts techniques to solve three major issues: interference, offloading and handover. The first issue addressed in the thesis is the cross-tier interference of HetNets. We introduce Almost Blank Subframes (ABS) to free small cell UEs from cross-tier interference, which is the key technique of enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC). Nash Bargain Solution (NBS) is applied to optimize ABS ratio and UE partition. Furthermore, we propose a power based multi-layer NBS Algorithm to obtain optimal parameters of Further enhanced Inter-cell Interference Coordination (FeICIC), which significantly improve macrocell efficiency compared to eICIC. This algorithm not only introduces dynamic power ratio but also defined opportunity cost for each layer instead of conventional zero-cost partial fairness. Simulation results show the performance of proposed algorithm may achieve up to 31.4% user throughput gain compared to eICIC and fixed power ratio FeICIC. This thesis’ second focusing issue is offloading problem of HetNets. This includes (1) UE offloading from macro cell and (2) small cell backhaul offloading. For first aspect, we have discussed the capability of machine learning algorithms tackling this challenge and propose the User-Based K-means Algorithm (UBKCA). The proposed algorithm establishes a closed loop Self-Organization system on our HetNets scenario to maintain desired offloading factor of 50%, with cell edge user factor 17.5% and CRE bias of 8dB. For second part, we further apply machine learning clustering method to establish cache system, which may achieve up to 70.27% hit-ratio and reduce request latency by 60.21% for Youtube scenario. K-Nearest Neighbouring (KNN) is then applied to predict new users’ content preference and prove our cache system’s suitability. Besides that, we have also proposed a system to predict users’ content preference even if the collected data is not complete. The third part focuses on offloading phase within HetNets. This part detailed discusses CRE’s positive effect on mitigating ping-pong handover during UE offloading, and CRE’s negative effect on increasing cross-tier interference. And then a modified Markov Chain Process is established to map the handover phases for UE to offload from macro cell to small cell and vice versa. The transition probability of MCP has considered both effects of CRE so that the optimal CRE value for HetNets can be achieved, and result for our scenario is 7dB. The combination of CRE and Handover Margin is also discussed

Evolution Toward 5G Mobile Networks - A Survey on Enabling Technologies

In this paper, an extensive review has been carried out on the trends of existing as well as proposed potential enabling technologies that are expected to shape the fifth generation (5G) mobile wireless networks. Based on the classification of the trends, we develop a 5G network architectural evolution framework that comprises three evolutionary directions, namely, (1) radio access network node and performance enabler, (2) network control programming platform, and (3) backhaul network platform and synchronization. In (1), we discuss node classification including low power nodes in emerging machine-type communications, and network capacity enablers, e.g., millimeter wave communications and massive multiple-input multiple-output. In (2), both logically distributed cell/device-centric platforms, and logically centralized conventional/wireless software defined networking control programming approaches are discussed. In (3), backhaul networks and network synchronization are discussed. A comparative analysis for each direction as well as future evolutionary directions and challenges toward 5G networks are discussed. This survey will be helpful for further research exploitations and network operators for a smooth evolution of their existing networks toward 5G networks