218 research outputs found
Fronthaul-Constrained Cloud Radio Access Networks: Insights and Challenges
As a promising paradigm for fifth generation (5G) wireless communication
systems, cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) have been shown to reduce both
capital and operating expenditures, as well as to provide high spectral
efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE). The fronthaul in such networks,
defined as the transmission link between a baseband unit (BBU) and a remote
radio head (RRH), requires high capacity, but is often constrained. This
article comprehensively surveys recent advances in fronthaul-constrained
C-RANs, including system architectures and key techniques. In particular, key
techniques for alleviating the impact of constrained fronthaul on SE/EE and
quality of service for users, including compression and quantization,
large-scale coordinated processing and clustering, and resource allocation
optimization, are discussed. Open issues in terms of software-defined
networking, network function virtualization, and partial centralization are
also identified.Comment: 5 Figures, accepted by IEEE Wireless Communications. arXiv admin
note: text overlap with arXiv:1407.3855 by other author
Echo State Networks for Proactive Caching in Cloud-Based Radio Access Networks with Mobile Users
In this paper, the problem of proactive caching is studied for cloud radio
access networks (CRANs). In the studied model, the baseband units (BBUs) can
predict the content request distribution and mobility pattern of each user,
determine which content to cache at remote radio heads and BBUs. This problem
is formulated as an optimization problem which jointly incorporates backhaul
and fronthaul loads and content caching. To solve this problem, an algorithm
that combines the machine learning framework of echo state networks with
sublinear algorithms is proposed. Using echo state networks (ESNs), the BBUs
can predict each user's content request distribution and mobility pattern while
having only limited information on the network's and user's state. In order to
predict each user's periodic mobility pattern with minimal complexity, the
memory capacity of the corresponding ESN is derived for a periodic input. This
memory capacity is shown to be able to record the maximum amount of user
information for the proposed ESN model. Then, a sublinear algorithm is proposed
to determine which content to cache while using limited content request
distribution samples. Simulation results using real data from Youku and the
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications show that the proposed
approach yields significant gains, in terms of sum effective capacity, that
reach up to 27.8% and 30.7%, respectively, compared to random caching with
clustering and random caching without clustering algorithm.Comment: Accepted in the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication
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
Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation Optimization for Multimedia Heterogeneous Cloud Radio Access Networks
The heterogeneous cloud radio access network (H-CRAN) is a promising paradigm
which incorporates the cloud computing into heterogeneous networks (HetNets),
thereby taking full advantage of cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) and
HetNets. Characterizing the cooperative beamforming with fronthaul capacity and
queue stability constraints is critical for multimedia applications to
improving energy efficiency (EE) in H-CRANs. An energy-efficient optimization
objective function with individual fronthaul capacity and inter-tier
interference constraints is presented in this paper for queue-aware multimedia
H-CRANs. To solve this non-convex objective function, a stochastic optimization
problem is reformulated by introducing the general Lyapunov optimization
framework. Under the Lyapunov framework, this optimization problem is
equivalent to an optimal network-wide cooperative beamformer design algorithm
with instantaneous power, average power and inter-tier interference
constraints, which can be regarded as the weighted sum EE maximization problem
and solved by a generalized weighted minimum mean square error approach. The
mathematical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that a tradeoff
between EE and queuing delay can be achieved, and this tradeoff strictly
depends on the fronthaul constraint
Green OFDMA Resource Allocation in Cache-Enabled CRAN
Cloud radio access network (CRAN), in which remote radio heads (RRHs) are
deployed to serve users in a target area, and connected to a central processor
(CP) via limited-capacity links termed the fronthaul, is a promising candidate
for the next-generation wireless communication systems. Due to the
content-centric nature of future wireless communications, it is desirable to
cache popular contents beforehand at the RRHs, to reduce the burden on the
fronthaul and achieve energy saving through cooperative transmission. This
motivates our study in this paper on the energy efficient transmission in an
orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based CRAN with multiple
RRHs and users, where the RRHs can prefetch popular contents. We consider a
joint optimization of the user-SC assignment, RRH selection and transmit power
allocation over all the SCs to minimize the total transmit power of the RRHs,
subject to the RRHs' individual fronthaul capacity constraints and the users'
minimum rate constraints, while taking into account the caching status at the
RRHs. Although the problem is non-convex, we propose a Lagrange duality based
solution, which can be efficiently computed with good accuracy. We compare the
minimum transmit power required by the proposed algorithm with different
caching strategies against the case without caching by simulations, which show
the significant energy saving with caching.Comment: Presented in IEEE Online Conference on Green Communications (Online
GreenComm), Nov. 2016 (Invited Paper
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