Cellular and Wi-Fi technologies evolution: from complementarity to competition

This PhD thesis has the characteristic to span over a long time because while working on it, I was working as a research engineer at CTTC with highly demanding development duties. This has delayed the deposit more than I would have liked. On the other hand, this has given me the privilege of witnessing and studying how wireless technologies have been evolving over a decade from 4G to 5G and beyond. When I started my PhD thesis, IEEE and 3GPP were defining the two main wireless technologies at the time, Wi-Fi and LTE, for covering two substantially complementary market targets. Wi-Fi was designed to operate mostly indoor, in unlicensed spectrum, and was aimed to be a simple and cheap technology. Its primary technology for coexistence was based on the assumption that the spectrum on which it was operating was for free, and so it was designed with interference avoidance through the famous CSMA/CA protocol. On the other hand, 3GPP was designing technologies for licensed spectrum, a costly kind of spectrum. As a result, LTE was designed to take the best advantage of it while providing the best QoE in mainly outdoor scenarios. The PhD thesis starts in this context and evolves with these two technologies. In the first chapters, the thesis studies radio resource management solutions for standalone operation of Wi-Fi in unlicensed and LTE in licensed spectrum. We anticipated the now fundamental machine learning trend by working on machine learning-based radio resource management solutions to improve LTE and Wi-Fi operation in their respective spectrum. We pay particular attention to small cell deployments aimed at improving the spectrum efficiency in licensed spectrum, reproducing small range scenarios typical of Wi-Fi settings. IEEE and 3GPP followed evolving the technologies over the years: Wi-Fi has grown into a much more complex and sophisticated technology, incorporating the key features of cellular technologies, like HARQ, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, MAC scheduling and spatial reuse. On the other hand, since Release 13, cellular networks have also been designed for unlicensed spectrum. As a result, the two last chapters of this thesis focus on coexistence scenarios, in which LTE needs to be designed to coexist with Wi-Fi fairly, and NR, the radio access for 5G, with Wi-Fi in 5 GHz and WiGig in 60 GHz. Unlike LTE, which was adapted to operate in unlicensed spectrum, NR-U is natively designed with this feature, including its capability to operate in unlicensed in a complete standalone fashion, a fundamental new milestone for cellular. In this context, our focus of analysis changes. We consider that these two technological families are no longer targeting complementarity but are now competing, and we claim that this will be the trend for the years to come. To enable the research in these multi-RAT scenarios, another fundamental result of this PhD thesis, besides the scientific contributions, is the release of high fidelity models for LTE and NR and their coexistence with Wi-Fi and WiGig to the ns-3 open-source community. ns-3 is a popular open-source network simulator, with the characteristic to be multi-RAT and so naturally allows the evaluation of coexistence scenarios between different technologies. These models, for which I led the development, are by academic citations, the most used open-source simulation models for LTE and NR and havereceived fundings from industry (Ubiquisys, WFA, SpiderCloud, Interdigital, Facebook) and federal agencies (NIST, LLNL) over the years.Aquesta tesi doctoral té la característica d’allargar-se durant un llarg període de temps ja que mentre treballava en ella, treballava com a enginyera investigadora a CTTC amb tasques de desenvolupament molt exigents. Això ha endarrerit el dipositar-la més del que m’hagués agradat. D’altra banda, això m’ha donat el privilegi de ser testimoni i estudiar com han evolucionat les tecnologies sense fils durant més d’una dècada des del 4G fins al 5G i més enllà. Quan vaig començar la tesi doctoral, IEEE i 3GPP estaven definint les dues tecnologies sense fils principals en aquell moment, Wi-Fi i LTE, que cobreixen dos objectius de mercat substancialment complementaris. Wi-Fi va ser dissenyat per funcionar principalment en interiors, en espectre sense llicència, i pretenia ser una tecnologia senzilla i barata. La seva tecnologia primària per a la convivència es basava en el supòsit que l’espectre en el que estava operant era de franc, i, per tant, es va dissenyar simplement evitant interferències a través del famós protocol CSMA/CA. D’altra banda, 3GPP estava dissenyant tecnologies per a espectres amb llicència, un tipus d’espectre costós. Com a resultat, LTE està dissenyat per treure’n el màxim profit alhora que proporciona el millor QoE en escenaris principalment a l’aire lliure. La tesi doctoral comença amb aquest context i evoluciona amb aquestes dues tecnologies. En els primers capítols, estudiem solucions de gestió de recursos de radio per a operacions en espectre de Wi-Fi sense llicència i LTE amb llicència. Hem anticipat l’actual tendència fonamental d’aprenentatge automàtic treballant solucions de gestió de recursos de radio basades en l’aprenentatge automàtic per millorar l’LTE i Wi-Fi en el seu espectre respectiu. Prestem especial atenció als desplegaments de cèl·lules petites destinades a millorar la eficiència d’espectre llicenciat, reproduint escenaris de petit abast típics de la configuració Wi-Fi. IEEE i 3GPP van seguir evolucionant les tecnologies al llarg dels anys: El Wi-Fi s’ha convertit en una tecnologia molt més complexa i sofisticada, incorporant les característiques clau de les tecnologies cel·lulars, com ara HARQ i la reutilització espacial. D’altra banda, des de la versió 13, també s’han dissenyat xarxes cel·lulars per a espectre sense llicència. Com a resultat, els dos darrers capítols d’aquesta tesi es centren en aquests escenaris de convivència, on s’ha de dissenyar LTE per conviure amb la Wi-Fi de manera justa, i NR, l’accés a la radio per a 5G amb Wi-Fi a 5 GHz i WiGig a 60 GHz. A diferència de LTE, que es va adaptar per funcionar en espectre sense llicència, NR-U està dissenyat de forma nativa amb aquesta característica, inclosa la seva capacitat per operar sense llicència de forma autònoma completa, una nova fita fonamental per al mòbil. En aquest context, el nostre focus d’anàlisi canvia. Considerem que aquestes dues famílies de tecnologia ja no estan orientades cap a la complementarietat, sinó que ara competeixen, i afirmem que aquesta serà el tendència per als propers anys. Per permetre la investigació en aquests escenaris multi-RAT, un altre resultat fonamental d’aquesta tesi doctoral, a més de les aportacions científiques, és l’alliberament de models d’alta fidelitat per a LTE i NR i la seva coexistència amb Wi-Fi a la comunitat de codi obert ns-3. ns-3 és un popular simulador de xarxa de codi obert, amb la característica de ser multi-RAT i, per tant, permet l’avaluació de manera natural d’escenaris de convivència entre diferents tecnologies. Aquests models, pels quals he liderat el desenvolupament, són per cites acadèmiques, els models de simulació de codi obert més utilitzats per a LTE i NR i que han rebut finançament de la indústria (Ubiquisys, WFA, SpiderCloud, Interdigital, Facebook) i agències federals (NIST, LLNL) al llarg dels anys.Esta tesis doctoral tiene la característica de extenderse durante mucho tiempo porque mientras trabajaba en ella, trabajaba como ingeniera de investigación en CTTC con tareas de desarrollo muy exigentes. Esto ha retrasado el depósito más de lo que me hubiera gustado. Por otro lado, gracias a ello, he tenido el privilegio de presenciar y estudiar como las tecnologías inalámbricas han evolucionado durante una década, de 4G a 5G y más allá. Cuando comencé mi tesis doctoral, IEEE y 3GPP estaban definiendo las dos principales tecnologías inalámbricas en ese momento, Wi-Fi y LTE, cumpliendo dos objetivos de mercado sustancialmente complementarios. Wi-Fi fue diseñado para funcionar principalmente en interiores, en un espectro sin licencia, y estaba destinado a ser una tecnología simple y barata. Su tecnología primaria para la convivencia se basaba en el supuesto en que el espectro en el que estaba operando era gratis, y así fue diseñado simplemente evitando interferencias a través del famoso protocolo CSMA/CA. Por otro lado, 3GPP estaba diseñando tecnologías para espectro con licencia, un tipo de espectro costoso. Como resultado, LTE está diseñado para aprovechar el espectro al máximo proporcionando al mismo tiempo el mejor QoE en escenarios principalmente al aire libre. La tesis doctoral parte de este contexto y evoluciona con estas dos tecnologías. En los primeros capítulos, estudiamos las soluciones de gestión de recursos de radio para operación en espectro Wi-Fi sin licencia y LTE con licencia. Anticipamos la tendencia ahora fundamental de aprendizaje automático trabajando en soluciones de gestión de recursos de radio para mejorar LTE y funcionamiento deWi-Fi en su respectivo espectro. Prestamos especial atención a las implementaciones de células pequeñas destinadas a mejorar la eficiencia de espectro licenciado, reproduciendo los típicos escenarios de rango pequeño de la configuración Wi-Fi. IEEE y 3GPP siguieron evolucionando las tecnologías a lo largo de los años: Wi-Fi se ha convertido en una tecnología mucho más compleja y sofisticada, incorporando las características clave de las tecnologías celulares, como HARQ, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, MAC scheduling y la reutilización espacial. Por otro lado, desde la Release 13, también se han diseñado redes celulares para espectro sin licencia. Como resultado, los dos últimos capítulos de esta tesis se centran en estos escenarios de convivencia, donde LTE debe diseñarse para coexistir con Wi-Fi de manera justa, y NR, el acceso por radio para 5G con Wi-Fi en 5 GHz y WiGig en 60 GHz. A diferencia de LTE, que se adaptó para operar en espectro sin licencia, NR-U está diseñado de forma nativa con esta función, incluyendo su capacidad para operar sin licencia de forma completamente independiente, un nuevo hito fundamental para los celulares. En este contexto, cambia nuestro enfoque de análisis. Consideramos que estas dos familias tecnológicas ya no tienen como objetivo la complementariedad, sino que ahora están compitiendo, y afirmamos que esta será la tendencia para los próximos años. Para permitir la investigación en estos escenarios de múltiples RAT, otro resultado fundamental de esta tesis doctoral, además de los aportes científicos, es el lanzamiento de modelos de alta fidelidad para LTE y NR y su coexistencia con Wi-Fi y WiGig a la comunidad de código abierto de ns-3. ns-3 es un simulador popular de red de código abierto, con la característica de ser multi-RAT y así, naturalmente, permite la evaluación de escenarios de convivencia entre diferentes tecnologías. Estos modelos, para los cuales lideré el desarrollo, son por citas académicas, los modelos de simulación de código abierto más utilizados para LTE y NR y han recibido fondos de la industria (Ubiquisys, WFA, SpiderCloud, Interdigital, Facebook) y agencias federales (NIST, LLNL) a lo largo de los años.Postprint (published version

Machine learning enabled Wi-Fi saturation sensing for fair coexistence in unlicensed spectrum

In the past few years, machine learning (ML) techniques have been extensively applied to provide efficient solutions to complex wireless network problems. As such, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Q-learning based ML techniques are most popular to achieve harmonized coexistence of Wi-Fi with other co-located technologies such as LTE. In the existing coexistence schemes, a co-located technology selects its transmission time based on the level of Wi-Fi traffic generated in its collision domain which is determined by either sniffing the Wi-Fi packets or using a central coordinator that can communicate with the co-located networks to exchange their status and requirements through a collaboration protocol. However, such approaches for sensing traffic status increase cost, complexity, traffic overhead, and reaction time of the coexistence schemes. As a solution to this problem, this work applies a ML-based approach that is capable to determine the saturation status of a Wi-Fi network based on real-time and over-the-air collection of medium occupation statistics about the Wi-Fi frames without the need for decoding. In particular, inter-frame spacing statistics of Wi-Fi frames are used to develop a CNN model that can determine Wi-Fi network saturation. The results demonstrate that the proposed ML-based approach can accurately classify whether a Wi-Fi network is saturated or not

LTE-LAA 성능 향상을 위한 MAC 계층 기법

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 전기·컴퓨터공학부, 2019. 2. 최성현.3GPP long term evolution (LTE) operation in unlicensed spectrum is emerging as a promising technology in achieving higher data rate with LTE since ultra-wide unlicensed spectrum, e.g., about 500 MHz at 5–6 GHz range, is available in most countries. Recently, 3GPP has finalized standardization of licensed-assisted access (LAA) for LTE operation in 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum, which has been a playground only for Wi-Fi. In this dissertation, we propose the following three strategies to enhance the performance of LAA: (1) Receiver-aware COT adaptation, (2) Collision-aware link adaptation, and (3) Power and energy detection threshold adaptation. First, LAA has a fixed maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT), which is the maximum continuous transmission time after channel sensing, while Wi-Fi may transmit for much shorter time duration. As a result, when Wi-Fi coexists with LAA, Wi-Fi airtime and throughput can be much less than those achieved when Wi-Fi coexists with another Wi-Fi. To guarantee fair airtime and improve throughput of Wi-Fi, we propose a receiver-aware channel occupancy time (COT) adaptation ( RACOTA ) algorithm, which observes Wi-Fi aggregate MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU) frames and matches LAAs COT to the duration of A-MPDU frames when any Wi-Fi receiver has more data to receive. Moreover, RACOTA detects saturation of Wi-Fi traffic and adjusts COT only if Wi-Fi traffic is saturated. We prototype saturation detection algorithm of RACOTA with commercial off-the-shelf Wi-Fi device and show that RACOTA detects saturation of Wi-Fi networks accurately. Through ns-3 simulations, we demonstrate that RACOTA provides airtime fairness between LAA and Wi-Fi while achieves up to 334% Wi-Fi throughput gain. Second, the link adaptation scheme of the conventional LTE, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), cannot operate well in the unlicensed band due to intermittent collisions. Intermittent collisions make LAA eNB lower modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the subsequent transmission and such unnecessarily lowered MCS significantly degrades spectral efficiency. To address this problem, we propose a collision-aware link adaptation algorithm ( COALA ). COALA exploits k-means unsupervised clustering algorithm to discriminate channel quality indicator (CQI) reports which are measured with collision interference and selects the most suitable MCS for the next transmission. By prototype-based experiments, we demonstrate that COALA detects collisions accurately, and by conducting ns-3 simulations in various scenarios, we also show that COALA achieves up to 74.9% higher user perceived throughput than AMC. Finally, we propose PETAL to mitigate the negative impact of spatial reuse (SR) operation. We first design the baseline algorithm, which operates SR aggressively, and show that the baseline algorithm degrades the throughput performance severely when the UE is close to an interferer. Our proposed algorithm PETAL estimates and compares the spectral efficiency for the SR operation and non-SR operation. Then, PETAL operates SR only if the spectral efficiency of SR operation is expected to be higher than the case of non-SR operation. Our simulation verifies the performance of PETAL in various scenarios. When two pair of an eNB and a UE coexists, PETAL improves the throughput by up to 329% over the baseline algorithm. In summary, we identify interesting problems that appeared with LAA and shows the impact of the problems through the extensive simulations and propose compelling algorithms to solve the problems. The airtime fairness between Wi-Fi and LAA is improved with COT adaptation. Furthermore, link adaptation accuracy and SR operation are improved by exploiting CQI reports history. The performance of the proposed schemes is verified by system level simulation.비면허 대역에서의 LTE 동작은 더 높은 데이터 전송률을 달성하는 유망한 기술로 부각되고 있다. 최근 3GPP는 기존 Wi-Fi 기술이 사용하던 5 GHz 비면허 대역에서 LTE를 사용하는 licensed-assisted access (LAA) 기술의 표준화를 완료하였다. 본 논문에서 우리는 LAA의 성능을 향상시키기 위해 다음과 같은 세 가지 전략을 제안한다: (1) 수신기 인식 채널 점유 시간 적응, (2) 충돌 인식 링크 적응, (3) 전력 및 에너지 검출 역치 적응. 첫째, LAA는 고정된 최대 채널 점유 시간을 가지고 있고 그 시간 만큼 연속적으로 전송할 수 있는 반면, Wi-Fi는 비교적 짧은 시간 동안만 연속적으로 전송할 수 있다. 그 결과 Wi-Fi가 LAA와 공존할 때 Wi-Fi의 airtime과 수율 성능은 Wi-Fi가 또 다른 Wi-Fi와 공존할 때에 비하여 저하되게된다. 따라서 우리는 Wi-Fi의 airtime과 수율 성능을 향상시키기 위하여 Wi-Fi의 A-MPDU 프레임 전송 시간에 맞추어 LAA의 채널 점유 시간을 조절하는 수신기 인식 채널 점유 시간 적응 기법인 RACOTA를 제안한다. RACOTA 는 포화 감지 결과 Wi-Fi 수신기가 더 받을 데이터가 있다고 판단될 때에만 채널 점유 시간을 조절한다. 우리는 RACOTA 의 포화 감지 알고리즘을 상용 Wi-Fi 장비에 구현하여 이를 바탕으로 실측을 통해 RACOTA 가 공존하는 Wi-Fi의 포화 여부를 정확하게 감지해냄을 보인다. 또한 우리는 ns-3 시뮬레이션을 통하여 RACOTA 를 사용하는 LAA가 공존하는 Wi-Fi에게 공정한 airtime을 제공하고 기존 LAA와 공존하는 Wi-Fi 대비 최대 334%의 Wi-Fi 수율 성능 향상을 가져옴을 보인다. 둘째, 간헐적인 충돌이 발생할 수 있는 비면허 대역에서는 기존 LTE의 링크 적응 기법인 adaptive modulation and coding (AMC)이 잘 동작하지 않을 수 있다. 간헐적인 충돌은 LAA 기지국으로 하여금 modulation and coding scheme (MCS)을 낮추어서 다음 전송을 하도록 하는데 다음 전송 시에 충돌이 발생하지 않는다면 불필요하게 낮춘 MCS로 인해 주파수 효율이 크게 저하된다. 이러한 문제를 해결하기위해 우리는 충돌 인식 링크 적응 기법인 COALA 를 제안한다. COALA 는 k-means 무감독 클러스터링 알고리즘을 사용하여 channel quality indicator (CQI) 리포트 중 충돌 간섭에 영향을 받은 CQI 리포트들을 구별해내고 이를 통해 다음 전송을 위한 최적의 MCS를 선택한다. 우리는 실측을 통하여 COALA 가 정확하게 충돌을 감지해냄을 보인다. 또한 우리는 다양한 환경에서의 ns-3 시뮬레이션을 통하여 COALA 가 AMC 대비 최대 74.9%의 사용자 인식 수율 성능 향상을 가져옴을 보인다. 셋째, 우리는 공간 재사용 동작의 부작용을 최소화하기 위하여 수신 단말을 고려하여 전송 파워 및 에너지 검출 역치를 적응적으로 조절하는 PETAL 알고리즘을 제안한다. 우리는 먼저 수신 단말을 고려하지 않고 공격적으로 공간 재사용 동작을 하는 baseline 알고리즘을 설계하고 다양한 환경에서의 시뮬레이션을 통하여 수신 단말이 간섭원에 가까운 경우 baseline 알고리즘의 성능이 심각하게 열화됨을 보인다. 제안하는 알고리즘인 PETAL 은 수신 단말로부터 받은 CQI 리포트 정보와 채널 점유 시점까지의 평균 대기 시간을 이용하여 공간 재사용 동작을 할 때 예상되는 주파수 효율과 공간 재사용 동작을 하지 않을 때 예상되는 주파수 효율을 비교하여 공간 재사용 동작을 할 때 예상되는 주파수 효율이 더 클 때에만 공간 재사용 동작을 한다. 우리는 다양한 환경에서의 ns-3 시뮬레이션을 통하여 PETAL 이 baseline 알고리즘 대비 최대 329%의 수율 성능 향상을 가져옴을 보인다. 요약하자면, 우리는 LAA의 등장과 함께 새롭게 대두되는 흥미로운 문제들을 확인하고 문제들의 심각성을 다양한 환경에서의 시뮬레이션을 통하여 살펴보고 이 러한 문제들을 해결할 수 있는 알고리즘들을 제안한다. Wi-Fi와 LAA 사이의 airtime 공정성은 LAA의 연속 전송 시간을 적응적으로 조절하여 개선할 수 있다. 또한 링크 적응 정확도와 공간 재사용 동작의 효율성은 CQI 리포트들의 분포를 이용하여 개선할 수 있다. 제안하는 알고리즘들의 성능은 시스템 레벨 시뮬레이션을 통하여 검증되었다.1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Overview of Existing Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3 Main Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3.1 RACOTA: Receiver-Aware Channel Occupancy Time Adaptation for LTE-LAA . . . . . . . 2 1.3.2 COALA: Collision-Aware Link Adaptation for LTE-LAA . . 3 1.3.3 PETAL: Power and Energy Detection Threshold Adaptation for LAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.4 Organization of the Dissertation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2 RACOTA:Receiver-AwareChannelOccupancyTimeAdaptationforLTE- LAA 6 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.2 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.3 MAC Mechanisms of Wi-Fi and LAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.3.1 Wi-Fi MAC Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.3.2 LAA Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.3.3 Wide Bandwidth Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.4 Coexistence performance of LAA and Wi-Fi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.4.1 Simulation Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.4.2 Unfairness between LAA and Wi-Fi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.5 Receiver-Aware COT Adaptation Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.5.1 Saturation Detection (SD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.5.2 Receiver-Aware COT Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.6 Performance Evaluation of SD Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.6.1 Measurement Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.6.2 PPDUMaxTime Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2.6.3 Saturation Detection Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.7 Performance Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 2.7.1 Saturated Traffic Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.7.2 Unsaturated Traffic Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2.7.3 Bursty Traffic Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2.7.4 Heterogeneous Wi-Fi Traffic Generation Scenario . . . . . . 31 2.7.5 Multiple Node Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3 COALA: Collision-Aware Link Adaptation for LTE-LAA 36 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3.2 Backgound and Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.2.1 LAA and LBT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.2.2 AMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 3.2.3 Inter-Cell Interference Cancellation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 3.2.4 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 3.3 Impact of Collision to Link Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 3.4 COALA: Collision-aware Link Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3.4.1 CQI Clustering Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 3.4.2 Collision Detection and Collision Probability Estimation . . . 48 3.4.3 Suitable MCS Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 3.5 Performance Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 3.5.1 Prototype-based Feasibility Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3.5.2 Contention Collision with LAA eNBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.5.3 Hidden Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.5.4 Bursty Hidden Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3.5.5 Contention Collision with Wi-Fi Transmitters . . . . . . . . . 58 3.6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 4 PETAL: Power and Energy Detection Threshold Adaptation for LAA 62 4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 4.2 Backgound and Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 4.2.1 Energy Detection Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 4.2.2 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 4.3 Baseline Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 4.3.1 Design of the Baseline Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 4.3.2 Performance of the Baseline Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 4.4 PETAL: Power and Energy Detection Threshold Adaptation . . . . . 68 4.4.1 CQI Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 4.4.2 Success Probability and Airtime Ratio Estimation . . . . . . . 69 4.4.3 CQI Clustering Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.4.4 SR Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.5 Performance Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.5.1 Two Cell Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 4.5.2 Coexistence with Standard LAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4.5.3 Four Cell Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 4.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 5 Concluding Remarks 79 5.1 Research Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Abstract (In Korean) 88 감사의 글 92Docto

FAIR SHARING of CHANNEL RESOURCES in the COEXISTENCE of HETEROGENEOUS WIRELESS NETWORKS

Increasing spectrum resources in cellular networks are always needed to carry the exponential data traffic growth in wireless cellular networks. Limited spectrum resources in the licensed band have necessitated Long-Term Evolution (LTE) to explore available unlicensed spectrum where an incumbent WiFi system already exists. With the deployment of Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) that utilizes Listen Before Talk (LBT) for channel access in the unlicensed spectrum along with an incumbent WiFi, the coexistence of LAA and WiFi with acceptable fairness is a major challenge. In this work, we address the issues of licensed assisted access coexisting with incumbent WiFi in an unlicensed spectrum and provide solutions to dynamically tune system parameters of LAA stations to achieve maximum total throughput from the overall system taking into account fair allocation of throughput and airtime across different networks and stations. One major system parameter we study is the contention window size for back-off. Using the method of coupled Markov Chain, we show how an inherent trade-off between throughput and airtime fairness can be managed by adjusting the CW size of LAA. For single-channel, we show how coexistence with WiFi can be managed better with LAA-Cat3 than LAA-Cat4 when total throughput and fairness are to be taken into account. For multi-carrier sensing, we establish better coexistence by optimizing contention window sizes of each LAA station separately using an assignment technique based on a genetic algorithm. We extend our work into dual-carrier aggregation where some stations have the ability to combine two independent channels into a single aggregated channel to achieve higher performance. We show that in such a dual-carrier aggregation scenario, the distribution of stations (partition) over an individual and aggregated channel, and the system parameters (contention window size and load intensity) could be optimized to ensure fair allocation of resources without affecting the secondary channel too much

Survey of Spectrum Sharing for Inter-Technology Coexistence

Increasing capacity demands in emerging wireless technologies are expected to be met by network densification and spectrum bands open to multiple technologies. These will, in turn, increase the level of interference and also result in more complex inter-technology interactions, which will need to be managed through spectrum sharing mechanisms. Consequently, novel spectrum sharing mechanisms should be designed to allow spectrum access for multiple technologies, while efficiently utilizing the spectrum resources overall. Importantly, it is not trivial to design such efficient mechanisms, not only due to technical aspects, but also due to regulatory and business model constraints. In this survey we address spectrum sharing mechanisms for wireless inter-technology coexistence by means of a technology circle that incorporates in a unified, system-level view the technical and non-technical aspects. We thus systematically explore the spectrum sharing design space consisting of parameters at different layers. Using this framework, we present a literature review on inter-technology coexistence with a focus on wireless technologies with equal spectrum access rights, i.e. (i) primary/primary, (ii) secondary/secondary, and (iii) technologies operating in a spectrum commons. Moreover, we reflect on our literature review to identify possible spectrum sharing design solutions and performance evaluation approaches useful for future coexistence cases. Finally, we discuss spectrum sharing design challenges and suggest future research directions

A Q-learning scheme for fair coexistence between LTE and Wi-Fi in unlicensed spectrum

During the last years, the growth of wireless traffic pushed the wireless community to search for solutions that can assist in a more efficient management of the spectrum. Toward this direction, the operation of long term evolution (LTE) in unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) has been proposed. Targeting a global solution that respects the regional regulations worldwide, 3GPP has published the LTE licensed assisted access (LAA) standard. According to LTE LAA, a listen before talk (LBT) procedure must precede any LTE transmission burst in the unlicensed spectrum. However, the proposed standard may cause coexistence issues between LTE and Wi-Fi, especially in the case that the latter does not use frame aggregation. Toward the provision of a balanced channel access, we have proposed mLTE-U that is an adaptive LTE LBT scheme. According to mLTE-U, LTE uses a variable transmission opportunity (TXOP), followed by a variable muting period. This muting period can be exploited by co-located Wi-Fi networks to gain access to the medium. In this paper, the system model of the mLTE-U scheme in coexistence with Wi-Fi is studied. In addition, mLTE-U is enhanced with a Q-learning technique that is used for autonomous selection of the appropriate combinations of TXOP and muting period that can provide fair coexistence between co-located mLTE-U and Wi-Fi networks. Simulation results showcase the performance of the proposed model and reveal the benefit of using Q-learning for self-adaptation of mLTE-U to the changes of the dynamic wireless environment, toward fair coexistence with Wi-Fi. Finally, the Q-learning mechanism is compared with conventional selection schemes showing the superior performance of the proposed model over less complex mechanisms

Future Wireless Networks: Towards Learning-driven Sixth-generation Wireless Communications

The evolution of wireless communication networks, from present to the emerging fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR), and sixth-generation (6G) is inevitable, yet propitious. The thesis evolves around application of machine learning and optimization techniques to problems in spectrum management, internet-of-things (IoT), physical layer security, and intelligent reflecting surface (IRS). The first problem explores License Assisted Access (LAA), which leverages unlicensed resource sharing with the Wi-Fi network as a promising technique to address the spectrum scarcity issue in wireless networks. An optimal communication policy is devised which maximizes the throughput performance of LAA network while guaranteeing a proportionally fair performance among LAA stations and a fair share for Wi-Fi stations. The numerical results demonstrate more than 75 % improvement in the LAA throughput and a notable gain of 8-9 % in the fairness index. Next, we investigate the unlicensed spectrum sharing for bandwidth hungry diverse IoT networks in 5G NR. An efficient coexistence mechanism based on the idea of adaptive initial sensing duration (ISD) is proposed to enhance the diverse IoT-NR network performance while keeping the primary Wi-Fi network's performance to a bearable threshold. A Q-learning (QL) based algorithm is devised to maximize the normalized sum throughput of the coexistence Wi-Fi/IoT-NR network. The results confirm a maximum throughput gain of 51 % and ensure that the Wi-Fi network's performance remains intact. Finally, advanced levels of network security are critical to maintain due to severe signal attenuation at higher frequencies of 6G wireless communication. Thus, an IRS-based model is proposed to address the issue of network security under trusted-untrusted device diversity, where the untrusted devices may potentially eavesdrop on the trusted devices. A deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm is devised to jointly optimize the active and passive beamforming matrices. The results confirm a maximum gain of 2-2.5 times in the sum secrecy rate of trusted devices and ensure Quality-of-Service (QoS) for all the devices. In conclusion, the thesis has led towards efficient, secure, and smart communication and build foundation to address similar complex wireless networks

Enabling Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications through Unlicensed Spectrum

© 2018 IEEE. In this article, we aim to address the question of how to exploit the unlicensed spectrum to achieve URLLC. Potential URLLC PHY mechanisms are reviewed and then compared via simulations to demonstrate their potential benefits to URLLC. Although a number of important PHY techniques help with URLLC, the PHY layer exhibits an intrinsic trade-off between latency and reliability, posed by limited and unstable wireless channels. We then explore MAC mechanisms and discuss multi-channel strategies for achieving low-latency LTE unlicensed band access. We demonstrate, via simulations, that the periods without access to the unlicensed band can be substantially reduced by maintaining channel access processes on multiple unlicensed channels, choosing the channels intelligently, and implementing RTS/CTS

Measurement and Optimization of LTE Performance

4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile system is the fourth generation communication system adopted worldwide to provide high-speed data connections and high-quality voice calls. Given the recent deployment by mobile service providers, unlike GSM and UMTS, LTE can be still considered to be in its early stages and therefore many topics still raise great interest among the international scientific research community: network performance assessment, network optimization, selective scheduling, interference management and coexistence with other communication systems in the unlicensed band, methods to evaluate human exposure to electromagnetic radiation are, as a matter of fact, still open issues. In this work techniques adopted to increase LTE radio performances are investigated. One of the most wide-spread solutions proposed by the standard is to implement MIMO techniques and within a few years, to overcome the scarcity of spectrum, LTE network operators will offload data traffic by accessing the unlicensed 5 GHz frequency. Our Research deals with an evaluation of 3GPP standard in a real test best scenario to evaluate network behavior and performance