17 research outputs found
How Much Can D2D Communication Reduce Content Delivery Latency in Fog Networks with Edge Caching?
A Fog-Radio Access Network (F-RAN) is studied in which cache-enabled Edge
Nodes (ENs) with dedicated fronthaul connections to the cloud aim at delivering
contents to mobile users. Using an information-theoretic approach, this work
tackles the problem of quantifying the potential latency reduction that can be
obtained by enabling Device-to-Device (D2D) communication over out-of-band
broadcast links. Following prior work, the Normalized Delivery Time (NDT) --- a
metric that captures the high signal-to-noise ratio worst-case latency --- is
adopted as the performance criterion of interest. Joint edge caching, downlink
transmission, and D2D communication policies based on compress-and-forward are
proposed that are shown to be information-theoretically optimal to within a
constant multiplicative factor of two for all values of the problem parameters,
and to achieve the minimum NDT for a number of special cases. The analysis
provides insights on the role of D2D cooperation in improving the delivery
latency.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Communication
Fundamental Limits of Cloud and Cache-Aided Interference Management with Multi-Antenna Edge Nodes
In fog-aided cellular systems, content delivery latency can be minimized by
jointly optimizing edge caching and transmission strategies. In order to
account for the cache capacity limitations at the Edge Nodes (ENs),
transmission generally involves both fronthaul transfer from a cloud processor
with access to the content library to the ENs, as well as wireless delivery
from the ENs to the users. In this paper, the resulting problem is studied from
an information-theoretic viewpoint by making the following practically relevant
assumptions: 1) the ENs have multiple antennas; 2) only uncoded fractional
caching is allowed; 3) the fronthaul links are used to send fractions of
contents; and 4) the ENs are constrained to use one-shot linear precoding on
the wireless channel. Assuming offline proactive caching and focusing on a high
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) latency metric, the optimal information-theoretic
performance is investigated under both serial and pipelined fronthaul-edge
transmission modes. The analysis characterizes the minimum high-SNR latency in
terms of Normalized Delivery Time (NDT) for worst-case users' demands. The
characterization is exact for a subset of system parameters, and is generally
optimal within a multiplicative factor of 3/2 for the serial case and of 2 for
the pipelined case. The results bring insights into the optimal interplay
between edge and cloud processing in fog-aided wireless networks as a function
of system resources, including the number of antennas at the ENs, the ENs'
cache capacity and the fronthaul capacity.Comment: 34 pages, 15 figures, submitte
Information-Theoretic Analysis of D2D-Aided Pipelined Content Delivery in Fog-RAN
In a Fog-Radio Access Network (F-RAN), edge caching and fronthaul
connectivity to a cloud processor are utilized for the purpose of content
delivery. Additional Device-to-Device (D2D) communication capabilities can
support the operation of an F-RAN by alleviating fronthaul and cloud processing
load, and reducing the delivery time. In this work, basic limits on the
normalized delivery time (NDT) metric, which captures the high signal-to-noise
ratio worst-case latency for delivering any requested content to the users, are
derived. Assuming proactive offline caching, out-of-band D2D communication, and
an F-RAN with two edge nodes and two users, an information-theoretically
optimal caching and delivery strategy is presented. Unlike prior work, the NDT
performance is studied under pipelined transmission, whereby the edge nodes
transmit on the wireless channel while simultaneously receiving messages over
the fronthaul links, and the users transmit messages over the D2D links while
at the same time receiving on the wireless channel. Insights are provided on
the regimes in which D2D communication is beneficial, and the maximum
improvement to the latency is characterized.Comment: This work was presented at 2018 15th International Symposium on
Wireless Communication Systems (ISWCS). arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1904.01256, arXiv:1801.0075
Online edge caching and wireless delivery in fog-aided networks
Multimedia content is the significant fraction of transferred data over the wireless medium in the modern cellular and wireless communication networks. To improve the quality of experience perceived by users, one promising solution is to push the most popular contents as close as to users, also known as the edge of network. Storing content at the edge nodes (ENs) or base stations (BSs) is called caching . In Fog Radio Access Network (F-RAN), each EN is equipped with a cache as well as a fronthaul connection to the content server. Among the new design problems raised by the outlined scenarios, two key issues are addressed in this dissertation: 1) How to utilize cache and fronthaul resources while taking into account the wireless channel impairments; 2) How to incorporate the time-variability of popular set in the performance evaluation of F-RAN. These aspects are investigated by using information-theoretic models, obtaining fundamental insights that have been corroborated by various illustrative examples. To address point 1), two scenarios are investigated. First, a single-cell scenario with two transmitters is considered. A fog-aided small-cell BS as one of the transmitters and a cloud-aided macro-cell BS as the second transmitter collaborate with each other to send the requested content over a partially connected wireless channel. The intended and interference channels are modeled by erasure channels. Assuming a static set of popular contents, offline caching maps the library of files to cached contents stored at small-cell BS such that the cache capacity requirement is met. The delivery time per bit (DTB) is adopted as a measure of the coding latency, that is, the duration of the transmission block, required for reliable delivery. It is proved that optimal DTB is a linear decreasing function of cache capacity as well as inversely proportional with capacity of fronthaul link. In the second scenario, the same single-cell model is used with the only caveat that the set of popular files is time-varying. In this case, online caching maps the library of files to cached contents at small-cell BS. Thanks to availability of popular set at macro-BS, the DTB is finite and has upper and lower bounds which are functions of system resources i.e., cache and fronthaul link capacities. As for point 2), the model is comprised of an arbitrary number of ENs and users connected through an interference-limited wireless channel at high-SNR regime. All equally important ENs are benefited from cache capacity as well as fronthaul connection to the content server. The time-variability of popular set necessitates online caching to enable ENs keep track of changes in the popular set. The analysis is centered on the characterization of the long-term Normalized Delivery Time (NDT), which captures the temporal dependence of the coding latencies accrued across multiple time slots in the high-SNR regime. Online edge caching and delivery schemes based on reactive and proactive caching principles are investigated for both serial and pipelined transmission modes across fronthaul and edge segments. The outcome of analytical results provides a controversial view of contemporary research on the edge caching. It is proved that with a time-varying set of popular files, the capacity of fronthaul link between ENs and content server set a fundamental limit on the system performance. This is due to the fact that the original information source is content server and the only way to retrieve information is via fronthaul links. While edge caching can provide some gains in term of reduced latency, the gain diminishes as a result of the fact that the cached content is prone to be outdated with time-varying popularity