Separation Framework: An Enabler for Cooperative and D2D Communication for Future 5G Networks

Soaring capacity and coverage demands dictate that future cellular networks need to soon migrate towards ultra-dense networks. However, network densification comes with a host of challenges that include compromised energy efficiency, complex interference management, cumbersome mobility management, burdensome signaling overheads and higher backhaul costs. Interestingly, most of the problems, that beleaguer network densification, stem from legacy networks' one common feature i.e., tight coupling between the control and data planes regardless of their degree of heterogeneity and cell density. Consequently, in wake of 5G, control and data planes separation architecture (SARC) has recently been conceived as a promising paradigm that has potential to address most of aforementioned challenges. In this article, we review various proposals that have been presented in literature so far to enable SARC. More specifically, we analyze how and to what degree various SARC proposals address the four main challenges in network densification namely: energy efficiency, system level capacity maximization, interference management and mobility management. We then focus on two salient features of future cellular networks that have not yet been adapted in legacy networks at wide scale and thus remain a hallmark of 5G, i.e., coordinated multipoint (CoMP), and device-to-device (D2D) communications. After providing necessary background on CoMP and D2D, we analyze how SARC can particularly act as a major enabler for CoMP and D2D in context of 5G. This article thus serves as both a tutorial as well as an up to date survey on SARC, CoMP and D2D. Most importantly, the article provides an extensive outlook of challenges and opportunities that lie at the crossroads of these three mutually entangled emerging technologies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 201

Performance Analysis of Cognitive Radio Systems with Imperfect Channel Knowledge

An analytical framework is established to characterize the effects such as time allocation and variation, arising due to the incorporation of imperfect channel knowledge, that are detrimental to the performance of the cognitive radio systems. In order to facilitate hardware deployment of a cognitive radio system, received power-based estimation, a novel channel estimation technique is employed for the channels existing between the primary and the secondary systems, thus fulfilling low-complexity and versatility requirements

Spectrum Sharing, Latency, and Security in 5G Networks with Application to IoT and Smart Grid

The surge of mobile devices, such as smartphones, and tables, demands additional capacity. On the other hand, Internet-of-Things (IoT) and smart grid, which connects numerous sensors, devices, and machines require ubiquitous connectivity and data security. Additionally, some use cases, such as automated manufacturing process, automated transportation, and smart grid, require latency as low as 1 ms, and reliability as high as 99.99\%. To enhance throughput and support massive connectivity, sharing of the unlicensed spectrum (3.5 GHz, 5GHz, and mmWave) is a potential solution. On the other hand, to address the latency, drastic changes in the network architecture is required. The fifth generation (5G) cellular networks will embrace the spectrum sharing and network architecture modifications to address the throughput enhancement, massive connectivity, and low latency. To utilize the unlicensed spectrum, we propose a fixed duty cycle based coexistence of LTE and WiFi, in which the duty cycle of LTE transmission can be adjusted based on the amount of data. In the second approach, a multi-arm bandit learning based coexistence of LTE and WiFi has been developed. The duty cycle of transmission and downlink power are adapted through the exploration and exploitation. This approach improves the aggregated capacity by 33\%, along with cell edge and energy efficiency enhancement. We also investigate the performance of LTE and ZigBee coexistence using smart grid as a scenario. In case of low latency, we summarize the existing works into three domains in the context of 5G networks: core, radio and caching networks. Along with this, fundamental constraints for achieving low latency are identified followed by a general overview of exemplary 5G networks. Besides that, a loop-free, low latency and local-decision based routing protocol is derived in the context of smart grid. This approach ensures low latency and reliable data communication for stationary devices. To address data security in wireless communication, we introduce a geo-location based data encryption, along with node authentication by k-nearest neighbor algorithm. In the second approach, node authentication by the support vector machine, along with public-private key management, is proposed. Both approaches ensure data security without increasing the packet overhead compared to the existing approaches

Improving Frequency Reuse and Cochannel Interference Coordination in 4G HetNets

This report describes my M.A.Sc. thesis research work. The emerging 4th generation (4G) mobile systems and networks (so called 4G HetNets) are designed as multilayered cellular topology with a number of asymmetrically located, asymmetrically powered, self-organizing, and user-operated indoor small cell (e.g., pico/femto cells and WLANs) with a variety of cell architectures that are overlaid by a large cell (macro cell) with some or all interfering wireless links. These designs of 4G HetNets bring new challenges such as increased dynamics of user mobility and data traffic trespassing over the multi-layered cell boundaries. Traditional approaches of radio resource allocation and inter-cell (cochannel) interference management that are mostly centralized and static in the network core and are carried out pre-hand by the operator in 3G and lower cellular technologies, are liable to increased signaling overhead, latencies, complexities, and scalability issues and, thus, are not viable in case of 4G HetNets. In this thesis a comprehensive research study is carried out on improving the radio resource sharing and inter-cell interference management in 4G HetNets. The solution strategy exploits dynamic and adaptive channel allocation approaches such as dynamic and opportunistic spectrum access (DSA, OSA) techniques, through exploiting the spatiotemporal diversities among transmissions in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based medium access in 4G HetNets. In this regards, a novel framework named as Hybrid Radio Resource Sharing (HRRS) is introduced. HRRS comprises of these two functional modules: Cognitive Radio Resource Sharing (CRRS) and Proactive Link Adaptation (PLA) scheme. A dynamic switching algorithm enables CRRS and PLA modules to adaptively invoke according to whether orthogonal channelization is to be carried out exploiting the interweave channel allocation (ICA) approach or non-orthogonal channelization is to be carried out exploiting the underlay channel allocation (UCA) approach respectively when relevant conditions regarding the traffic demand and radio resource availability are met. Benefits of CRRS scheme are identified through simulative analysis in comparison to the legacy cochannel and dedicated channel deployments of femto cells respectively. The case study and numerical analysis for PLA scheme is carried out to understand the dynamics of threshold interference ranges as function of transmit powers of MBS and FBS, relative ranges of radio entities, and QoS requirement of services with the value realization of PLA scheme.1 yea

On the Performance Analysis of Underlay Cognitive Radio Systems: A Deployment Perspective

We study the performance of a cognitive underlay system (US) that employs a power control mechanism at the secondary transmitter (ST) from a deployment perspective. Existing baseline models considered for performance analysis either assume the knowledge of involved channels at the ST or retrieve this information by means of a band manager or a feedback channel; however, such situations rarely exist in practice. Motivated by this fact, we propose a novel approach that incorporates estimation of the involved channels at the ST in order to characterize the performance of the US in terms of interference power received at the primary receiver and throughput at the secondary receiver (or secondary throughput). Moreover, we apply an outage constraint that captures the impact of imperfect channel knowledge, particularly on the uncertain interference. Besides this, we employ a transmit power constraint at the ST to classify the operation of the US in terms of an interference-limited regime and a power-limited regime. In addition, we characterize the expressions of the uncertain interference and the secondary throughput for the case where the involved channels encounter Nakagami-m fading. Finally, we investigate a fundamental tradeoff between the estimation time and the secondary throughput depicting an optimized performance of the US

Self-organising network management for heterogeneous LTE-advanced networks

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonSince 2004, when the Long Term Evolution (LTE) was first proposed to be publicly available in the year 2009, a plethora of new characteristics, techniques and applications have been constantly enhancing it since its first release, over the past decade. As a result, the research aims for LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) have been released to create a ubiquitous and supportive network for mobile users. The incorporation of heterogeneous networks (HetNets) has been proposed as one of the main enhancements of LTE-A systems over the existing LTE releases, by proposing the deployment of small-cell applications, such as femtocells, to provide more coverage and quality of service (QoS) within the network, whilst also reducing capital expenditure. These principal advantages can be obtained at the cost of new challenges such as inter-cell interference, which occurs when different network applications share the same frequency channel in the network. In this thesis, the main challenges of HetNets in LTE-A platform have been addressed and novel solutions are proposed by using self-organising network (SON) management approaches, which allows the cooperative cellular systems to observe, decide and amend their ongoing operation based on network conditions. The novel SON algorithms are modelled and simulated in OPNET modeler simulation software for the three processes of resource allocation, mobility management and interference coordination in multi-tier macro-femto networks. Different channel allocation methods based on cooperative transmission, frequency reuse and dynamic spectrum access are investigated and a novel SON sub-channel allocation method is proposed based on hybrid fractional frequency reuse (HFFR) scheme to provide dynamic resource allocation between macrocells and femtocells, while avoiding co-tier and cross-tier interference. Mobility management is also addressed as another important issue in HetNets, especially in hand-ins from macrocell to femtocell base stations. The existing research considers a limited number of methods for handover optimisation, such as signal strength and call admission control (CAC) to avoid unnecessary handovers, while our novel SON handover management method implements a comprehensive algorithm that performs sensing process, as well as resource availability and user residence checks to initiate the handover process at the optimal time. In addition to this, the novel femto over macro priority (FoMP) check in this process also gives the femtocell target nodes priority over the congested macrocells in order to improve the QoS at both the network tiers. Inter-cell interference, as the key challenge of HetNets, is also investigated by research on the existing time-domain, frequency-domain and power control methods. A novel SON interference mitigation algorithm is proposed, which is based on enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) with power control process. The 3-phase power control algorithm contains signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurements, channel quality indicator (CQI) mapping and transmission power amendments to avoid the occurrence of interference due to the effects of high transmission power. The results of this research confirm that if heterogeneous systems are backed-up with SON management strategies, not only can improve the network capacity and QoS, but also the new network challenges such as inter-cell interference can also be mitigated in new releases of LTE-A network