Resource Allocation for Real Time Services Using Cooperative Game Theory and a Virtual Token Mechanism in LTE Networks

LTE, resource allocation, service

Scenario Analysis on LTE mobile network virtualization

The LTE mobile network has dominated the mobile market nowadays. However, the LTE mobile network cannot deal with the growing data traffic due to the insufficient capacity and lack of network flexibility. The LTE mobile network virtualization, on the other hand, is a technology enable the LTE mobile network to meet those increasing requirements. Some researches of the LTE mobile network virtualization have been done in terms of the technology study and cost measurement. Yet, no research deployed in the LTE mobile network virtualization take the uncertainties into account. This thesis focuses on figuring out the overview LTE ecosystem in the next five years by considering uncertainties. The key trends and uncertainties which have the huge influence to the future LTE mobile network virtualization are identified in brainstorm sessions. The final two key uncertainties are 1) What will be the competition level of the mobile market (high or low)? 2) Will virtualization of LTE lower the costs significantly? Then the four alternative scenarios of the future LTE mobile network are developed in the end of the scenario planning process based on the final key uncertainties. The scenarios indicate that the LTE mobile network virtualization will be developed by different stakeholders in different scenarios. Also, the degree of the LTE mobile network virtualization depends on the willingness to invest of stakeholders

Συγκριτική μελέτη της προσφερόμενης Ποιότητας Εμπειρίας αλγορίθμων ραδιο-χρονοπρογραμματισμού σε δίκτυα LTE

Στα δίκτυα LTE δίνεται μεγάλη έμφαση στην έννοια του QoE, μια παράμετρος υποκειμενική καθώς εκφράζει την εμπειρία του χρήστη συνολικά από την υπηρεσία του και δεν μπορεί να μετρηθεί με τις παραδοσιακές μετρικές της ποιότητας υπηρεσίας. Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας ήταν η μελέτη της προσφερόμενης Ποιότητας Εμπειρίας αλγορίθμων ράδιο-χρονοπρογραμματισμού σε δίκτυα LTE. Αρχικά γίνεται μια σύντομη αναφορά σε βασικές έννοιες των LTE δικτύων ιδιαίτερα σε αυτές που σχετίζονται με την λειτουργία του δικτύου για την εξασφάλιση της αναμενόμενης ποιότητας στο χρήστη. Στη συνέχεια περιγράφεται η διαδικασία του χρονοπρογραμματισμού και των παραμέτρων που λαμβάνει υπόψιν για τον διαμοιρασμό των πόρων. Αναλύονται αλγόριθμοι χρονοπρογραμματισμού που είναι διαθέσιμοι στη βιβλιογραφία. Οι αλγόριθμοι αυτοί χωρίζονται σε δύο μεγάλες κατηγορίες αυτοί που λαμβάνουν υπόψιν την ποιότητα του καναλιού και αυτοί που είναι ανεξάρτητοι. Γίνεται αναφορά και περιγραφή αλγορίθμων και από τις δύο κατηγορίες για να αποκτηθεί μια πιο σφαιρική άποψη για τον τρόπο λειτουργίας τους και τους στόχους που έχουν οι κατασκευαστές τους σε κάθε περίπτωση. Στη συνέχεια, στα πλαίσια της εργασίας αυτής πραγματοποιήθηκαν προσομοιώσεις με την χρήση του Vienna LTE Simulator για τον οποίο γίνεται μια περιγραφή. Επιπλέον παρουσιάζονται τα μοντέλα που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για υπολογισμό του QoE. Τέλος για την εξαγωγή αποτελεσμάτων πραγματοποιήθηκαν προσομοιώσεις εξετάζοντας την εμπειρία του χρήστη σε υπηρεσίες Video, VoIP και FTP από την χρήση βασικών αλγορίθμων χρονοπρογραμματισμού, και συγκεκριμένα των Round Robin, Best CQI, Max TP και Alpha FairIn LTE networks, great emphasis is placed on the Quality of Experience (QoE), a parameter which is subjective, since the overall experience of the user is expressed and it can’t be measured with traditional quality of service metrics. In this dissertation radio scheduling algorithms for the provided Quality of Experience of LTE networks are examined. At first, there is a short reference to fundamental notions of LTE networks, especially for these that are related to the network operation and ensure the expected quality for the user. Then the scheduling procedure is described as well as the parameters that are taken into account for the allocation of the resources. Scheduling algorithms that are available, are being analyzed. The algorithms fit into two categories, those that take into account the channel quality and those that are independent. Reference and analysis is made for algorithms from both categories for a wider perception of the way they work and additionally the aims of their developers in each case are made clear. The Vienna LTE Simulator is thoroughly described and simulations have been performed. Additionally, the models used for the calculation of the QoE are presented. Finally, simulations have been performed, examining the user’s experience in Video, VoIP and FTP services using the basic scheduling algorithms, Round Robin, Best CQI, Max TP and Alpha Fair, and results and conclusions are described

이동통신 네트워크에서의 QoS 패킷 스케줄러 설계 및 고정 릴레이 관련 주파수 재사용 관리 기법 연구

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 공과대학 전기·컴퓨터공학부, 2017. 8. 박세웅.The main interest of this paper is to understand a basic approach to provide more efficient method to allocate radio resources in the mobile communication systems, especially in which radio resources could be allocated by both frequency and time division multiple access. So, we consider OFDMA system and the ideas described in this paper could be easily applied to the current and next generation mobile communication systems. This paper studies two basic research themesa QoS packet scheduler design and fixed relay resource management policies based on frequency reuse in mobile networks. This paper considers novel scheduler structures that are executable in the environments of multiple traffic classes and multiple frequency channels. To design a scheduler structure for multiple traffic classes, we first propose a scheduler selection rule that uses the priority of traffic class and the urgency level of each packet. Then we relax the barrier of traffic class priority when a high priority packet has some room in waiting time. This gives us a chance to exploit multiuser diversity, thereby giving more flexibility in scheduling. Our considered scheduler can achieve higher throughput compared to the simple extension of conventional modified largest weighted delay first (MLWDF) scheduler while maintaining the delay performance for QoS class traffic. We also design a scheduler structure for multiple frequency channels that chooses a good channel for each user whenever possible to exploit frequency diversity. The simulation results show that our proposed scheduler increases the total system throughput by up to 50% without degrading the delay performance. This paper also introduces radio resource management schemes based on frequency reuse for fixed relay stations in mobile cellular networks. Mobile stations in the cell boundary experience poor spectral efficiency due to the path loss and interference from adjacent cells. Therefore, satisfying QoS requirements of each MS at the cell boundary has been an important issue. To resolve this spectral efficiency problem at the cell boundary, deploying fixed relay stations has been actively considered. In this paper, we consider radio resource management policies based on frequency reuse for fixed relays that include path selection rules, frequency reuse pattern matching, and frame transmission pattern matching among cells. We evaluate performance of each policy by varying parameter values such as relay stations position and frequency reuse factor. Through Monte Carlo simulations and mathematical analysis, we suggest some optimal parameter values for each policy and discuss some implementation issues that need to be considered in practical deployment of relay stations. We also surveyed further works that many researchers have been studied to tackle the similar problems of QoS scheduling and resource management for relay with our proposed work. We expect that there would be more future works by priority-based approach and energy-aware approach for QoS scheduling. Also current trends such as the rising interest in IoT system, discussion of densification of cells and D2D communications in 5G systems make us expect that the researches in these topics related with relays would be popular in the future. We also think that there are many interesting problems regarding QoS support and resource management still waiting to be tackled, especially combined with recent key topics in mobile communication systems such as 5G standardization, AI and NFV/SDN.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 QoS Packet Scheduler 4 1.2 Fixed Relay Frequency Reuse Policies 6 Chapter 2 Scheduler Design for Multiple Traffic Classes in OFDMA Networks 10 2.1 Proposed Schedulers 10 2.1.1 Scheduler Structures 12 2.1.2 MLWDF scheduler for Multiple Traffic Classes 13 2.1.3 Joint Scheduler 13 2.2 System Model 18 2.3 Performance Evaluation 19 2.3.1 Schedulers for Multiple Traffic Classes 20 2.3.2 Impact of Scheduler Selection Rule 25 2.3.3 Frame Based Schedulers 27 2.3.4 Impact of Partial Feedback 30 2.3.5 Adaptive Threshold Version Schedulers 33 2.4 Conclusion 36 Chapter 3 Frequency Reuse Policies for Fixed Relays in Cellular Networks 40 3.1 System Model 40 3.1.1 Frame Transmission and Frequency Reuse Patterns among RSs 42 3.1.2 Positioning of RSs and Channel Capacity 44 3.1.3 Area Spectral Efficiency 45 3.2 Radio Resource Management Policies Based on Frequency Reuse 46 3.2.1 Path Selection Rule 46 3.2.2 Frequency Reuse and Frame Transmission Pattern Matchings among Cells 52 3.3 Monte Carlo Simulation and Results 53 3.4 Consideration of Practical Issues 80 3.5 Conclusion 81 Chapter 4 Surveys of Further Works 83 4.1 Further Works on QoS Schedulers 83 4.1.1 WiMAX Schedulers 85 4.1.2 LTE Schedulers 92 4.2 Further Works on Radio Resource Management in Relay Systems 98 4.3 Future Challenges 100 Chapter 5 Conclusion 104 Bibliography 107 초록 127Docto

Packet scheduling in satellite LTE networks employing MIMO technology.

Doctor of Philosophy in Electronic Engineering. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.Rapid growth in the number of mobile users and ongoing demand for different types of telecommunication services from mobile networks, have driven the need for new technologies that provide high data rates and satisfy their respective Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, irrespective of their location. The satellite component will play a vital role in these new technologies, since the terrestrial component is not able to provide global coverage due to economic and technical limitations. This has led to the emergence of Satellite Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks which employ Multiple-In Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology. In order to achieve the set QoS targets, required data rates and fairness among various users with different traffic demands in the satellite LTE network, it is crucial to design an effective scheduling and a sub-channel allocation scheme that will provide an optimal balance of all these requirements. It is against this background that this study investigates packet scheduling in satellite LTE networks employing MIMO technology. One of the main foci of this study is to propose new cross-layer based packet scheduling schemes, tagged Queue Aware Fair (QAF) and Channel Based Queue Sensitive (CBQS) scheduling schemes. The proposed schemes are designed to improve both fairness and network throughput without compromising users’ QoS demands, as they provide a good trade-off between throughput, QoS demands and fairness. They also improve the performance of the network in comparison with other scheduling schemes. The comparison is determined through simulations. Due to the fact that recent schedulers provide a trade-off among major performance indices, a new performance index to evaluate the overall performance of each scheduler is derived. This index is tagged the Scheduling Performance Metric (SPM). The study also investigates the impact of the long propagation delay and different effective isotropic radiated powers on the performance of the satellite LTE network. The results show that both have a significant impact on network performance. In order to actualize an optimal scheduling scheme for the satellite LTE network, the scheduling problem is formulated as an optimization function and an optimal solution is obtained using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker multipliers. The obtained Near Optimal Scheduling Scheme (NOSS), whose aim is to maximize the network throughput without compromising users’ QoS demands and fairness, provides better throughput and spectral efficiency performance than other schedulers. The comparison is determined through simulations. Based on the new SPM, the proposed NOSS1 and NOSS2 outperform other schedulers. A stability analysis is also presented to determine whether or not the proposed scheduler will provide a stable network. A fluid limit technique is used for the stability analysis. Finally, a sub-channel allocation scheme is proposed, with the aim of providing a better sub-channel or Physical Resource Block (PRB) allocation method, tagged the Utility Auction Based (UAB) subchannel allocation scheme that will improve the system performance of the satellite LTE network. The results show that the proposed method performs better than the other scheme. The comparison is obtained through simulations

A Scheduling and Resource Allocation Algorithm for LTE Networks Using Tree Structures

Το σύστημα LTE σχεδιάστηκε από τη 3GPP με στόχο την ικανοποίηση των ολοένααυξανόμενων αναγκών για ασύρματη ευρυζωνική πρόσβαση. Τεχνικές όπως το σχήμα πολλαπλής πρόσβασης OFDMA, το MIMOκαι η Προσαρμοστική Διαμόρφωση και Κωδικοποίηση υιοθετήθηκαν προκειμένου να αυξήσουν τους επιτεύξιμους ρυθμούςμετάδοσης και να βελτιώσουν τη φασματική απόδοση. Ωστόσο, απαιτείται η ανάπτυξη εξελιγμένων αλγορίθμωνχρονοπρογραμματισμού προκειμένου να αξιοποιηθεί η πλήρης δυναμική αυτών των τεχνικών. Παρά το γεγονός ότι η 3GPPέχειπροτυποποιήσει πλήρως τη σηματοδοσία ελέγχου που απαιτείται για την εκτέλεση του χρονοπρογραμματισμού, οι αλγόριθμοι πουχρειάζεται να εκτελεστούν προκειμένου να ληφθούν αποδοτικές αποφάσεις έχουν αφεθεί στους κατασκευαστές για υλοποίηση.Ωςεκ τούτου, σημαντική ερευνητική προσπάθεια έχει καταβληθεί προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση και έχουν προταθεί αρκετοίαλγόριθμοιχρονοπρογραμματισμού. Το κύριο συμπέρασμα που εξάγεται από τη μελέτη της βιβλιογραφίας είναι ότι οχρονοπρογραμματισμόςσε ένα σύστημα πολλών φερουσών με τους περιορισμούς του LTE αποτελεί ένα πολυδιάστατο πρόβλημα.Ανάμεσα στις πολλέςδιαστάσεις του, αυτές που κυρίως λαμβάνονται υπόψη στους προτεινόμενους αλγορίθμους είναι ηρυθμαπόδοση, η δικαιοσύνη και η εξασφάλιση εγγυημένης ποιότητας υπηρεσίας.Η κύρια συμβολή της παρούσας διατριβής είναι η πρόταση ενός νέου αλγόριθμου χρονοπρογραμματισμού και διαχείρισης πόρων ο οποίος αντιμετωπίζει τα περισσότερα από τα θέματα που καθορίζουν τησυνολική απόδοση μίας οντότητας χρονοπρογραμματισμού του LTE. Η πρόταση εστιάζει κυρίως στην πολυπλοκότητα πουεισάγεται κατά τη λήψη μίας απόφασης χρονοπρογραμματισμού. Επιχειρεί δε να επιλύσει αυτό το πρόβλημα με την εισαγωγή μίαςεξελιγμένης δενδρικής δομής η οποία επιτρέπει την αποδοτική αποθήκευση όλων των παραμέτρων που θεωρούνται ουσιώδεις στηδιαδικασία λήψης μίας απόφασης χρονοπρογραμματισμού. Με αυτό τον τρόπο η οντότητα χρονοπρογραμματισμού έχει άμεσηπρόσβαση σε αυτές τις πληροφορίες. Στην εργασία περιγράφεται ένας πλήρης αλγόριθμος προγραμματισμού στο πεδίο τουχρόνου που αξιοποιεί αυτή τη δενδρική δομή και επιπλέον προτείνονται δύο νέοι αλγόριθμοι κατανομής πόρων. Οι αλγόριθμοιαυτοί επίσης αξιοποιούν κάποιες επιπρόσθετες δενδρικές δομές οι οποίες παράγονται ύστερα από κατάλληλη προ-επεξεργασίαπου λαμβάνει χώρα πριν τη λήψη της απόφασης χρονοπρογραμματισμού. Ο πρώτος αλγόριθμος παρουσιάζει χαμηλήπολυπλοκότητα και ικανοποιητική απόδοση ενώ ο δεύτερος βελτιωμένη απόδοση με το κόστος κάποιας επιπρόσθετηςπολυπλοκότητας. Αποτελέσματα εκτεταμένων προσομοιώσεων επιβεβαιώνουν την ικανότητα του προτεινόμενου σχήματος στηνικανοποίηση των αυστηρών απαιτήσεων του LTE σε ότι αφορά την ποιότητα υπηρεσίας, ενώ ταυτόχρονα η απόδοση τωνπροτεινόμενων αλγορίθμων συγκρίνεται με γνωστές τεχνικές χρονοπρογραμματισμού. Οι προτεινόμενες λύσεις είναι εφαρμόσιμες μόνο στην περίπτωση της κατωφερούς ζεύξης, ωστόσο η ίδια ιδέα μπορεί να προσαρμοστεί κατάλληλα για να παρέχει μία αποδοτική λύση και στην περίπτωση της ανωφερούς ζεύξηςLong Term Evolution (LTE) has been designed by 3GPP with the target to meet the ever increasing demands in broadband wireless access. Techniques such as OFDMA multiple access scheme, MIMO and Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) have been adopted in order to boost the achieved data rates and improve spectral efficiency. However, the development of sophisticated scheduling algorithms is required so that the full potential of those techniques is exploited. Even though 3GPP has fully standardized the control signaling required to perform scheduling, the algorithms that need to be executed to make efficient decisions are left to vendor implementation. Therefore significant research effort has been dedicated to this direction and several scheduling algorithms have been proposed. The main conclusion drawn from the study of the literature is that scheduling in a multicarrier system with the restrictions of LTE constitutes a multidimensional problem. Among the multiple dimensions, those that are mostly considered in the proposed algorithms are throughput, fairness and QoS guarantee. The main contribution of this thesis is to propose a new scheduling algorithm that addresses most of the issues that define the overall performance of an LTE scheduler. The proposal focuses mainly on the complexity involved in making a scheduling decision. It attempts to resolve this issue by the introduction of a sophisticated tree structure that enables the efficient storage of all the parameters that are considered essential in the scheduling decision process. Thus the scheduler can have immediate access to this information. A full time domain scheduling algorithm that utilizes this tree structure is described and two new resource allocation algorithms are proposed. These algorithms also utilize some additional tree structures derived from appropriate preprocessing actions that take place before the actual scheduling decision. The first algorithm has low complexity and satisfactory performance while the second has improved performance with the cost of some additional complexity. Extensive simulation results confirm the capability of the proposed scheme in satisfying the strict QoS requirements of LTE, while the performance of the newly proposed algorithms is compared with well-known scheduling techniques. The proposed solutions are applicable to the downlink case, while the same concept may be adapted properly to provide an efficient solution for the uplink case

Sustainable scheduling policies for radio access networks based on LTE technology

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyIn the LTE access networks, the Radio Resource Management (RRM) is one of the most important modules which is responsible for handling the overall management of radio resources. The packet scheduler is a particular sub-module which assigns the existing radio resources to each user in order to deliver the requested services in the most efficient manner. Data packets are scheduled dynamically at every Transmission Time Interval (TTI), a time window used to take the user’s requests and to respond them accordingly. The scheduling procedure is conducted by using scheduling rules which select different users to be scheduled at each TTI based on some priority metrics. Various scheduling rules exist and they behave differently by balancing the scheduler performance in the direction imposed by one of the following objectives: increasing the system throughput, maintaining the user fairness, respecting the Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR), Head of Line (HoL) packet delay, packet loss rate and queue stability requirements. Most of the static scheduling rules follow the sequential multi-objective optimization in the sense that when the first targeted objective is satisfied, then other objectives can be prioritized. When the targeted scheduling objective(s) can be satisfied at each TTI, the LTE scheduler is considered to be optimal or feasible. So, the scheduling performance depends on the exploited rule being focused on particular objectives. This study aims to increase the percentage of feasible TTIs for a given downlink transmission by applying a mixture of scheduling rules instead of using one discipline adopted across the entire scheduling session. Two types of optimization problems are proposed in this sense: Dynamic Scheduling Rule based Sequential Multi-Objective Optimization (DSR-SMOO) when the applied scheduling rules address the same objective and Dynamic Scheduling Rule based Concurrent Multi-Objective Optimization (DSR-CMOO) if the pool of rules addresses different scheduling objectives. The best way of solving such complex optimization problems is to adapt and to refine scheduling policies which are able to call different rules at each TTI based on the best matching scheduler conditions (states). The idea is to develop a set of non-linear functions which maps the scheduler state at each TTI in optimal distribution probabilities of selecting the best scheduling rule. Due to the multi-dimensional and continuous characteristics of the scheduler state space, the scheduling functions should be approximated. Moreover, the function approximations are learned through the interaction with the RRM environment. The Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms are used in this sense in order to evaluate and to refine the scheduling policies for the considered DSR-SMOO/CMOO optimization problems. The neural networks are used to train the non-linear mapping functions based on the interaction among the intelligent controller, the LTE packet scheduler and the RRM environment. In order to enhance the convergence in the feasible state and to reduce the scheduler state space dimension, meta-heuristic approaches are used for the channel statement aggregation. Simulation results show that the proposed aggregation scheme is able to outperform other heuristic methods. When the aggregation scheme of the channel statements is exploited, the proposed DSR-SMOO/CMOO problems focusing on different objectives which are solved by using various RL approaches are able to: increase the mean percentage of feasible TTIs, minimize the number of TTIs when the RL approaches punish the actions taken TTI-by-TTI, and minimize the variation of the performance indicators when different simulations are launched in parallel. This way, the obtained scheduling policies being focused on the multi-objective criteria are sustainable. Keywords: LTE, packet scheduling, scheduling rules, multi-objective optimization, reinforcement learning, channel, aggregation, scheduling policies, sustainable