Cross-Layer Design for Green Power Control

In this work, we propose a new energy efficiency metric which allows one to optimize the performance of a wireless system through a novel power control mechanism. The proposed metric possesses two important features. First, it considers the whole power of the terminal and not just the radiated power. Second, it can account for the limited buffer memory of transmitters which store arriving packets as a queue and transmit them with a success rate that is determined by the transmit power and channel conditions. Remarkably, this metric is shown to have attractive properties such as quasi-concavity with respect to the transmit power and a unique maximum, allowing to derive an optimal power control scheme. Based on analytical and numerical results, the influence of the packet arrival rate, the size of the queue, and the constraints in terms of quality of service are studied. Simulations show that the proposed cross-layer approach of power control may lead to significant gains in terms of transmit power compared to a physical layer approach of green communications.Comment: Presented in ICC 201

Modelling the time-varying cell capacity in LTE networks

In wireless orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) based networks like Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) a technique called adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) is applied. With AMC, different modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) are used to serve different users in order to maximise the throughput and range. The used MCS depends on the quality of the radio link between the base station and the user. Data is sent towards users with a good radio link with a high MCS in order to utilise the radio resources more efficiently while a low MCS is used for users with a bad radio link. Using AMC however has an impact on the cell capacity as the quality of a radio link varies when users move around; this can even lead to situations where the cell capacity drops to a point where there are too little radio resources to serve all users. AMC and the resulting varying cell capacity notably has an influence on admission control (AC). AC is the algorithm that decides whether new sessions are allowed to a cell or not and bases its decisions on, amongst others, the cell capacity. The analytical model that is developed in this paper models a cell with varying capacity caused by user mobility using a continuous -time Markov chain (CTMC). The cell is divided into multiple zones, each corresponding to the area in which data is sent towards users using a certain MCS and transitions of users between these zones are considered. The accuracy of the analytical model is verified by comparing the results obtained with it to results obtained from simulations that model the user mobility more realistically. This comparison shows that the analytical model models the varying cell capacity very accurately; only under extreme conditions differences between the results are noticed. The developed analytical and simulation models are then used to investigate the effects of a varying cell capacity on AC. Also, an optimisation algorithm that adapts the parameter of the AC algorithm which determines the amount of resources that are reserved in order to mitigate the effects of the varying cell capacity is studied using the models. Updating the parameter of the AC algorithm is done by reacting to certain triggers that indicate good or bad performance and adapt the parameters of the AC algorithm accordingly. Results show that using this optimisation algorithm improves the quality of service (QoS) that is experienced by the users.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Government through project TIN2010-21378-C02-02 and contract BES-2007-15030.Sas, B.; Bernal Mor, E.; Spaey, K.; Pla, V.; Blondia, C.; Martínez Bauset, J. (2014). Modelling the time-varying cell capacity in LTE networks. 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Admission control in the downlink of WCDMA/UMTS. In LNCS: Vol. 3427. Mobile and wireless systems (pp. 136–151).Garcia, D., Martinez, J., & Pla, V. (2005). Admission control policies in multiservice cellular networks: optimum configuration and sensitivity. In G. Kotsis, & O. Spaniol (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science: Vol. 3427. Wireless systems and mobility in next generation Internet (pp. 121–135).Guo, J., Liu, F., & Zhu, Z. (2007). Estimate the call duration distribution parameters in GSM system based on K-L divergence method. In International conference on wireless communications, networking and mobile computing (pp. 2988–2991), Shanghai, China, September 2007.Hossain, M., Hassan, M., & Sirisena, H. R. (2004). Adaptive resource management in mobile wireless networks using feedback control theory. Telecommunications Systems, 24(3–4), 401–415.Jeong, S.S., Han, J.A., & Jeon, W.S. (2005). Adaptive connection admission control scheme for high data rate mobile networks. 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Admission Control in the Downlink of WCDMA/UMTS

Abstract. In this paper, we develop a novel CAC algorithm that takes into account the mobility of users inside the cell with a focus on the downlink of third generation mobile systems. We first study the system capacity in a multiple cell setting and obtain effective bandwidth expressions for different calls as a function of both their positions in the cell as well as their classes of traffic (voice versus data). We then use this formulation to derive a mobility-based admission control algorithm which we analyze by Markov chains. We hence obtain several performance measures, namely the blocking probability, the dropping probability, both intra and inter-cell, as well as the overall cell throughput. We eventually investigate the performance of our CAC and show how to extend the Erlang capacity bounds, i.e., the set of arrival rates such that the corresponding blocking/dropping probabilities are kept below predetermined thresholds.

A novel frequency planning for femtocells in OFDMA-based cellular networks using fractional frequency reuse

Abstract. Femtocells are expected to be one of the emerging technologies for next generation communication systems. For successful deployment of femtocells in the pre-existing macrocell networks, there are some challenges such as the cell planning for interference management, handoff, and power control. In this paper, we focus on frequency planning which can provide interference avoidance for the co-existence of macrocells and femtocells. We propose a novel frequency planning for femtocells in cellular networks using fractional frequency reuse (FFR). We consider downlink performance of cellular systems based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access (OFDMA), e.g., WiMAX and 3GPP Long Term Evaluation (LTE). Simulation results show that our scheme indeed reduces the effect of additional co-channel interference (CCI) between a given macrocell and deployed femtocells as well as neighboring macrocells.

Reducing fuel consumption in platooning systems through reinforcement learning

Fuel efficiency in platooning systems is a central topic of interest because of its significant economic and environmental impact on the transportation industry. In platoon systems, Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) is widely adopted because it can guarantee string stability while requiring only radar or lidar measurements. A key parameter in ACC is the desired time gap between the platoon's neighboring vehicles. A small time gap results in a short inter-vehicular distance, which is fuel efficient when the vehicles are moving at constant speeds due to air drag reductions. On the other hand, when the vehicles accelerate and brake a lot, a bigger time gap is more fuel efficient. This motivates us to find a policy that minimizes fuel consumption by conveniently switching between two desired time gap parameters. Thus, one can interpret this formulation as a dynamic system controlled by a switching ACC, and the learning problem reduces to finding a switching rule that is fuel efficient. We apply a Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithm to find a time switching policy between two desired time gap parameters of an ACC controller to reach our goal. We adopt the proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm to learn the appropriate transient shift times that minimize the platoon's fuel consumption when it faces stochastic traffic conditions. Numerical simulations show that the PPO algorithm outperforms both static time gap ACC and a threshold-based switching control in terms of the average fuel efficiency