WiBACK: A back-haul network architecture for 5G networks

Recently both academic and industry worlds has started to define the successor of Long Term Evolution (LTE), so-called 5G networks, which will most likely appear by the end of the decade. It is widely accepted that those 5G networks will have to deal with significantly more challenging requirements in terms of provided bandwidth, latency and supported services. This will lead to not only modifications in access and parts of core networks, but will trigger changes throughout the whole network, including the Back-haul segment. In this work we present our vision of a 5G Back-haul network and identify the associated challenges. We then describe our Wireless Backhaul (WiBACK) architecture, which implements Software Defined Network (SDN) concepts and further extends them into the wireless domain. Finally we present a brief overview of our pilot installations before we conclude.This work has been supported by the BATS research project which is funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under contract n317533

SPARC 2019 Fake news & home truths : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2019 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also our first ever Doctoral School Best Supervisor awards, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 90 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant, innovative and collaborative PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the inspiring, relevant and impactful research in progress, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. Find an abstract that interests you, and say “Hello” to the author. Who knows what might result from your conversation? With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research needs interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised and rewarded by all major research funders. Engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers. Even better, our free ice cream van means that you can have those conversations while enjoying a refreshing ice lolly

Self organised cellular networks as the future of wireless communications

An introduction into self organizing cellular networks is presented. This topic has generated a lot of research interest over the past few years as operators have identified it as a necessary feature in future wireless communication systems. We review projects which have studied self organization and with knowledge of system model design in computing, we suggest design rules in developing robust and efficient self organizing algorithms. We finally demonstrate a channel assignment example based on the concept of sectorial neighbours where the system autonomously changes its allocation scheme based on external factors in the environment (e.g. geographical location, interfering sectors and demand for resources). Further research directions are also highlighted

Self organised cellular networks as the future of wireless communications

An introduction into self organizing cellular networks is presented. This topic has generated a lot of research interest over the past few years as operators have identified it as a necessary feature in future wireless communication systems. We review projects which have studied self organization and with knowledge of system model design in computing, we suggest design rules in developing robust and efficient self organizing algorithms. We finally demonstrate a channel assignment example based on the concept of sectorial neighbours where the system autonomously changes its allocation scheme based on external factors in the environment (e.g. geographical location, interfering sectors and demand for resources). Further research directions are also highlighted

Self-Organized Resource Allocation Using Inter-Cell Interference Coordination(ICIC) in Relay-Asisted Cellular Networks

In a multi-cell scenario, the inter-cell interference (ICI) is detrimental in achieving the intended system performance, in particular for the edge users. There is paucity of work available in literature on ICI coordination (ICIC) for relay-assisted cellular networks (RACN). In this paper, we do a survey on the ICIC schemes in cellular networks and RACN. We then propose a self-organized resource allocation plan for RACN to improve the edge user’s performance by ICIC. We compare the performance of reuse-1, reuse-3, soft frequency reuse (SFR) scheme, proposed plan with and without relays. The performance metrics for comparison are edge user’s spectral efficiency, their signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) and system’s area spectral efficiency. We show by the simulation results that our proposed plan performs better than the existing resource allocation schemes in static allocation scenario. Next, we propose to make our resource allocation plan dynamic and self-organized. The distinct features of our proposed plan are: One, it achieves a trade-off between the system’s area spectral efficiency and the edge user’s spectral efficiency performance. Secondly, it introduces a novel concept of interfering neighbor set to achieve ICIC by local interaction between the entities

A Survey of Self Organisation in Future Cellular Networks

This article surveys the literature over the period of the last decade on the emerging field of self organisation as applied to wireless cellular communication networks. Self organisation has been extensively studied and applied in adhoc networks, wireless sensor networks and autonomic computer networks; however in the context of wireless cellular networks, this is the first attempt to put in perspective the various efforts in form of a tutorial/survey. We provide a comprehensive survey of the existing literature, projects and standards in self organising cellular networks. Additionally, we also aim to present a clear understanding of this active research area, identifying a clear taxonomy and guidelines for design of self organising mechanisms. We compare strength and weakness of existing solutions and highlight the key research areas for further development. This paper serves as a guide and a starting point for anyone willing to delve into research on self organisation in wireless cellular communication networks

A Survey of Self Organisation in Future Cellular Networks

This article surveys the literature over the period of the last decade on the emerging field of self organisation as applied to wireless cellular communication networks. Self organisation has been extensively studied and applied in adhoc networks, wireless sensor networks and autonomic computer networks; however in the context of wireless cellular networks, this is the first attempt to put in perspective the various efforts in form of a tutorial/survey. We provide a comprehensive survey of the existing literature, projects and standards in self organising cellular networks. Additionally, we also aim to present a clear understanding of this active research area, identifying a clear taxonomy and guidelines for design of self organising mechanisms. We compare strength and weakness of existing solutions and highlight the key research areas for further development. This paper serves as a guide and a starting point for anyone willing to delve into research on self organisation in wireless cellular communication networks

Self-Organized Resource Allocation Using Inter-Cell Interference Coordination(ICIC) in Relay-Asisted Cellular Networks

In a multi-cell scenario, the inter-cell interference (ICI) is detrimental in achieving the intended system performance, in particular for the edge users. There is paucity of work available in literature on ICI coordination (ICIC) for relay-assisted cellular networks (RACN). In this paper, we do a survey on the ICIC schemes in cellular networks and RACN. We then propose a self-organized resource allocation plan for RACN to improve the edge user’s performance by ICIC. We compare the performance of reuse-1, reuse-3, soft frequency reuse (SFR) scheme, proposed plan with and without relays. The performance metrics for comparison are edge user’s spectral efficiency, their signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) and system’s area spectral efficiency. We show by the simulation results that our proposed plan performs better than the existing resource allocation schemes in static allocation scenario. Next, we propose to make our resource allocation plan dynamic and self-organized. The distinct features of our proposed plan are: One, it achieves a trade-off between the system’s area spectral efficiency and the edge user’s spectral efficiency performance. Secondly, it introduces a novel concept of interfering neighbor set to achieve ICIC by local interaction between the entities

Wireless Back-haul: a software defined network enabled wireless Back-haul network architecture for future 5G networks

Recently both academic and industry worlds have started to define the successor of long term evolution, socalled 5G networks, which will most likely appear by the end of the decade. It is widely accepted that those 5G networks will have to deal with significantly more challenging requirements in terms of provided bandwidth, latency and supported services. This will lead to not only modifications in the access segment and parts of core networks, but will trigger changes throughout the whole network, including the Back-haul segment. In this work the authors present their vision of a 5G Back-haul network and identify the associated challenges. They then describe their wireless Backhaul architecture, which implements software defined network concepts and further extends them into the wireless domain. Finally the authors present a brief overview of their evaluation results.BATS research project which is funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under contract n31753