Analysis and Optimization of Caching and Multicasting in Large-Scale Cache-Enabled Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets) provide a powerful approach to meet the dramatic mobile traffic growth, but also impose a significant challenge on backhaul. Caching and multicasting at macro and pico base stations (BSs) are two promising methods to support massive content delivery and reduce backhaul load in HetNets. In this paper, we jointly consider caching and multicasting in a large-scale cache-enabled HetNet with backhaul constraints. We propose a hybrid caching design consisting of identical caching in the macro-tier and random caching in the pico-tier, and a corresponding multicasting design. By carefully handling different types of interferers and adopting appropriate approximations, we derive tractable expressions for the successful transmission probability in the general region as well as the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and user density region, utilizing tools from stochastic geometry. Then, we consider the successful transmission probability maximization by optimizing the design parameters, which is a very challenging mixed discrete-continuous optimization problem due to the sophisticated structure of the successful transmission probability. By using optimization techniques and exploring the structural properties, we obtain a near optimal solution with superior performance and manageable complexity. This solution achieves better performance in the general region than any asymptotically optimal solution, under a mild condition. The analysis and optimization results provide valuable design insights for practical cache-enabled HetNets.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1512.0617

Perspectives on stability and mobility of transit passenger's travel behaviour through smart card data

Existing studies have extensively used spatiotemporal data to discover the mobility patterns of various types of travellers. Smart card data (SCD) collected by the automated fare collection systems can reflect a general view of the mobility pattern of public transit riders. Mobility patterns of transit riders are temporally and spatially dynamic, and therefore difficult to measure. However, few existing studies measure both the mobility and stability of transit riders' travel patterns over a long period of time. To analyse the long-term changes of transit riders' travel behaviour, the authors define a metric for measuring the similarity between SCD, in this study. Also an improved density-based clustering algorithm, simplified smoothed ordering points to identify the clustering structure (SS-OPTICS), to identify transit rider clusters is proposed. Compared to the original OPTICS, SS-OPTICS needs fewer parameters and has better generalisation ability. Further, the generated clusters are categorized according to their features of regularity and occasionality. Based on the generated clusters and categories, fine- and coarse-grained travel pattern transitions of transit riders over four years from 2010 to 2014 are measured. By combining socioeconomic data of Beijing in the year of 2010 and 2014, the interdependence between stability and mobility of transit riders' travel behaviour is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Effect of energy conservation on in-medium \mbox{NN}\to \mbox{N}\Delta cross section in isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter

In this paper, the in-medium $NN\rightarrow N\Delta$ cross section is calculated in the framework of the one-boson exchange model by including the isovector mesons, i.e. $\delta$ and $\rho$ mesons. Due to the isospin exchange in the $NN\rightarrow N\Delta$ process, the vector self-energies of the outgoing particles are modified relative to the incoming particles in isospin asymmetric nuclear matter, and it leads to the effective energies of the incoming $NN$ pair being different from the outgoing $N\Delta$ pair. This effect is investigated in the calculation of the in-medium $NN\rightarrow N\Delta$ cross section. With the corrected energy conservation, the cross sections of the $\Delta^{++}$ and $\Delta^+$ channels are suppressed, and the cross sections of the $\Delta^0$ and $\Delta^-$ channels are enhanced relative to the results obtained without properly considering the potential energy changes. Our results further confirm the dependence of medium correction factor, $R=\sigma_{ NN\rightarrow N\Delta}^*/\sigma_{NN\rightarrow N\Delta}^{\text{free}}$, on the charge state of $NN\rightarrow N\Delta$ especially around the threshold energy, but the isospin splitting of medium correction factor $R$ becomes weak at high beam energies.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Phys.Rev.

User-Centric Interference Nulling in Downlink Multi-Antenna Heterogeneous Networks

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) have strong interference due to spectrum reuse. This affects the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of each user, and hence is one of the limiting factors of network performance. However, in previous works, interference management approaches in HetNets are mainly based on interference level, and thus cannot effectively utilize the limited resource to improve network performance. In this paper, we propose a user-centric interference nulling (IN) scheme in downlink two-tier HetNets to improve network performance by improving each user's SIR. This scheme has three design parameters: the maximum degree of freedom for IN (IN DoF), and the IN thresholds for the macro and pico users, respectively. Using tools from stochastic geometry, we first obtain a tractable expression of the coverage (equivalently outage) probability. Then, we characterize the asymptotic behavior of the outage probability in the high reliability regime. The asymptotic results show that the maximum IN DoF can affect the order gain of the asymptotic outage probability, while the IN thresholds only affect the coefficient of the asymptotic outage probability. Moreover, we show that the IN scheme can linearly improve the outage performance, and characterize the optimal maximum IN DoF which minimizes the asymptotic outage probability.Comment: Shorter version to appear in ISIT 201

Stochastic Throughput Optimization for Two-hop Systems with Finite Relay Buffers

Optimal queueing control of multi-hop networks remains a challenging problem even in the simplest scenarios. In this paper, we consider a two-hop half-duplex relaying system with random channel connectivity. The relay is equipped with a finite buffer. We focus on stochastic link selection and transmission rate control to maximize the average system throughput subject to a half-duplex constraint. We formulate this stochastic optimization problem as an infinite horizon average cost Markov decision process (MDP), which is well-known to be a difficult problem. By using sample-path analysis and exploiting the specific problem structure, we first obtain an \emph{equivalent Bellman equation} with reduced state and action spaces. By using \emph{relative value iteration algorithm}, we analyze the properties of the value function of the MDP. Then, we show that the optimal policy has a threshold-based structure by characterizing the \emph{supermodularity} in the optimal control. Based on the threshold-based structure and Markov chain theory, we further simplify the original complex stochastic optimization problem to a static optimization problem over a small discrete feasible set and propose a low-complexity algorithm to solve the simplified static optimization problem by making use of its special structure. Furthermore, we obtain the closed-form optimal threshold for the symmetric case. The analytical results obtained in this paper also provide design insights for two-hop relaying systems with multiple relays equipped with finite relay buffers.Comment: 15 pages, double-column, 9 figures, 3 tables. Accepted by IEEE Transaction on Signal Processin

Stochastic Content-Centric Multicast Scheduling for Cache-Enabled Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Caching at small base stations (SBSs) has demonstrated significant benefits in alleviating the backhaul requirement in heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets). While many existing works focus on what contents to cache at each SBS, an equally important problem is what contents to deliver so as to satisfy dynamic user demands given the cache status. In this paper, we study optimal content delivery in cache-enabled HetNets by taking into account the inherent multicast capability of wireless medium. We consider stochastic content multicast scheduling to jointly minimize the average network delay and power costs under a multiple access constraint. We establish a content-centric request queue model and formulate this stochastic optimization problem as an infinite horizon average cost Markov decision process (MDP). By using \emph{relative value iteration} and special properties of the request queue dynamics, we characterize some properties of the value function of the MDP. Based on these properties, we show that the optimal multicast scheduling policy is of threshold type. Then, we propose a structure-aware optimal algorithm to obtain the optimal policy. We also propose a low-complexity suboptimal policy, which possesses similar structural properties to the optimal policy, and develop a low-complexity algorithm to obtain this policy.Comment: Accepted to IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications (June 6, 2016). Conference version appears in ACM CoNEXT 2015 Workshop on Content Caching and Delivery in Wireless Networks (CCDWN

Analysis and Optimization of Caching and Multicasting in Large-Scale Cache-Enabled Wireless Networks

Caching and multicasting at base stations are two promising approaches to support massive content delivery over wireless networks. However, existing analysis and designs do not fully explore and exploit the potential advantages of the two approaches. In this paper, we consider the analysis and optimization of caching and multicasting in a large-scale cache-enabled wireless network. We propose a random caching and multicasting scheme with a design parameter. By carefully handling different types of interferers and adopting appropriate approximations, we derive a tractable expression for the successful transmission probability in the general region, utilizing tools from stochastic geometry. We also obtain a closed-form expression for the successful transmission probability in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and user density region. Then, we consider the successful transmission probability maximization, which is a very complex non-convex problem in general. Using optimization techniques, we develop an iterative numerical algorithm to obtain a local optimal caching and multicasting design in the general region. To reduce complexity and maintain superior performance, we also derive an asymptotically optimal caching and multicasting design in the asymptotic region, based on a two-step optimization framework. Finally, numerical simulations show that the asymptotically optimal design achieves a significant gain in successful transmission probability over some baseline schemes in the general region.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Transactions on Wireless Communication (submitted in July 2015, now under 2nd revision

Analysis and Optimization of Interference Nulling in Downlink Multi-Antenna HetNets with Offloading

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) with offloading is considered as an effective way to meet the high data rate demand of future wireless service. However, the offloaded users suffer from strong inter-tier interference, which reduces the benefits of offloading and is one of the main limiting factors of the system performance. In this paper, we investigate the use of an interference nulling (IN) beamforming scheme to improve the system performance by carefully managing the inter-tier interference to the offloaded users in downlink two-tier HetNets with multi-antenna base stations. Utilizing tools from stochastic geometry, we derive a tractable expression for the rate coverage probability of the IN scheme. Then, we optimize the design parameter, i.e., the degrees of freedom that can be used for IN, to maximize the rate coverage probability. Specifically, in the asymptotic scenario where the rate threshold is small, by studying the order behavior of the rate coverage probability, we characterize the optimal design parameter. For the general scenario, we show some properties of the optimal design parameter. Finally, by numerical simulations, we show the IN scheme can outperform both the simple offloading scheme without interference management and the almost blank subframes scheme in 3GPP LTE, especially in large antenna regime.Comment: to appear in ICC 2015. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1411.327

In-medium \mbox{NN}\to \mbox{N}\Delta cross section and its dependence on effective Lagrange parameters in isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter

The in-medium $NN\rightarrow N\Delta$ cross section and its differential cross section in isospin asymmetric nuclear medium are investigated in the framework of the one-boson exchange model by including the isovector mesons, i.e., $\delta$ and $\rho$ mesons. Our results show that the in-medium $NN\rightarrow N\Delta$ cross sections are suppressed with density increasing, and the differential cross sections become isotropic with the density increasing at the beam energy around the $\Delta$ threshold energy. The isospin splitting on the medium correction factor, $R=\sigma_{ NN\rightarrow N\Delta}^*/\sigma_{NN\rightarrow N\Delta}^{\text{free}}$ is observed for different channels of $NN\to N\Delta$, especially around the threshold energy for all the effective Lagrangian parameters. By analyzing the selected effective Lagrangian parameters, our results show that the larger effective mass is, the weaker medium correction $R$ is.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Chin. Phys.

Optimal Dynamic Multicast Scheduling for Cache-Enabled Content-Centric Wireless Networks

Caching and multicasting at base stations are two promising approaches to support massive content delivery over wireless networks. However, existing scheduling designs do not make full use of the advantages of the two approaches. In this paper, we consider the optimal dynamic multicast scheduling to jointly minimize the average delay, power, and fetching costs for cache-enabled content-centric wireless networks. We formulate this stochastic optimization problem as an infinite horizon average cost Markov decision process (MDP). It is well-known to be a difficult problem due to the curse of dimensionality, and there generally only exist numerical solutions. By using relative value iteration algorithm and the special structures of the request queue dynamics, we analyze the properties of the value function and the state-action cost function of the MDP for both the uniform and nonuniform channel cases. Based on these properties, we show that the optimal policy, which is adaptive to the request queue state, has a switch structure in the uniform case and a partial switch structure in the nonuniform case. Moreover, in the uniform case with two contents, we show that the switch curve is monotonically non-decreasing. Then, by exploiting these structural properties of the optimal policy, we propose two low-complexity optimal algorithms. Motivated by the switch structures of the optimal policy, to further reduce the complexity, we also propose a low-complexity suboptimal policy, which possesses similar structural properties to the optimal policy, and develop a low-complexity algorithm to compute this policy.Comment: 17 double-column pages; Shorter version appears in ISIT 201