'Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'
Doi
Abstract
This paper describes the software architecture and the implementation of a fully operational testbed that demonstrates the benefits of flexible, dynamic resource allocation with virtualized LTE-A nodes. The testbed embodies and specializes
the general software architecture devised within the Flex5Gware EU project, and focuses on two intelligent programs: the first one is a Global Scheduler, that coordinates radio resource allocation among interfering nodes; the second one is a Global Power Manager, which switches on/off nodes based on their expected and
measured load over a period of minutes. The software framework is written using open-source software, and includes fast, scalable optimization algorithms at both components. Moreover, it supports virtualized BaseBand Units, implemented using OpenAir-Interface, that can run on physical and virtual machines. We present the results obtained via on-field measurements, that demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of our approach