A. Marotta

Impact of CoMP VNF placement on 5G Coordinated Scheduling performance

To address demanding requirements in terms of expected throughput, latency and scalability, 5G networks will offer high capacity to support huge volumes of traffic generated by heterogeneous services. Dense deployment of small cells can provide a valid solution but are prone to high levels of interference especially at the cell-edge. However, to reduce inter-cell interference and improve cell-edge throughput, a set of techniques known as Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) has been introduced. Coordinated Scheduling (CS) is a CoMP technique that assigns resources to mobile users to avoid interference between users that are assigned within the same Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs). On the other hand, Software Defined Mobile Networking (SDMN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) represent two key technologies to enhance flexibility and efficiency of resource usage within the Radio Access Network (RAN). However, the implementation of CoMP CS techniques on NFV architecture in a dense small cell scenario have not been analyzed yet. In this paper, we propose the joint use of CoMP CS and NFV by studying the implications of different deployment strategies, as constrained by the physical topology of the underlying RAN. The performance of both distributed and centralized CoMP CS are compared in terms of convergence delay and traffic overhead. Guidelines for the optimal design are provided.

Performance evaluation of CoMP coordinated scheduling over different backhaul infrastructures: A real use case scenario

This work studies how cell information distribution for Coordinated Scheduling in Cooperative Multi Point Transmission might be affected by the backhaul infrastructure. Several CoMP schemes are investigated and a novel OSPF based advertisement protocol for CoMP information distribution is proposed. Star topology with centralization at macro cell is shown to be the most convenient choice in terms of both convergence delay and deployment costs. The proposed protocol represents a feasible solution preserving network configurability and management.

QoE provisioning over mobile networks: The CASPER perspective

This paper highlights the vision of CASPER project towards user-centric network and service management in future mobile networks. Putting the end-users of the network at the epicenter of the service provisioning process, CASPER builds on top of the Software Defined Networking (SDN) and the Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) advances a middleware architecture which will realize user-centric orchestration of service and network functions. User centricity will be leveraged through a Quality of Experience-oriented framework, composed of three modular functions, namely the QoE monitoring and estimation, the QoE service and network management, and the QoE control interface.

Comparison of multi-operator PON technologies beyond NG-PON2: A real greenfield case-study

Passive optical network FTTH is the best option to guarantee ultra-broadband access and satisfy future-proof user demands. NG-PON2 standardization does not yet consider in a conclusive way the possibility of sharing the same PON among different operators in order to make the network economically sustainable. The Italian research project ROAD-NGN is filling the gap by studying various advanced PON technologies that support unbundling. These include non-coherent TDM/WDM, coherent DWDM, and optical and electrical OFDM. In this paper, we compare these technologies on the ground of a real case-study: the city of LAquila, struck by a recent earthquake and needing complete reconstruction of the buried metro-access network.

A model to evaluate C-RAN architectures deployment impact in urban scenarios

This work presents a study concerning the impact of Cloud Radio Access Network and virtualisation techniques in an operators network, namely in terms of the necessary number of storage and processing nodes, and the links in between, taking increasingly network constraints into account (e.g., latency) as well as deployment ones (e.g., service area, deployment strategy, and expected proliferation of Remote Radio Heads). A model was implemented, which takes the positioning of cell sites available in an urban scenario as input, and computes the number and a possible placement of processing nodes for different constraints - an estimate of the number of required blade servers in each node is also computed. Results show that between 2 and 62 Baseband Processing Unit pools are required to cover the whole scenario of Lisbon, depending on the fronthaul delay restriction. An inverse proportionality relation between the number of blade servers and their corresponding capacity has been ascertained.