Ashwin Sampath

Cell Association and Interference Coordination in Heterogeneous LTE-A Cellular Networks

Embedding pico/femto base-stations and relay nodes in a macro-cellular network is a promising method for achieving substantial gains in coverage and capacity compared to macro-only networks. These new types of base-stations can operate on the same wireless channel as the macro-cellular network, providing higher spatial reuse via cell splitting. However, these base-stations are deployed in an unplanned manner, can have very different transmit powers, and may not have traffic aggregation among many users. This could potentially result in much higher interference magnitude and variability. Hence, such deployments require the use of innovative cell association and inter-cell interference coordination techniques in order to realize the promised capacity and coverage gains. In this paper, we describe new paradigms for design and operation of such heterogeneous cellular networks. Specifically, we focus on cell splitting, range expansion, semi-static resource negotiation on third-party backhaul connections, and fast dynamic interference management for QoS via over-the-air signaling. Notably, our methodologies and algorithms are simple, lightweight, and incur extremely low overhead. Numerical studies show that they provide large gains over currently used methods for cellular networks.

Adaptive averaging methodology for handoffs in cellular systems

The purpose of this paper is to show how information in signal strength measurements can be exploited to improve the quality of handoff decisions, for both large and small cells. Averaging of signal strength fluctuations is required. This leads to the following tradeoff problem for the averaging interval for the signal strength measurements. If the interval is too short, the fading fluctuations are not sufficiently smoothed out. If the interval is too long, delay in handoff increases. With this tradeoff in mind, we present a method to adaptively change the averaging interval. The method is based on estimating the maximum Doppler frequency, f D , as a means to obtain mobile velocity, the key to the tradeoff. A method used for estimating f D from the squared deviations of the signal envelope is outlined. Exact analysis for the f D estimate as a function of squared deviations of the logarithmically compressed signal envelope in Rayleigh fading is presented. An extension of the algorithm for robustness in a Rician fading environment is given. Sensitivity issues of the estimates are considered. An adaptive scheme for optimal averaging is outlined.

Downlink scheduling for multiclass traffic in LTE

We present a design of a complete and practical scheduler for the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) downlink by integrating recent results on resource allocation, fast computational algorithms, and scheduling. Our scheduler has low computational complexity. We define the computational architecture and describe the exact computations that need to be done at each time step (1 milliseconds). Our computational framework is very general, and can be used to implement a wide variety of scheduling rules. For LTE, we provide quantitative performance results for our scheduler for full buffer, streaming video (with loose delay constraints), and live video (with tight delay constraints). Simulations are performed by selectively abstracting the PHY layer, accurately modeling the MAC layer, and following established network evaluation methods. The numerical results demonstrate that queue- and channel-aware QoS schedulers can and should be used in an LTE downlink to offer QoS to a diverse mix of traffic, including delay-sensitive flows. Through these results and via theoretical analysis, we illustrate the various design tradeoffs that need to be made in the selection of a specific queue-and-channel-aware scheduling policy. Moreover, the numerical results show that in many scenarios strict prioritization across traffic classes is suboptimal.

Performance of hybrid ARQ for high speed downlink packet access in UMTS

An expanded effort is underway to support the evolution of the UMTS standard to meet the rapidly developing needs associated with wireless Internet applications. The support of packet-switched high-speed data users is provided by means of a new, shared channel called HS-DSCH (high speed downlink shared channel) that preferably serves one packet data user at a time in a time-multiplexed manner. A number of performance enhancing technologies are included in the high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) proposal to ensure high peak and average packet data rates while supporting circuit switched voice and packet data on the same spectrum. These techniques include adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), hybrid ARQ (HARQ), fat-pipe scheduling, fast cell site selection (FCSS) and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna techniques. In this paper, we provide the performance comparison of different HARQ schemes being considered for HSDPA.

Beamforming Tradeoffs for Initial UE Discovery in Millimeter-Wave MIMO Systems

Millimeter-wave (mmW) multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems have gained increasing traction toward the goal of meeting the high data-rate requirements in next-generation wireless systems. The focus of this work is on low-complexity beamforming approaches for initial user equipment (UE) discovery in such systems. Toward this goal, we first note the structure of the optimal beamformer with per-antenna gain and phase control and establish the structure of good beamformers with per-antenna phase-only control. Learning these right singular vector (RSV)type beamforming structures in mmW systems is fraught with considerable complexities such as the need for a non-broadcast system design, the sensitivity of the beamformer approximants to small path length changes, inefficiencies due to power amplifier backoff, etc. To overcome these issues, we establish a physical interpretation between the RSV-type beamformer structures and the angles of departure/arrival (AoD/AoA) of the dominant path(s) capturing the scattering environment. This physical interpretation provides a theoretical underpinning to the emerging interest on directional beamforming approaches that are less sensitive to small path length changes. While classical approaches for direction learning such as MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) have been well-understood, they suffer from many practical difficulties in a mmW context such as a non-broadcast system design and high computational complexity. A simpler broadcast-based solution for mmW systems is the adaptation of limited feedback-type directional codebooks for beamforming at the two ends. We establish fundamental limits for the best beam broadening codebooks and propose a construction motivated by a virtual subarray architecture that is within a couple of dB of the best tradeoff curve at all useful beam broadening factors. We finally provide the received SNR loss-UE discovery latency tradeoff with the proposed beam broadening constructions. Our results show that users with a reasonable link margin can be quickly discovered by the proposed design with a smooth roll-off in performance as the link margin deteriorates. While these designs are poorer in performance than the RSV learning approaches or MUSIC for cell-edge users, their low-complexity that leads to a broadcast system design makes them a useful candidate for practical mmW systems.

Wireless backhaul node placement for small cell networks

Small cells have been proposed as a vehicle for wireless networks to keep up with surging demand. Small cells come with a significant challenge of providing backhaul to transport data to(from) a gateway node in the core network. Fiber based backhaul offers the high rates needed to meet this requirement, but is costly and time-consuming to deploy, when not readily available. Wireless backhaul is an attractive option for small cells as it provides a less expensive and easy-to-deploy alternative to fiber. However, there are multitude of bands and features (e.g. LOS/NLOS, spatial multiplexing etc.) associated with wireless backhaul that need to be used intelligently for small cells. Candidate bands include: sub-6 GHz band that is useful in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios, microwave band (6-42 GHz) that is useful in point-to-point line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios, and millimeter wave bands (e.g. 60, 70 and 80 GHz) that are recently being commercially used in LOS scenarios. In many deployment topologies, it is advantageous to use aggregator nodes, located at the roof tops of tall buildings near small cells. These nodes can provide high data rate to multiple small cells in NLOS paths, sustain the same data rate to gateway nodes using LOS paths and take advantage of all available bands. This work performs the joint cost optimal aggregator node placement, power allocation, channel scheduling and routing to optimize the wireless backhaul network. We formulate mixed integer nonlinear programs (MINLP) to capture the different interference and multiplexing patterns at sub-6 GHz and microwave band. We solve the MINLP through linear relaxation and branch-and-bound algorithm and apply our algorithm in an example wireless backhaul network of downtown Manhattan.

Estimation of Clock Offset Using Bootstrap Bias-Correction Techniques

A recently proposed estimator of the offset between two clocks in a data communications network is based on an exchange of timing messages between the clocks. It is well known that different distributions of the transmission delays in the two directions associated with the exchanged messages cause the estimator to be biased. We use the bootstrap methodology to obtain a closed-form estimator of the bias and then form a new bias-corrected estimator of the clock offset. We show that for common distribution assumptions for the transmission delays, the bias-corrected estimator has smaller mean squared error (MSE) than the uncorrected estimator. We also derive the order statistic-based best linear unbiased estimator (o-BLUE) of the clock offset under the assumption that transmission delays are exponentially distributed. Several studies on network delay characteristics show that no single distribution adequately characterizes delays. Not only are delays highly dependent on the nature of traffic, they are also time varying. Therefore, any clock offset estimator developed needs to be robust to such variations. We examine the robustness of the o-BLUE and its bias-corrected outgrowth under the alternative assumptions of transmission delay. The bias-corrected o-BLUE outperforms a commonly used estimator and is recommended for applications, based on its robustness and MSE properties.

Analysis of signal-to-interference ratio estimation methods for wireless communication systems

The signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is an important metric of communication link quality. For wireless data systems SIR estimates are used in several control actions and for optimal allocation of radio resources. This paper first develops SIR estimators based on pilot symbols and then extends the results to estimators based on data symbols. It is shown that long-term smoothing of the interference variance estimates improves the overall estimation accuracy. Since both pilot and data symbols are available, estimators that optimally combine estimates from both types of symbols are also considered. In all cases, approximate analytic results are provided and validated using simulations. The analytic expressions serve two purposes. Firstly, improved estimators based on bias correction become apparent from the expressions and secondly, optimal weights for combining pilot and data based estimators can be evaluated. Results show that modest to substantial improvement in estimation accuracy is possible through optimal combining.

Evolution of UMTS toward high-speed downlink packet access

An expanded effort is under way to support the evolution of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard to meet the rapidly developing needs associated with wireless data applications. A new, shared channel — the high-speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) — provides support to packet-switched high-speed data users. A number of performance-enhancing technologies are included in the high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) system to ensure high peak and average packet data rates while supporting circuit-switched voice and packet data on the same carrier. Lucent Technologies took a pivotal role in specifying many of these techniques, including adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and fat-pipe scheduling. In this paper, we provide system-level simulations results to indicate the achievable performance and capacity with these advanced technologies. We also discuss HSDPA protocol architecture along with the uplink and downlink control channel design and performance. We conclude with a discussion of potential enhancements for the future.

Distributed Interference Management and Scheduling in LTE-A Femto Networks

We design novel mechanisms and algorithms for fast, simple, and distributed interference management and scheduling in wireless femto networks via exchange of information over-the-air (OTA). We focus on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) of the 3GPP standard and on the downlink; we leverage the existing signalling and delineate additional signals that need to be introduced in the standard. Key aspects of our work include: (1) our design involves only one round of exchange of very few bits of information in each time slot (of the order of 1 ms) resulting in a very low control overhead, (2) our algorithm is a heuristic derived from the maximum weight scheduling algorithm for a realistic interference model (as opposed to an abstract