Atta ul Quddus

On the Evolution of Multi-Cell Scheduling in 3GPP LTE / LTE-A

This paper provides a holistic overview of multi-cell scheduling strategies in emerging wireless systems. Towards this objective, the evolution of interference management techniques is thoroughly investigated from simple inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) techniques towards more advanced coordinated multipoint transmissions (CoMP), while comparing and contrasting their common features and differences. Finally CoMP is explored in detail as an advanced and challenging mechanism to fully cooperate between adjacent cells in order to have an efficient resource allocation and inter-cell interference mitigation in multi-cell environments.

Local Mobility Management for Networked Femtocells Based on X2 Traffic Forwarding

The femtocell is becoming a promising solution to face the explosive growth of mobile broadband usage in cellular networks. Although each femtocell only covers a small area, a massive deployment is expected to form networked femtocells in the near future. One immediate challenge is to provide seamless mobility support for networked femtocells with minimal support from mobile core networks. In this paper, we propose efficient local mobility management schemes for networked femtocells based on X2 traffic forwarding under the Third-Generation Partnership Project Long-Term Evolution Advanced (3GPP LTE-A) framework. Instead of implementing the path switch operation at core network entity for each handover, a local traffic forwarding chain is constructed to use the existing Internet backhaul and the local path between the local anchor femtocell and the target femtocell for ongoing session communications. Both analytical studies and simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed schemes and compare them with the original 3GPP scheme. The results indicate that the proposed schemes can significantly reduce the signaling cost and relieve the processing burden of mobile core networks with the reasonable distributed cost for local traffic forwarding. In addition, the proposed schemes can enable fast session recovery to adapt to the self-deployment nature of the femtocells.

Dynamic Clustering Framework for Multi-Cell Scheduling in Dense Small Cell Networks

This letter proposes a novel graph-based multi-cell scheduling framework to efficiently mitigate downlink inter-cell interference in small cell OFDMA networks. This framework incorporates dynamic clustering combined with channel-aware resource allocation to provide tunable quality of service measures at different levels. Our extensive evaluation study shows that a significant improvement in users spectral efficiency is achievable, while also maintaining relatively high cell spectral efficiency via empirical tuning of re-use factor across the cells according to the required QoS constraints.

Scheduling as an important cross-layer operation for emerging broadband wireless systems

Cross-layer scheduling is a promising solution for improving the efficiency of emerging broadband wireless systems. In this tutorial, various cross-layer design approaches are organized into three main categories namely air interface-centric, user-centric and route-centric and the general characteristics of each are discussed. Thereafter, by focusing on the air interface-centric approach, it is shown that the resource allocation problem can be formulated as an optimization problem with a certain objective function and some particular constraints. This is illustrated with the aid of a customer-provider model from the field of economics. Furthermore, the possible future evolution of scheduling techniques is described based on the characteristics of traffic and air interface in emerging broadband wireless systems. Finally, some further challenges are identified.

Joint TDD Backhaul and Access Optimization in Dense Small-Cell Networks

This paper addresses the problem of joint backhaul (BH) and access link optimization in dense small-cell networks with a special focus on time-division duplexing (TDD) mode of operation in BH and access link transmission. Here, we propose a framework for joint radio resource management, where we systematically decompose the problem in BH and access links. To simplify the analysis, the procedure is tackled in two stages. At the first stage, the joint optimization problem is formulated for a point-to-point scenario where each small cell is simply associated with a single user. It is shown that the optimization can be decomposed into separate power and subchannel allocation in both BH and access links, where a set of rate-balancing parameters in conjunction with duration of transmission governs the coupling across both links. Moreover, a novel algorithm is proposed based on grouping the cells to achieve rate balancing in different small cells. Next, in the second stage, the problem is generalized for multiaccess small cells. Here, each small cell is associated with multiple users to provide the service. The optimization is similarly decomposed into separate subchannel and power allocation by employing auxiliary slicing variables. It is shown that similar algorithms, as in the previous stage, are applicable by a slight change with the aid of slicing variables. Additionally, for the special case of line-of-sight BH links, simplified expressions for subchannel and power allocation are presented. The developed concepts are evaluated by extensive simulations in different case studies from full orthogonalization to dynamic clustering and full reuse in the downlink, and it is shown that the proposed framework provides significant improvement over the benchmark cases.

Nonpool based spectrum sharing for two UMTS operators in the UMTS extension band

This paper investigates spectrum sharing (in the form of code sharing) between two Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) operators in the UMTS extension band (2500-2690 MHz) with equal and unequal number of proprietary carriers, respectively. The paper proposes a dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) algorithm to address the problem of spectrum sharing between two operators on a non-pool basis. It also investigates the impact of adjacent channel interference (ACI) on the spectrum sharing gain. Additionally, an architecture that enables spectrum sharing to take place between two or more UMTS operators is presented. The simulated performance of the proposed DSA algorithm shows that under peak-hour loading, up to 32% increase in capacity can be obtained when compared to currently used fixed spectrum allocation (FSA).

Enabling Massive IoT in 5G and Beyond Systems: PHY Radio Frame Design Considerations

The parameters of physical layer radio frame for 5th generation (5G) mobile cellular systems are expected to be flexibly configured to cope with diverse requirements of different scenarios and services. This paper presents a frame structure and design, which is specifically targeting Internet of Things (IoT) provision in 5G wireless communication systems. We design a suitable radio numerology to support the typical characteristics, that is, massive connection density and small and bursty packet transmissions with the constraint of low-cost and low complexity operation of IoT devices. We also elaborate on the design of parameters for random access channel enabling massive connection requests by IoT devices to support the required connection density. The proposed design is validated by link level simulation results to show that the proposed numerology can cope with transceiver imperfections and channel impairments. Furthermore, the results are also presented to show the impact of different values of guard band on system performance using different subcarrier spacing sizes for data and random access channels, which show the effectiveness of the selected waveform and guard bandwidth. Finally, we present system-level simulation results that validate the proposed design under realistic cell deployments and inter-cell interference conditions.

Seamless Handover for LTE Macro-Femto Networks Based on Reactive Data Bicasting

Seamless mobility support is a key technical requirement to motivate the market acceptance of the femtocells. The current 3GPP handover procedure may cause large downlink service interruption time when users move from a macrocell to a femtocell or vice versa due to the data forwarding operation. In this letter, a practical scheme is proposed to enable seamless handover by reactively bicasting the data to both the source cell and the target cell after the handover is actually initiated. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme can significantly reduce the downlink service interruption time while still avoiding the packet loss with only limited extra resource requirements compared to the standard 3GPP scheme.

Subband Filtered Multi-Carrier Systems for Multi-Service Wireless Communications

Flexibly supporting multiple services, each with different communication requirements and frame structure, has been identified as one of the most significant and promising characteristics of next generation and beyond wireless communication systems. However, integrating multiple frame structures with different subcarrier spacing in one radio carrier may result in significant inter-service-band-interference (ISBI). In this paper, a framework for multi-service (MS) systems is established based on a subband filtered multi-carrier system. The subband filtering implementations and both asynchronous and generalized synchronous (GS) MS subband filtered multi-carrier (SFMC) systems have been proposed. Based on the GS-MS-SFMC system, the system model with ISBI is derived and a number of properties on ISBI are given. In addition, low-complexity ISBI cancelation algorithms are proposed by precoding the information symbols at the transmitter. For asynchronous MS-SFMC system in the presence of transceiver imperfections, including carrier frequency offset, timing offset, and phase noise, a complete analytical system model is established in terms of desired signal, inter-symbol-interference, inter-carrier-interference, ISBI, and noise. Thereafter, new channel equalization algorithms are proposed by considering the errors and imperfections. Numerical analysis shows that the analytical results match the simulation results, and the proposed ISBI cancelation and equalization algorithms can significantly improve the system performance in comparison with the existing algorithms.

FBMC System: An Insight Into Doubly Dispersive Channel Impact

It has been claimed that filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) systems suffer from negligible performance loss caused by moderate dispersive channels in the absence of guard time protection between symbols. However, a theoretical and systematic explanation/analysis for the statement is missing in the literature to date. In this paper, based on one-tap minimum mean square error (MMSE) and zero-forcing (ZF) channel equalizations, the impact of doubly dispersive channel on the performance of FBMC systems is analyzed in terms of mean square error of received symbols. Based on this analytical framework, we prove that the circular convolution property between symbols and the corresponding channel coefficients in the frequency domain holds loosely with a set of inaccuracies. To facilitate analysis, we first model the FBMC system in a vector/matrix form and derive the estimated symbols as a sum of desired signal, noise, intersymbol interference (ISI), intercarrier interference (ICI), interblock interference (IBI), and estimation bias in the MMSE equalizer. Those terms are derived one-by-one and expressed as a function of channel parameters. The numerical results reveal that under harsh channel conditions, e.g., with large Doppler spread or channel delay spread, the FBMC system performance may be severely deteriorated and error floor will occur.