Hanbyul Seo

Coordinated multipoint transmission and reception in LTE-advanced: deployment scenarios and operational challenges

3GPP has completed a study on coordinated multipoint transmission and reception techniques to facilitate cooperative communications across multiple transmission and reception points (e.g., cells) for the LTE-Advanced system. In CoMP operation, multiple points coordinate with each other in such a way that the transmission signals from/to other points do not incur serious interference or even can be exploited as a meaningful signal. The goal of the study is to evaluate the potential performance benefits of CoMP techniques and the implementation aspects including the complexity of the standards support for CoMP. This article discusses some of the deployment scenarios in which CoMP techniques will likely be most beneficial and provides an overview of CoMP schemes that might be supported in LTE-Advanced given the modern silicon/DSP technologies and backhaul designs available today. In addition, practical implementation and operational challenges are discussed. We also assess the performance benefits of CoMP in these deployment scenarios with traffic varying from low to high load.

Wireless packet scheduling based on the cumulative distribution function of user transmission rates

In this paper, we present a new wireless scheduling algorithm based on the cumulative distribution function (cdf) and its simple modification that limits the maximum starving time. This cdf-based scheduling (CS) algorithm selects the user for transmission based on the cdf of user rates, in such a way that the user whose rate is high enough, but least probable to become higher, is selected first. We prove that the CS algorithm is equivalent to a scheduling algorithm that regards the user rates as independent and identically distributed, and the average throughput of a user is independent of the probability distribution of other users. So, we can evaluate the exact user throughput only if we know the users own distribution, which is a distinctive feature of this proposed algorithm. In addition, we try a modification on the CS algorithm to limit the maximum starving time, and prove that the modification does not affect the average interservice time. This CS with starving-time limitation (CS-STL) algorithm turns out to limit the maximum starving time at the cost of a negligible throughput loss.

Generalized CSMA/CA for OFDMA systems: protocol design, throughput analysis, and implementation issues

In this paper, we present a multi-channel carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems. The CSMA/CA system in conventional single-channel operation has the advantage of not requiring the signaling for bandwidth request and allocation over the scheduled access system but it sacrifices system efficiency significantly. We overcome the system efficiency limitation by exploiting the OFDMA system features that multiple stations can transmit simultaneously on different sub-channels, and the stations can obtain the channel information of all the sub-channels at each time instant. The OFDMA-based multi-channel CSMA/CA protocol is designed to enable the stations to contend with each other for channel access both in time and frequency domains through a two-dimensional backoff scheme. The protocol takes a generalized form of the conventional single-channel CSMA/CA protocol: It allows to segment the channel bandwidth into multiple narrow-band random access channels and adjust the transmission probability according to the multi-channel activity in a flexible manner. For throughput analysis, we devise a multi-channel p-persistent CSMA protocol that can emulate the multi-channel CSMA/CA protocol and then analyze its saturated throughput. The simulation and analysis results reveal that the proposed system performs far better than the single-channel CSMA/CA system while using the same total bandwidth and even close to the scheduled access system. Further, we examine how stringent time synchronization is required among the constituent stations in implementing of the OFDMA-based multi-channel CSMA/CA system.

A proportional-fair power allocation scheme for fair and efficient multiuser OFDM systems

In this paper we investigate adaptive resource allocation schemes in multiuser OFDM systems for fair share of resources and efficient operation. We employ the CDF-based scheduling (CS) algorithm for the subcarrier allocation, taking advantage of its distinctive feature of analyzability and multiuser diversity. Noting that conventional power allocation schemes do not exhibit efficient and fair operations in heterogeneous user channel environments, we present a new algorithm called proportional-fair power allocation (PFPA). This algorithm is designed to allocate transmission power in such a way that the resulting relative throughput-increment is identical for all subcarriers. The PFPA algorithm is shown to be equivalent to the power allocation of the asymptotically optimal algorithm which exhibits the largest achievable region in the asymptotic case. Numerical results reveal that the combined CS-PFPA algorithm improves the overall system capacity in terms of time-average throughput and provides efficient estimation of user performance. Further, the CS-PFPA algorithm can meet each users requirements using a minimum amount of resources, so it renders an efficient and fair means for resource allocation in multiuser OFDM systems.

LTE evolution for vehicle-to-everything services

Wireless communication has become a key technology for competitiveness of next generation vehicles. Recently, the 3GPP has initiated standardization activities for LTE-based V2X services composed of vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle- to-pedestrian, and vehicle-to-infrastructure/network. The goal of these 3GPP activities is to enhance LTE systems to enable vehicles to communicate with other vehicles, pedestrians, and infrastructure in order to exchange messages for aiding in road safety, controlling traffic flow, and providing various traffic notifications. In this article, we provide an overview of the service flow and requirements of the V2X services LTE systems are targeting. This article also discusses the scenarios suitable for operating LTE-based V2X services, and addresses the main challenges of high mobility and densely populated vehicle environments in designing technical solutions to fulfill the requirements of V2X services. Leveraging the spectral-efficient air interface, the cost-effective network deployment, and the versatile nature of supporting different communication types, LTE systems along with proper enhancements can be the key enabler of V2X services.

Feedback-Topology Designs for Interference Alignment in MIMO Interference Channels

Interference alignment (IA) is a joint-transmission technique for the interference channel that achieves the maximum degrees-of-freedom and provides linear scaling of the capacity with the number of users for high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Most prior work on IA is based on the impractical assumption that perfect and global channel-state information (CSI) is available at all transmitters. However, to implement IA, each receiver has to feed back CSI to all interferers, resulting in overwhelming feedback overhead. In particular, the sum feedback rate of each receiver scales quadratically with the number of users even if the feedback CSI is quantized. To substantially suppress feedback overhead, this paper focuses on designing efficient arrangements of feedback links, called feedback topologies, under the IA constraint. For the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) K-user interference channel, we propose the feedback topology that supports sequential CSI exchange (feedback and feedforward) between transmitters and receivers so as to achieve IA progressively. This feedback topology is shown to reduce the network feedback overhead from a quadratic function of K to a linear one. To reduce the delay in the sequential CSI exchange, an alternative feedback topology is designed for supporting two-hop feedback via a control station, which also achieves the linear feedback scaling with K. Next, given the proposed feedback topologies, the feedback-bit allocation algorithm is designed for allocating feedback bits by each receiver to different feedback links so as to regulate the residual interference caused by finite-rate feedback. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed bit allocation leads to significant throughput gains especially in strong interference environments.

Proportional-fair power allocation with CDF-based scheduling for fair and efficient multiuser OFDM systems

In this paper we investigate adaptive resource allocation schemes in multiuser OFDM systems for fair share of resources and efficient operation. We employ the CDF-based scheduling (CS) algorithm for the subcarrier allocation, taking advantage of its distinctive feature of analyzability and multiuser diversity. Noting that conventional power allocation schemes do not exhibit efficient and fair operations in heterogeneous user channel environment, we present a new algorithm called proportional-fair power allocation (PFPA). This algorithm is designed to allocate transmission power in such a way that the resulting relative throughput-increment is identical for all subcarriers. The PFPA algorithm is shown to be equivalent to the power allocation of the asymptotically optimal algorithm, which exhibits the largest achievable region in the asymptotic case. Numerical results reveal that the combined CS-PFPA algorithm improves the overall system capacity in terms of time-average throughput and provides efficient estimation of user performances. Further, the CS-PFPA algorithm can meet each users requirements using a minimum amount of resources, so it renders an efficient and fair means for resource allocation in multiuser OFDM systems.

Optimal Transmission Power for Single- and Multi-Hop Links in Wireless Packet Networks With ARQ Capability

In this paper, we rigorously investigate the energy minimization problem for wireless packet networks with automatic repeat request (ARQ) capability. We first formulate the problem for the single-hop case under constrained packet delay and reliability and derive the necessary and sufficient condition for the optimal transmission power at each ARQ stage. We formulate a global rule of optimal transmission power control that achieves optimality regardless of the delay and reliability constraints. Then we extend it to encompass the multi-hop case by dividing the overall problem into two subproblems-energy determination for each ARQ stage and energy distribution among the constituent nodes. We show that the optimality condition established for the single-hop case is also applicable to solve the energy determination problem in the multi-hop case, rendering an optimal solution to the energy distribution problem. Numerical examples reveal that a significant amount of energy is saved by adopting the optimal transmission power and the performance gain is strongly correlated with the decreasing property of the frame error rate

Interference Alignment for Uplink Cellular Systems with Limited Feedback

Assuming perfect channel state information, the existing interference alignment (IA) algorithm proposed in [2] suppresses inter-cell interference (ICI) by aligning ICI to a randomly selected reference vector. However, IA in practice relies on limited feedback, resulting in residual ICI. In this letter, we propose the optimization of the reference vector for regulating the residual ICI. Specifically, it is shown that the reference vector that minimizes an upper bound on the residual ICI power is the eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue of the sum of the interference-channel matrices multiplied by their corresponding Hermitian matrices. Moreover, the performance gain of the proposed IA algorithm compared with the existing one in [2] is analyzed and demonstrated by simulation to be significant.

Channel Structuring and Subchannel Allocation for Efficient Multicast and Unicast Services Integration in Wireless OFDM Systems

In this paper, we discuss how to find the optimal method for efficient integration of multicast and unicast service in wireless OFDM systems. The multicast capacity is limited by the user with the worst channel condition. In order to overcome this limitation, we propose channel structure for the multicast and unicast traffic. The multicast channel first encodes the multicast traffic and then demultiplexes it into the constituent subchannels, and the channel structure increases the multicast channel capacity with the help of the channel coding. Based on the channel structure, we develop the subchannel allocation that maximizes the total unicast throughput while guaranteeing the transmission rate requirement on the multicast traffic for all the multicast users. Since it is too complicated to solve the allocation problem directly, we devise a fitness metric that quantitatively measures how suitable the subchannel is for carrying the multicast traffic and present the fitness-based subchannel allocation (FSA) algorithm. Numerical results reveal that the FSA algorithm achieves almost the same performance as the performance upper bound in terms of average unicast throughput.