Vineeth S. Varma

An Energy-Efficient Framework for the Analysis of MIMO Slow Fading Channels

In this paper, a new energy-efficiency performance metric is proposed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) point-to-point systems. In contrast with related works on energy-efficiency, this metric translates the effects of using finite blocks for transmitting, using channel estimates at the transmitter and receiver, and considering the total power consumed by the transmitter instead of the radiated power only. The main objective pursued is to choose the best precoding matrix used at the transmitter in the following two scenarios : 1) the one where imperfect channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitter and receiver and 2) the one where no CSI is available at the transmitter. In both scenarios, the problem of optimally tuning the total used power is shown to be nontrivial. In scenario 2), the optimal fraction of training time can be characterized by a simple equation. These results and others provided in the paper, along with the provided numerical analysis, show that the present work can therefore be used as a good basis for studying power control and resource allocation in energy-efficient multiuser networks.

Mean field energy games in wireless networks

This work tackles the problem of energy-efficient distributed power control in wireless networks with a large number of transmitters. The problem is modeled by a dynamic game. Each transmitter-receiver communication is characterized by a state given by the available energy and/or the individual channel state and whose evolution is governed by certain dynamics. Since equilibrium analysis in such a (stochastic) game is generally difficult and even impossible, the problem is approximated by exploiting the large system assumption. Under an appropriate exchangeability assumption, the corresponding mean field game is well defined and studied in detail for special cases. The main contribution of this work is to show how mean field games can be applied to the problem under investigation and provide illustrative numerical results. Our results indicate that this approach can lead to significant gains in terms of energy-efficiency at the resulting equilibrium.

A Cross-Layer Approach for Distributed Energy-Efficient Power Control in Interference Networks

In contrast with existing works that rely on the same type of energy-efficiency (EE) measure to design distributed power control policies, this paper takes into account the presence of a finite packet buffer at the transmitter side and the impact of transport protocols. This approach is relevant when the transmitters have a nonzero energy cost, even when the radiated power is zero. A generalized EE performance metric integrating these features is constructed under two different scenarios in terms of transport layer protocols characterized by a constant or an adaptive packet arrival rate. The derived performance metric is shown to have several attractive properties in both scenarios, which ensures convergence of the used distributed power control algorithm to a unique point. This point is the Nash equilibrium (NE) of a game for which the equilibrium analysis is conducted. Although the equilibrium analysis methodology is not new in itself, conducting it requires several nontrivial proofs, including the proof of quasi-concavity of the payoff functions. A thorough numerical analysis is provided to illustrate the effects of the proposed approach and provides several valuable insights in terms of designing interference management policies.

Power modulation: Application to inter-cell interference coordination

In this work, a novel technique which allows every transmitter in an interference network to have global channel state information (CSI) is proposed. The key feature of the proposed technique is that each transmitter acquires global CSI purely through the available feedback channel (i.e., a feedback of the received signal power). In the first step of the proposed technique, each transmitter uses several observations provided by the feedback channel to learn the channel gains perceived by its intended receiver. Secondly, this information is quantized, modulated, and transmitted to the other transmitters through the power levels used by the transmitters; the latter are indirectly observed through the received signal power. Hence, the interference is used as an implicit communication channel through which local CSI is exchanged. Once global CSI is acquired, it can be used to optimize any utility function which depends on it.

On the benefits of repeated game models for green cross-layer power control in small cells

In this paper, we consider the problem of distributed power control for multiple access channels when energy-efficiency has to be optimized. In contrast with related works, the presence of a queue at each transmitter is accounted for and globally efficient solutions are sought. To this end, a repeated game model is exploited and shown to lead to solutions which are distributed in the sense of the decision, perform well globally, and may rely on limited channel state information at the transmitter.

Energy efficiency analysis of antenna selection multi-input multi-output automatic repeat request systems over Nakagami-m fading channels

In this study, the authors investigate energy efficiency in antenna selection multi-input multi-output automatic repeat request (MIMO ARQ) wireless systems. The authors first derive an approximate expression for the average frame-error rate (FER) in antenna selection MIMO systems over quasi-static Nakagami-m fading channels. The FER approximation is then used to obtain an analytical expression of an energy-efficiency metric that is defined as the total energy required to successfully deliver one information bit. The authors prove that this energy-efficiency metric is a quasi-convex function with respect to the average signal-to-noise ratio value. Based on this analysis, the authors obtain the optimal value of the average energy per transmitted data symbol such that the total energy consumption in the system is minimised. The results show that the energy efficiency in antenna selection MIMO ARQ systems is improved when the number of equipped antennas is increased. Simulation results are provided to validate the analysis.

Cross-layer design for green power control

In this work, we propose a new energy efficiency metric which allows one to optimize the performance of a wireless system through a novel power control mechanism. The proposed metric possesses two important features. First, it considers the whole power of the terminal and not just the radiated power. Second, it can account for the limited buffer memory of transmitters which store arriving packets as a queue and transmit them with a success rate that is determined by the transmit power and channel conditions. Remarkably, this metric is shown to have attractive properties such as quasi-concavity with respect to the transmit power and a unique maximum, allowing to derive an optimal power control scheme. Based on analytical and numerical results, the influence of the packet arrival rate, the size of the queue, and the constraints in terms of quality of service are studied. Simulations show that the proposed cross-layer approach of power control may lead to significant gains in terms of transmit power compared to a physical layer approach of green communications.

Congestion games in caching enabled heterogeneous cellular networks

In this work, a heterogeneous cellular network with caching enabled at the small cell aggregators is analyzed. The caching technology is enabled to help offload some of the popular traffic requests onto the cache. In this framework, a network congestion game is formulated to study the evolution of traffic when every user as an independent decision maker decides its choice of communication, i.e, via the macro cell or the caching enabled small cells. To study the effect of the cache on the network delay, a numerical simulation is implemented. The file popularity is modeled using the well known Zipf-distribution and the network delay is studied as a function of the cache buffer size and network traffic. In summary, these results can be utilized by network operators to deploy infrastructure efficiently.

On the energy efficiency of virtual MIMO systems

The major motivation behind this work is to optimize the sleep mode and transmit power level strategies in a small cell cluster in order to maximize the proposed energy efficiency metric. We study the virtual multiple input multiple output (MIMO) established with each base station in the cluster equipped with one transmit antenna and every user equipped with one receive antennas each. The downlink energy efficiency is analyzed taking into account the transmit power level as well as the implementation of sleep mode schemes. In our extensive simulations, we analyze and evaluate the performance of the virtual MIMO through zero-forcing schemes and the benefits of sleep mode schemes in small cell clusters. Our results show that for certain configurations of the system, implementing a virtual MIMO with several transmit antennas can be less energy efficient than a system with sleep mode using OFDMA with a single transmitting antenna for serving multiple users.

Interference Coordination via Power Domain Channel Estimation

A novel technique is proposed, which enables each transmitter to acquire global channel state information (CSI) from the sole knowledge of individual received signal power measurements, which makes dedicated feedback or inter-transmitter signaling channels unnecessary. To make this possible, we resort to a completely new technique whose key idea is to exploit the transmit power levels as symbols to embed information and the observed interference as a communication channel the transmitters can use to exchange coordination information. Although the used technique allows any kind of low-rate information to be exchanged among the transmitters, the focus here is to exchange local CSI. The proposed procedure also comprises a phase which allows local CSI to be estimated. Once an estimate of global CSI is acquired by the transmitters, it can be used to optimize any utility function which depends on it. While algorithms, which use the same type of measurements, such as the iterative water-filling algorithm, implement the sequential best-response dynamics (BRD) applied to individual utilities, here, thanks to the availability of global CSI, the BRD can be applied to the sum-utility. Extensive numerical results show that significant gains can be obtained and, this, by requiring no additional online signaling.