Radio Resource Management Techniques for QoS Provision in 5G Networks PDF Download

Author: Eftychia Datsika
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
As numerous mobile applications and over-the-top (OTT) services emerge and mobile Internet connectivity becomes ubiquitous, the provision of high quality of service (QoS) is more challenging for mobile network operators (MNOs). Research efforts focus on the development of innovative resource management techniques and have introduced the long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) communication standard. Novel business models make the growth of network capacity sustainable by enabling MNOs to combine their resources. The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks will involve technologies and business stakeholders with different capabilities and demands that may affect the QoS provision, requiring efficient radio resource sharing. The need for higher network capacity has introduced novel technologies that improve resource allocation efficiency. Direct connectivity among user equipment terminals (UEs) circumventing the LTE-A infrastructure alleviates the network overload. Part of mobile traffic is offloaded to outband device-to-device (D2D) connections (in unlicensed spectrum) enabling data exchange between UEs directly or via UEs-relays. Still, MNOs need additional spectrum resources and infrastructure. The inter-operator network sharing concept has emerged motivating the adoption of virtualization that enables network slicing, i.e., dynamic separation of resources in virtual slices (VSs). VSs are managed in isolation by different tenants using software defined networking and encompass core and radio access network resources allocated periodically to UEs. When UEs access OTT applications, flows with different QoS demands and priorities determined by OTT service providers (OSPs) are generated. OSPs' policies should be considered in VS allocation. The coexisting technologies, business models and stakeholders require sophisticated radio resource management (RRM) techniques. To that end, RRM is performed in a complex ecosystem. When D2D communication involves data concurrently downloaded by the mobile network, QoS may be affected by LTE-A network parameters (resource scheduling policy, downlink channel conditions). It is also affected by the relay selection, as UEs may not be willing to help unknown UE pairs and UEs' social ties in mobile applications may influence willingness for D2D cooperation. Thus, effective medium access control (MAC) mechanisms should coordinate D2D transmissions employing advanced techniques, e.g., network coding (NC). When UEs access OTT applications, OSPs' policies are not considered by MNOs in RRM and OSPs cannot apply flow prioritization. Network neutrality issues also arise when OSPs claim resources from MNOs aiming to minimize grade of service (GoS). OSPs' intervention may delay flows' accommodation due to the time required for OSP-MNO interaction and the time the flows spent waiting for resources. This thesis proposes novel solutions to the RRM issues of outband D2D communication and VS allocation for OSPs in 5G networks. We present a cooperative D2D MAC protocol that leverages the opportunities for NC in D2D communication under the influence of LTE-A network parameters and its throughput performance analysis. The protocol improves D2D throughput and energy efficiency, especially for UEs with better downlink channel conditions. We next introduce social awareness in D2D MAC design and present a social-aware cooperative D2D MAC protocol that employs UEs' social ties to promote the use of friendly relays reducing the total energy consumption. Motivated by the lack of approaches for OSP-oriented RRM, we present a novel flow prioritization algorithm based on matching theory that applies OSPs' policies respecting the network neutrality and the analysis of its GoS and delay performance. The algorithm maintains low overhead and delay without affecting fairness among OSPs. Our techniques highlight the QoS improvement induced by the joint consideration of different technologies and business stakeholders in RRM design.