Abstract
The Dual Connectivity (DC) technology has gained a lot of momentum in the LTE Release 12 as a means to enhance the per-user throughput and provide mobility robustness. Some studies in the literature have discussed the interworking between the LTE and the air interface of the upcoming Fifth Generation (5G) in a DC scenario. That integration may provide some benefits to meet the high throughput, reliability and availability requirements of the 5G networks. This work firstly presents a brief overview of the DC technology considering the integration between 4G e 5G. Then, we highlight some open issues and challenges for future investigation involving Radio Resource Management (RRM) in such a scenario, which includes: (i) user-cell association, (ii) interaction between base stations and (iii) resource allocation. After that, we propose an extension of a utility-based resource allocation algorithm for DC scenarios. Finally, a performance evaluation is conducted in multi-Radio Access Technology (RAT) LTE-NR scenarios considering the bearer split configuration of the DC technology, where the gains provided by the proposed algorithm are demonstrated.
Highlights
Due to the steep increase in mobile traffic over the past years, there have been many attempts to find new communication technologies that further improve the end-user experience and system performance of mobile networks
We present a performance evaluation considering the bearer split configuration of the Dual Connectivity (DC) connectivity technology in multi-Radio Access Technology (RAT) scenarios composed of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and New Radio (NR) Evolved Node Bs (eNBs)
This work presents a comprehensive overview of the DC technology for 5G heterogeneous and multi-RAT scenarios composed of LTE and NR base stations, including possible options of architectures and a comprehensive survey regarding Resource Management (RRM) in such scenarios
Summary
Due to the steep increase in mobile traffic over the past years, there have been many attempts to find new communication technologies that further improve the end-user experience and system performance of mobile networks. The throughput of UE-3 would be increased by utilizing radio resources from different eNBs. Differently from the DC scenario presented in [3] and [6], where a HetNet composed of LTE eNBs operating on different frequencies was considered, another possible solution for DC that has been exploited in the literature is a scenario with the integration between multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs), where the MeNB belongs to one RAT and the SeNB to another. The objective of this configuration is to increase the system reliability by diminishing the occurrence of service interruptions that might occur due to the intrinsic propagation characteristics of millimeter Wave (mmW) used by NR (such as higher penetration loss, lower diffraction, and signal blocking from moving objects) or because of Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) situations when using narrow beams with massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) This integration targets the fulfillment of the 5G requirements by means of allowing simultaneous multi-RAT connectivity in order to provide faster mobility and Centralized/Common Radio Resource Management (CRRM) [9].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
