Hybrid Communication Path Orchestration for 5G Heterogeneous Ultra-Dense Networks

Abstract

The heterogeneous ultra-dense network (UDN) has been widely regarded as a promising architecture for coping with the massive data traffic in future mobile networks including fifth generation mobile networks. There have been innumerable research efforts toward boosting the capacity of UDNs. Global communication path orchestration can better utilize UDN capacity; unfortunately, few studies focus on this topic. In this article, we propose a communication path orchestration architecture for heterogeneous UDNs. In this architecture, data can be transported from one interior communication node (i.e., a base station or user device) to another interior node along a hybrid device communication path (HDCP). HDCPs can be used for communications between two user devices and can be used to migrate traffic between backhaul links. Application- layer-assisted data forwarding allows HDCP to include various communication links including access links, backhaul links, and device-to-device links using licensed and unlicensed spectrum resources. HDCPs are centrally arranged to meet specific requirements and designated optimization objectives. We introduce two HDCP orchestration methods in this article. Our proposed solution can be used as a significant supplement to existing techniques for heterogeneous UDNs.