Network Slicing Technique Assisted Resource Allocation in Small-Cell Networks

Abstract

This paper investigates the network slicing technique based resource allocation in small-cell networks. Motivating to maximize the sum rate of the network, it considers the joint design of network slicing (NS), subcarrier allocation and power allocation, optimization problem is formulated as a mixed integer non-linear programing (MINLP) problem. To tackle the formulated MINLP problem, we propose the low-complexity resource allocation scheme, including the heuristic NS assignment algorithm, and the many-to-one matching sub-carrier allocation (M2OM-SA) algorithm. In particular, the heuristic NS algorithm is first carried out, in order to efficiently assign the different number of subbands to different types of users with diverse service requirements. Then, based on the NS result, the M2OM-SA algorithm is implemented independently for each NS group, in which the best available subcarriers can be assigned to the users within the same NS group. Finally, our simulation results show that the proposed resource allocation scheme can significantly outperform the existing schemes in terms of the sum rate of the networks. Therefore, we can conclude that the proposed resource allocation scheme can be considered as a promising candidate for future small-cell networks with diverse service requirements coexist.