Transmit beamforming for QoE improvement in C-RAN with mobile virtual network operators

Abstract

Network slicing enables mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to lease network resources from a mobile network operator (MNO). The cloud radio access network (CRAN) architecture reduces the capital and operational expenditures for the MNO and also facilitates MVNOs running virtual machines on the cloud server. In this paper, we propose a beamforming scheme that coordinates multiple remote radio heads (RRHs) in C-RAN to improve the quality of experience (QoE) of users by maximizing their aggregate weighted quality of service (QoS). We model the QoS of each mobile user by a sigmoidal function and formulate the beamforming design as a non-convex optimization problem. By introducing an interference threshold, we first develop an iterative algorithm to determine a suboptimal solution of the original problem. Based on simulation results, we then show that a suitable interference threshold can be obtained in an off-line manner such that the suboptimal solution is a close-to-optimal solution of the original non-convex problem. Simulation results also show that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the aggregate weighted QoS of the mobile users compared to the traditional design where the weighted system sum rate is maximized.