Abstract
Restrained by the long term evolution (LTE) limited network capacity, WiFi technology is considered as one of the promising solutions to leverage the traffic load and enhance the LTE capacity. Exploiting both the licensed and unlicensed spectrum was the motivated key to standardize the LTE-wireless local area network (WLAN) aggregation (LWA) technology by 3GPP in Release 13. In this paper, we consider the user association problem in LWA-based Multiple Radio Access Technologies (Multi-RAT) Heterogeneous Networks (HetNet) in which three transmission modes are available (LTE, WiFi, and aggregation mode) and the user needs to select not only the wireless node that will associate with it, but also the used transmission mode. For this, a new user association algorithm that considers the joint node and mode selection is proposed in this paper. This association process is formulated as an optimization problem with the aim to maximize total network throughput. To solve this problem, a one-to-many matching game-based association algorithm is designed, where each user is matched to the best transmission mode/node according to well-developed utility function that considers the achieved data rate of each user as well as the proportional fairness among users. Simulation results have shown that our proposed algorithm outperforms comparable association techniques such as WLAN first, LTE first, and LTE-W in terms of system throughput, outage probability and fairness between users.
Highlights
With the improved mobile capabilities and the innovative mobile applications, cellular networks are witnessing a huge growth in mobile data traffic which expected to reach 396 exabytes per month by 2022 [1]
CONTRIBUTION Motivated by the previous observations provided in the literature review, the main contribution in this paper is to introduce a framework for joint user association and mode selection in local area network (WLAN) aggregation (LWA) multi-radio access technologies (RATs) Heterogeneous Networks (HetNet)
In order to evaluate our proposed algorithm, multi-RAT HetNet with LWA is considered. This architecture is represented by one Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Macro base station (MBS), 2 LTE Small-cell Base Stations (SBSs), 2WAPs, and 2 Integrated Small Cells (ISCs)
Summary
With the improved mobile capabilities and the innovative mobile applications, cellular networks are witnessing a huge growth in mobile data traffic which expected to reach 396 exabytes per month by 2022 [1]. All of the aforementioned works are limited in representing the user association problem, either as RAT selection problem neglecting the node selection criteria or as node selection problem assuming default RAT selection Such user association algorithms may offer a sub-optimal solution and will not be efficient to be applied in multi-RAT HetNet supporting LWA deployment with three available transmission modes. B. CONTRIBUTION Motivated by the previous observations provided in the literature review, the main contribution in this paper is to introduce a framework for joint user association and mode selection in LWA multi-RAT HetNet. We consider a scenario where UEs who can access both LTE and WiFi RATs have the capability to choose between three transmission modes (LTE mode, WiFi mode, or LWA mode for aggregation) and can associate with different WNs supporting the selected transmission mode.
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