Cognitive Radio Resource Management for Improving the Efficiency of LTE Network Segments in the Wireless B3G World

SHORT PAPER Aggelos Saatsakis, Kostas Tsagkaris, Dirk von-Hugo, Matthias Siebert, Manfred Rosenberger, Panagiotis Demestichas
AbstractIn this paper, we provide a framework for enhancing Radio Resource Management (RRM) in 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems with cognitive features. By exploiting the capabilities of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) LTE access technology, network segments are capable of properly adapting to the environment conditions by applying RRM algorithms for optimized sub-carriers assignment, power allocation and adaptive modulation. On the other hand, cognitive features can be used to provide the system with knowledge that derives from past interactions with the environment. As a result, the system will be able to apply already known solutions in timely manner when identifying a problem that has been already addressed in the past. Framed within the above statements, we propose and validate a Cognitive RRM scheme in the context of LTE network segments. Indicative examples and results showcase that the proposed scheme can result in significant efficiency improvement in terms of performance and network adaptation. Index TermsRadio Resource Management, Cognitive, Long Term Evolution, Network adaptation

I. INTRODUCTION In the era of Beyond 3rd Generation (B3G) wireless communications, several different Radio Access Technologies (RATs) will coexist. In this framework, the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) [1], will have to coexist with WiMAX [2], mobile 2G/3G networks, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) [3], etc. Each system will have to satisfy rigid requirements, in order to adequately serve users and applications. At the same time, technology coexistence and user/application requirements yield a set of complex situations that should be also addressed. Thus,
Aggelos Saatsakis, Kostas Tsagkaris, Panagiotis Demestichas are with University of Piraeus, Greece, (e-mail: {asaatsak, ktsagk, pdemest} @unipi.gr). Dirk Von-Hugo, Matthias Siebert, Manfred Rosenberger are with Deuche Telekom, Germany, (e-mail: {M.Siebert, Dirk.Hugo, Manfred.Rosenberger} @t-systems.com). This work was performed in project E3 which has received research funding from the Communitys Seventh Framework programme. This paper reflects only the authors views and the Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The contributions of colleagues in E3 consortium are hereby acknowledged.

efficient management platforms and functionality are required in order to address the increased complexity. A first prominent direction for achieving efficiency is to develop appropriate platforms and functionality that will attribute the managed segment with cognitive network capabilities [4]. Another measure is to develop management platforms that can exploit Radio Resource Management (RRM) schemes, in order to further increase the efficiency of the managed system. In general, cognitive systems determine their behavior, in a reactive or proactive manner, based on the external stimuli (environment aspects), as well as their goals, principles, capabilities, experience and knowledge. In the case of cognitive networks, this definition can be translated as the ability to dynamically select the networks configuration, through self-management functionality that takes into account the context of operation (environment requirements and characteristics), goals and policies (corresponding to principles), profiles (capabilities), and machine learning [5], (for representing and managing knowledge and experience). The self-management functionalities of cognitive systems may be introduced at the level of the terminal, access point or network segment (set of access points). This paper proposes an enhancement of the RRM mechanism of LTE system with cognitive capabilities (Cognitive RRM). In particular, our work presents an approach for the identification of whether the context currently encountered has also been addressed in the past. This paves the way for proper exploitation of experience and knowledge that can be used to produce wiser RRM decisions and actions. The target of 3G LTE system is to achieve high data rates with low latency and packet optimized RAT. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM) will be adopted as the access technology for LTE [6]. OFDM provides several techniques for a) spectrum allocations to network segments (one or more cells) and b) intra-cell RRM using Dynamic Subcarrier Assignment (DSA), Adaptive Power Allocation (APA) and Adaptive Modulation (AM) algorithms [6], providing the means for a flexible RRM scheme capable to address the problems of the service area and provide solutions for proper network adaptation. In this paper, we will focus on both techniques and try to exploit the results of them towards proposing a cognitive RRM. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section II, LTE architecture is presented and some basic RRM

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issues are addressed. In Section III, we present a management platform attributed with cognitive RRM capabilities, targeted to LTE compliant network segments. In Section IV, the formulation for the intra-cell carrier assignment is presented while in Section V, the Enhanced Context Acquisition mechanism is presented for cognitive intra-cell RRM. In Section VI, the mechanism for Cognitive cell-level carrier assignment is presented. Our numerical results in Section VII provide the efficiency gains obtained from several simulations applying the cognitive RRM on LTE network segments. Section VIII, concludes the paper. II. LTE ARCHITECTURE BASIC RRM

channel conditions ensuring an acceptable Bit Error Rate (BER) in all sub-carriers. A. Cell-level carrier bandwidth assignment 3GPP LTE shall operate in spectrum allocations of different sizes, including 1.25MHz, 1.6MHz, 2.5MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, and 20MHz in both downlink and uplink. The selection of one of the above carriers will be based upon the demand in the service area. Each carrier will be split into a specific number of chunks and each one of them will include the same number of sub-carriers. In [6] several indicative chunk configurations are provided for all the aforementioned different spectrum sizes in order to decide whether the number of chunks (or sub-carriers) is going to be enough for accommodating the traffic demand.

Fig. 1 depicts the LTE network architecture [8].

Fig. 2: LTE system architecture [8], [9] Fig. 1: LTE network architecture [8]. The Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) is consisted of evolved Node Bs (eNBs) which are interconnected by X2 interface. Each eNB is connected to the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network by the S1 interface. Our focus is on the eNB which is responsible to host RRM functions like Radio Bearer Control, Radio Admission Control, Connection Mobility Control and Dynamic Resource Allocation. Details on the elements of EPC can be found in [8]. Fig. 2 depicts the LTE system architecture where the basic components, as well as the necessary interfaces for their interconnection, are presented. Further details on the LTE system architecture can be found in [8], [9]. Radio Resource Management aspects on LTE architecture are addressed in the context of OFDM access technology. The target of DSA is to find the optimum number of sub-carriers to assign to each user in order to be served with the maximum possible Quality of Service (QoS) level. APA is responsible to find the optimum power allocation for the users sub-carriers in order to address issues of efficient frequency reuse and interference minimization. Using AM, the transmitter can send in higher data rates over the sub-carriers which exhibit better B. Intra-cell RRM Intra-cell configuration includes sub-carrier assignment, power allocation and adaptive modulation. Each one of them is reflected by DSA, APA and AM techniques accordingly. Multiple sub-carriers are allowed to be assigned to a single user. However, the same sub-carrier isnt allowed to be assigned in more than one user [10], [11]. The number of subcarriers needed to be assigned to a user may depend on several parameters like user location, the requested service, user profile and Network Operators (NOs) policies. The last intra-cell configuration is adaptive modulation procedure. Several modulation schemes are supported for downlink and uplink [8]. In order to achieve high data rates, based on AM techniques, the optimum configuration could be to use the modulation scheme with the maximum number of bits/symbol considering also variations in environment conditions reflected by BER statistics. III. FORMULATION OF INTRA-CELL RRM This section focuses on and presents a formulation for the intra-cell RRM problem as described in Section II. Consider a set of N users

U = {i : i = 0,1,..., N } that

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reflects

SC = { j : j = 0,1,..., K } is the set of available sub-carriers

the

demand

in

the

service

area.

Set

i (i U ) assigned to sub-carrier j ( j SC ) is denoted as br (i, j ) . The total bit rate in which user i (i U ) experiences services is
each user

for the network segment. The bit rate that can be achieved for

Bi = xi , j br (i, j )
j

(1)

where

xi , j {0,1} , i, j denotes the assignment indicator j to user i i.e. xi , j = 1 if

i . It also holds that
sub-carrier

of sub-carrier

j is
=1,

assigned to user

x
j i

i, j

(i, j ) (U SC )

since each sub-carrier is allowed to be

assigned to only one user. The utility function selected among others, to capture the users satisfaction for the assigned configuration is

U i ( Bi ) = 0.16 + 0.8ln ( Bi 0.3)

(2)[7]

considering best effort traffic cases [13]. The target of intra-cell RRM is to provide configurations in order to maximize the following function: (3) U i (Bi )

while respecting the following constraint:

Bi basicQoS for each user i (i U ) , where basicQoS denotes the minimum allowed bit rate.
IV. COGNITIVE RRM

Policies. They designate rules and functionality that should be followed in context handling. Sample rules can specify allowed QoS levels per application, allocations of applications to RATs and assignments of configurations to transceivers. Decision. The output is consisted of four main reconfiguration decisions. The first one is the carrier bandwidth assignment for each cell. The second is the number of sub-carriers assignment per user. The third is the power allocation in the used sub-carries used and finally the fourth is the modulation scheme that should be used for each subcarrier. Optimization. It can be based on several DSA, APA and AM algorithms [11], [12] and machine learning techniques. The target of each one of these utility based algorithms is to maximize a utility function which reflects the most efficient configurations, considering the network environment parameters provided by Context. Infrastructure Abstraction. Furthermore, the management infrastructure interfaces with the network segment through infrastructure abstraction which provides technology independent information on network parameters. This information is used for perceiving the context encountered in the network segment. Learning. Learning functionalities embedded in the management infrastructure enhance the means for addressing complexity. The management entities are able to learn from the past interactions of the system with the environment, and identify situations addressed in the past. Thus, known solutions will be provided faster since complex optimization procedures can be skipped. Essentially, management components can find and gradually learn the best spectrum carriers that can be used for addressing certain situations. V. ENHANCED CONTEXT ACQUISITION FOR COGNITIVE INTRACELL RRM Fig. 4 presents the architecture of the enhanced context acquisition mechanism [14].

Fig. 3 depicts the management functionality developed for enhancing RRM within LTE network segments [14]. Context. It reflects the status of the elements of the network segment, and the status of their environment. Each element monitoring procedures provide the traffic requirements, the mobility conditions, the configuration used, and the offered QoS levels.

Fig. 3: Introduction and scope of cognitive features in the management process. Profiles. It provides information on the capabilities of the elements and terminals of the segment, as well as the behaviour, preferences, requirements and constraints of users and applications. For users this part designates the applications required, the preferred QoS levels and the constraints regarding costs. Fig. 4: Enhanced context acquisition mechanism architecture for cognitive intra-cell RRM. Reference Context Repository: It contains the information for each context addressed in the past. A registry table is used, in order to remember the solution for each context after the optimization procedure. In order to be clear on the difference between an arbitrary context derived from the network

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segment, and a context stored in the repository, the term reference context is used for the information stored in the repository. Context Matching: The target of this module is to find the closest pattern for the new context. The algorithm that is used is based on the k-Nearest Neighbour(s) (k-NN) algorithm [15], [16], [17], and it is going to be presented in the next paragraphs. Fig. 4 also shows the potential interactions between the modules. Interaction one, is the starting phase, in which the Context Acquisition module retrieves all the relevant information from the network segment. Through interaction two, the Context Matching and the Optimization modules are triggered. Context matching will use the repository data for finding if there is a reference context that is close to the current context. In parallel, the Optimization module can be triggered to start processing the context, as a new situation. Through interaction three, the Context Matching module will pass the control to the Reconfiguration Enforcement or to the Optimization modules. The first is selected if a match is found. The second is done if no reference context is close to the new context. The Reconfiguration Enforcement may also pass the control to the Optimization module, through interaction four, in case the solution proposed by the Context Matching module cannot be applied. Through interaction five, the Optimization module will ask the Reconfiguration Enforcement module to apply the derived configuration to the network segment. Moreover, through interaction six, the context and the solution are sent to the repository, in order to ensure that if the same context derives again, the solution may be retrieved directly. In this way the management infrastructure has the ability to learn and apply known solutions reducing the time needed for context handling. Context Matching Algorithm. The context matching algorithm is based on the k-NN algorithm in order to find the distance among the patterns (known contexts inside Pattern Repository) and the new context derived from LTE infrastructure. The target of context matching algorithm is to find the pattern with the minimum distance from the new context. The algorithm will check each available pattern (P) from Pattern Repository in parallel in order to find the closest one to the current context (C). The steps of the parallel execution are the following: Step 1: Check if the difference D1 of total number of users in P and C is above a certain threshold. If not continue to step 2 else stop checking current pattern; Step 2: Check if the difference D2 of total number of users in P and C for each service is above a certain threshold. If not continue to step 3 else stop checking current pattern; Step 3: Find the 1-Nearest Neighbour (best first) from pattern P for each user in context C. K-NN algorithm is applied in order to find distance D3 between each user in C and its nearest neighbour in P, based on their location; Step 4: Check the profiles difference D4 between each user in C and its best first in P. If the profile difference isnt greater than a certain threshold continue to step 5 else stop checking current pattern;

Step 5: Calculate Context Distance (CD) for pattern P.

CD( P) = D1 + D2 + D3 + D4

Since the CDs are now available for each pattern, the solution of the pattern with the minimum CD will be selected for implementation. VI. RESULTS We consider a cell level service area which is divided in five zones. Assuming a static load pattern in the service area, the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) for the users of each zone depends mainly on the distance of each zone from the center of the cell. Thus, the users located in zone 1 will experience the best possible SNR while users in next zones will experience continuously decreasing SNR values between zones. In zone 5 it is assumed that the mean SNR value will be above of the minimum threshold in order to guarantee that the users will be able to experience services near to the basic QoS level. According to our scenario, 50% of the users will be randomly distributed to the service area. The remaining users will be located to a specific zone of the cell in order to facilitate five discrete contexts, one for each zone. The available context information per user will be a) user location, b) the mean SNR value and c) the target data rate that must be achieved. During the simulation time, each one of the five contexts was captured several times. Each time that a context is captured in the management infrastructure, the Context Matching module is responsible to try to identify it according to what is already known by the system and provide the appropriate solution. However, in case that this is not possible the solution must be provided by the optimization module. In the context of the LTE/OFDM system the optimization module implements a low complexity algorithm for proportional resource allocation in OFDMA systems [13]. The target of the optimization algorithm is to provide the sub-carriers assignment and power allocation for each user, assuming that the modulation type is the same for all subcarriers. However, in order to increase the efficiency of the algorithm and reduce the optimization delay, we assume that the power is equally distributed among the sub-carriers. This solution set for each user is necessary in order to calculate the data rate that each user will experience. For the scenario purposes, it is assumed that all sub-carriers are modulated with 16-QAM modulation type (4 bits/symbol). Taking into account the symbol length for LTE systems, which is 66,7s [18], the data rate per sub-carrier is 60Kbps. Fig. 5 depicts the evolution of successful matching probability.

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0,90 0,80 Success Probability 0,70 0,60 0,50 0,40 0,30 0,20 0,10 0,00 Tim e

Fig. 5: Successful matching probability evolution. At the beginning of the simulation, no successful matching was found since the system hasnt yet any information about past interactions. However, the system stored the contexts as well as their solutions provided by the optimization procedures. After a while, a context that the system had optimized in the past captured again. In this case the context matching was successful and the solution provided directly from the context matching module skipping the optimization procedure. While the simulation continues the probability for successful matching is increasing due to the fact that each time the system captures an unknown context has the ability to store the context characteristics and its solution. Thus, after a short time the system has learnt all the different contexts and their solutions and beyond that point it is capable to provide the appropriate solutions directly. The time that the system will need to optimize the contexts at the beginning will be the time needed by the optimization procedure. However, while the system is continuously learning from the previous interactions and the matching probability is increasing, several solutions will be provided directly from the context matching module skipping the time consuming optimization procedures. Fig. 6 depicts the evolution of the mean response time of the cognitive RRM system during the simulation. It is clear that as the simulation continues the time needed in order to provide the solution for the scenario contexts is decreasing.
6,00 5,00 4,00 Time 3,00 2,00 1,00 0,00 5 4 2 4 3 2 2 3 1 3 4 5 3 3 2 5 3 4 2 2 1 5 2 3 3 2 1 3 4 3 Conte xt

management infrastructure performed in the past but also to be able to identify the same or similar contexts and apply known solutions skipping the optimization procedures. Our further research steps target at finding high level information that should me learned by the cognitive RRM in order to apply them in the future independently of the communication system. Furthermore, in B3G environments, context parameters and solutions could derive from several communication systems. In this case, cognitive RRM system will be able to perform even better since there are a number of optimization procedures that should take place for each one of the systems separately. Finally, cognitive RRM will be able to predict traffic cases in the service area using timestamps parameters. Thus, it is possible for the cognitive RRM system to predict future problems and apply the corresponding solutions before the problematical situations actually occur. REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] Third (3rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Web site, www.3gpp.org, 2008 WiMAX Forum, www.wimaxforum.org, 2008 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 802 standards, www.ieee802.org, 2008 S. Haykin, Cognitive Radio: brain-empowered wireless communications, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas In Communications, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 201-220, Feb. 2005 T. Mitchel, Machine Learning, McGraw-Hill, 1997 3GPP, R1-050779, Texas Instruments, Throughout Evaluations in EUTRA OFDMA Downlink, 2005. G. Song and Y. (G.) Li, Cross-layer optimization for OFDM wireless networksPart I: Theoretical Framework, IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 614-624, April. 2005. UTRA-UTRAN Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 3GPP System Architecture Evolution (SAE), www.3gpp.org/Highlights/LTE/lte.htm LTE System Architecture, www2.tek.com, 2008 S-E. Elayoubi and B. Fourestie, On frequency allocation in 3G LTE systems, IEEE 17th International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, 2006. Ian C. Wong, Zukang Shen, Brian L. Evans, Jeffrey G. Andrews, A Low Complexity Algorithm for Proportional Resource Allocation in OFDMA Systems, IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Systems, 2004. G. Song and Y. (G.) Li, Cross-layer optimization for OFDM wireless networksPart II: Algorithm development, IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 625-634, Mar. 2005. Z. Jiang, Y. Ge, Y. (G.) Li, Max-utility wireless resource management for best effort traffic, IEEE Trans. Wireless Communications, vol. 4, no.1, pp. 100-111, Jan. 2005. Aggelos Saatsakis, George Dimitrakopoulos, Panagiotis Demestichas, Enhanced Context Acquisition Mechanisms for Achieving SelfManaged Congnitive Wireless Network Segments, Proc. ICT-Mobile Summit Conference, 2008. Y. Zhan, H. Chen, G.-C. Zhang,An optimization algorithm of K-NN classification, in Proc. International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, 2006, pp. 2246-2251. H. Samet, K-Nearest Neighbor Finding Using MaxNearestDist, IEEE Transactions on Pattern analysis and Machine Intelligence, pp. 243-252, 2008. X.-G. YU, X.-P. YU, The research on an adaptive K-NN classifier, in Proc. Fifth International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, 2006. M. Konrad and W. Gerstacker, Interference Robust Transmission for the Downlink of an OFDMA-Based Mobile Communications System, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, Article ID: 549371, 2008.

[12] [13] [14]

[15] [16] [17]

Fig. 6: Cognitive RRM system response time evolution. VII. CONCLUSIONS In this paper we presented cognitive RRM functionalities for LTE systems using OFDM access technology. Cognitive RRM enhanced with context matching techniques are capable not only to learn from previous optimizations that the
[18]

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