Cellular network configuration plays a critical role in network performance. In current practice, network configuration depends heavily on field experience of engineers and often remains static for a long period of time. This practice is far from optimal. To address this limitation, online-learning-based approaches have great potentials to automate and optimize network configuration. Learning-based approaches face the challenges of learning a highly complex function for each base station and balancing the fundamental exploration-exploitation tradeoff while minimizing the exploration cost. Fortunately, in cellular networks, base stations (BSs) often have similarities even though they are not identical. To leverage such similarities, we propose kernel-based multi-BS contextual bandit algorithm based on multi-task learning. In the algorithm, we leverage the similarity among different BSs defined by conditional kernel embedding. We present theoretical analysis of the proposed algorithm in terms of regret and multi-task-learning efficiency. We evaluate the effectiveness of our algorithm based on a simulator built by real traces.
Various aspects of network parameter configuration have been studied in the literature, such as pilot power configuration, spectrum, handoff threshold, etc. Traditional approaches derive analytical relationship between network configuration and its performance based on communication theory, such as @cite_13 @cite_5 @cite_20 @cite_15 . Such approaches are often prohibitively complex, involve various approximations, and require a significant amount of input information (such as the number of users, the location of each user, etc.).
@cite_5 @cite_15 @cite_13 @cite_20
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Cellular network configuration is critical for network performance. Current practice is labor-intensive, error-prone, and far from optimal. To automate efficient cellular network configuration, in this work, we propose an online-learning-based joint-optimization approach that addresses a few specific challenges: limited data availability, convoluted sample data, highly complex optimization due to interactions among neighboring cells, and the need to adapt to network dynamics. In our approach, to learn an appropriate utility function for a cell, we develop a neural-network-based model that addresses the convoluted sample data issue and achieves good accuracy based on data aggregation. Based on the utility function learned, we formulate a global network configuration optimization problem. To solve this high-dimensional non-concave maximization problem, we design a Gibbs-sampling-based algorithm that converges to an optimal solution when a technical parameter is small enough. Furthermore, we design an online scheme that updates the learned utility function and solves the corresponding maximization problem efficiently to adapt to network dynamics. To illustrate the idea, we use the case study of pilot power configuration. Numerical results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. This article outlines the fundamental modeling issues of opportunistic spectrum access in cognitive radio networks. In particular, we identify the effects of connection-based channel usage on the QoS performance of spectrum management techniques. During the transmission period of a secondary user's connection, the phenomenon of multiple spectrum handoffs due to interruptions of primary users arises quite often. In addition to multiple interruptions, the connection-based channel usage behaviors are also affected by spectrum sensing time, switching between different channels, generally distributed service time, and channel contention between multiple secondary users. An analytical framework based on the preemptive resumption priority M G 1 queueing theory is introduced to characterize the effects of the above factors simultaneously. The proposed generalized analytical framework can incorporate various system parameters into the design of very broad spectrum management techniques, including spectrum sensing, spectrum decision, spectrum sharing, and spectrum mobility. The applications of this analytical framework on spectrum decision as well as spectrum mobility are discussed, and some open issues using this framework are suggested in this article. Using stochastic geometry, we develop a tractable uplink modeling paradigm for outage probability and spectral efficiency in both single and multi-tier cellular wireless networks. The analysis accounts for per user equipment (UE) power control as well as the maximum power limitations for UEs. More specifically, for interference mitigation and robust uplink communication, each UE is required to control its transmit power such that the average received signal power at its serving base station (BS) is equal to a certain threshold ρ o . Due to the limited transmit power, the UEs employ a truncated channel inversion power control policy with a cutoff threshold of ρ o . We show that there exists a transfer point in the uplink system performance that depends on the following tuple: BS intensity λ, maximum transmit power of UEs P u , and ρ o . That is, when P u is a tight operational constraint with respect to (w.r.t.) λ and ρ o , the uplink outage probability and spectral efficiency highly depend on the values of λ and ρ o . In this case, there exists an optimal cutoff threshold ρ o *, which depends on the system parameters, that minimizes the outage probability. On the other hand, when P u is not a binding operational constraint w.r.t. λ and ρ o , the uplink outage probability and spectral efficiency become independent of λ and ρ o . We obtain approximate yet accurate simple expressions for outage probability and spectral efficiency, which reduce to closed forms in some special cases. How to keep the probability of hand-off drops within a prespecified limit is a very important quality-of-service (QoS) issue in cellular networks because mobile users should be able to maintain ongoing sessions even during their hand-off from one cell to another. We design and evaluate predictive and adaptive schemes for bandwidth reservation for the hand-offs of ongoing sessions and the admission control of new connections. We first develop a method to estimate user mobility based on an aggregate history of hand-offs observed in each cell. This method is then used to probabilistically predict mobiles' directions and hand-off times in a cell. For each cell, the bandwidth to be reserved for hand-offs is calculated by estimating the total sum of tractional bandwidths of the expected hand-offs within a mobility-estimation time window. Three different admission-control schemes for new connection requests using this bandwidth reservation are proposed. We also consider variations that utilize the path location information available from the car navigation system or global positioning system. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the proposed schemes extensively to show that they meet our design goal and outperform the static reservation scheme under various scenarios. We explore the performance tradeoff between opportunistic and regulated access inherent in the design of multiuser cognitive radio networks. We consider a multichannel cognitive radio system with sensing limits at the secondary users and interference tolerance limits at the primary and secondary users. Our objective is to determine the optimal amount of spectrum sharing, i.e., the number of secondary users that maximizes the total deliverable throughput in the network.We begin with the case of perfect primary user detection and zero interference tolerance at each of the primary and secondary nodes. With identical primary and secondary traffic statistics, we find that the optimal fraction of licensed users lies between the two extremes of fully opportunistic and fully licensed operation and is equal to the traffic duty cycle. When the secondary users can vary their transmission probabilities based on the number of active primary users, we find that the optimal number of opportunistic users is equal to the average number of unoccupied channels. We then consider the more involved case of imperfect sensing and non-zero interference tolerance constraints. We provide numerical simulation results to study the tradeoff between licensing and autonomy and the impact of primary user sensing and interference tolerance on the deliverable throughput for two different subchannel selection strategies at the secondary users. We investigate the dynamic spectrum sharing problem among primary and secondary users in a cognitive radio network. We consider the scenario where primary users exhibit on-off behavior and secondary users are able to dynamically measure estimate sum interference from primary users at their receiving ends. For such a scenario, we solve the problem of fair spectrum sharing among secondary users subject to their QoS constraints (in terms of minimum SINR and transmission rate) and interference constraints for primary users. Since tracking channel gains instantaneously for dynamic spectrum allocation may be very difficult in practice, we consider the case where only mean channel gains averaged over short-term fading are available. Under such scenarios, we derive outage probabilities for secondary users and interference constraint violation probabilities for primary users. Based on the analysis, we develop a complete framework to perform joint admission control and rate power allocation for secondary users such that both QoS and interference constraints are only violated within desired limits. Throughput performance of primary and secondary networks is investigated via extensive numerical analysis considering different levels of implementation complexity due to channel estimation. In analyzing the point-to-point wireless channel, insights about two qualitatively different operating regimes-bandwidth and power-limited-have proven indispensable in the design of good communication schemes. In this paper, we propose a new scaling law formulation for wireless networks that allows us to develop a theory that is analogous to the point-to-point case. We identify fundamental operating regimes of wireless networks and derive architectural guidelines for the design of optimal schemes. Our analysis shows that in a given wireless network with arbitrary size, area, power, bandwidth, etc., there are three parameters of importance: the short-distance signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the long-distance SNR, and the power path loss exponent of the environment. Depending on these parameters, we identify four qualitatively different regimes. One of these regimes is especially interesting since it is fundamentally a consequence of the heterogeneous nature of links in a network and does not occur in the point-to-point case; the network capacity is both power and bandwidth limited. This regime has thus far remained hidden due to the limitations of the existing formulation. Existing schemes, either multihop transmission or hierarchical cooperation, fail to achieve capacity in this regime; we propose a new hybrid scheme that achieves capacity. This paper analyzes the impact of user mobility in multi-tier heterogeneous networks. We begin by obtaining the handoff rate for a mobile user in an irregular cellular network with the access point locations modeled as a homogeneous Poisson point process. The received signal-to-interference-ratio (SIR) distribution along with a chosen SIR threshold is then used to obtain the probability of coverage. To capture potential connection failures due to mobility, we assume that a fraction of handoffs result in such failures. Considering a multi-tier network with orthogonal spectrum allocation among tiers and the maximum biased average received power as the tier association metric, we derive the probability of coverage for two cases: 1) the user is stationary (i.e., handoffs do not occur, or the system is not sensitive to handoffs); 2) the user is mobile, and the system is sensitive to handoffs. We derive the optimal bias factors to maximize the coverage. We show that when the user is mobile, and the network is sensitive to handoffs, both the optimum tier association and the probability of coverage depend on the user's speed; a speed-dependent bias factor can then adjust the tier association to effectively improve the coverage, and hence system performance, in a fully-loaded network. We consider the problem of resource allocation in downlink OFDMA systems for multi service and unknown environment. Due to users' mobility and intercell interference, the base station cannot predict neither the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of each user in future time slots nor their probability distribution functions. In addition, the traffic is bursty in general with unknown arrival. The probability distribution functions of the SNR, channel state and traffic arrival density are then unknown. Achieving a multi service Quality of Service (QoS) while optimizing the performance of the system (e.g. total throughput) is a hard and interesting task since it depends on the unknown future traffic and SNR values. In this paper we solve this problem by modeling the multiuser queuing system as a discrete time linear dynamic system. We develop a robust H∞ controller to regulate the queues of different users. The queues and Packet Drop Rates (PDR) are controlled by proposing a minimum data rate according to the demanded service type of each user. The data rate vector proposed by the controller is then fed as a constraint to an instantaneous resource allocation framework. This instantaneous problem is formulated as a convex optimization problem for instantaneous subcarrier and power allocation decisions. Simulation results show small delays and better fairness among users. In this paper, the problem of feedback and active user selection in multiple-input single-output (MISO) wireless systems such that the system’s stability region is as big as possible is examined. The focus is on a system in a Rayleigh fading environment where zero forcing precoding is used to serve all active users in every slot. Acquisition of the channel states is done via uplink training in time division duplexing mode by the active users. Clearly, only a subset of users can perform uplink training and the selection of this subset is a challenging and interesting problem especially in MISO systems. The stability regions of a baseline centralized scheme and two novel decentralized policies are examined analytically. In the decentralized schemes, the transmitter broadcasts periodically the queue state information and the users contend for the channel in a carrier sense multiple access-based manner with parameters based on the outdated queue state information and real-time channel state information. We show that, using infrequent signaling between the base station and the users, the decentralized policies outperform the centralized policy. In addition, a threshold-based user selection and training scheme for discrete-time contention is proposed. The results of this paper imply that, as far as stability is concerned, the users must be involved in the active user selection and feedback training decision. This should be leveraged in future communication systems. We consider a dense fading multi-user network with multiple active multi-antenna source-destination pair terminals communicating simultaneously through a large common set of K multi-antenna relay terminals in the full spatial multiplexing mode. We use Shannon-theoretic tools to analyze the tradeoff between energy efficiency and spectral efficiency (known as the power-bandwidth tradeoff) in meaningful asymptotic regimes of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and network size. We design linear distributed multi-antenna relay beamforming (LDMRB) schemes that exploit the spatial signature of multi-user interference and characterize their power-bandwidth tradeoff under a system-wide power constraint on source and relay transmissions. The impact of multiple users, multiple relays and multiple antennas on the key performance measures of the high and low SNR regimes is investigated in order to shed new light on the possible reduction in power and bandwidth requirements through the usage of such practical relay cooperation techniques. Our results indicate that point-to-point coded multi-user networks supported by distributed relay beamforming techniques yield enhanced energy efficiency and spectral efficiency, and with appropriate signaling and sufficient antenna degrees of freedom, can achieve asymptotically optimal power-bandwidth tradeoff with the best possible (i.e., as in the cutset bound) energy scaling of K-1 and the best possible spectral efficiency slope at any SNR for large number of relay terminals. Furthermore, our results help to identify the role of interference cancellation capability at the relay terminals on realizing the optimal power- bandwidth tradeoff; and show how relaying schemes that do not attempt to mitigate multi-user interference, despite their optimal capacity scaling performance, could yield a poor power- bandwidth tradeoff. Accurate analytical expressions of delay and packet reception probabilities, and energy consumption of duty-cycled wireless sensor networks with random medium access control (MAC) are instrumental for the efficient design and optimization of these resource-constrained networks. Given a clustered network topology with unslotted IEEE 802.15.4 and preamble sampling MAC, a novel approach to the modeling of the delay, reliability, and energy consumption is proposed. The challenging part in such a modeling is the random MAC and sleep policy of the receivers, which prevents to establish the exact time of data packet transmission. The analysis gives expressions as function of sleep time, listening time, traffic rate and MAC parameters. The analytical results are then used to optimize the duty cycle of the nodes and MAC protocol parameters. The approach provides a significant reduction of the energy consumption compared to existing solutions in the literature. Monte Carlo simulations by ns2 assess the validity of the analysis. The joint spectrum partition and user association problem for multi-tier heterogeneous networks is studied in this paper, where disjoint spectrums are allocated among tiers and users are associated with each tier with a biased received power. The random placement of base-stations (BSs) of different tiers are modeled using stochastic geometry, which accounts for their practical deployment and also makes analysis tractable. We derive an upper bound of the average user proportional fair utility based on the user coverage rate, from which we formulate a network utility maximization problem. The optimization of the proposed utility bound shows that the optimal spectrum allocation for each BS tier matches the average proportion of users associated with that tier. The solution to the optimization problem also provides closed-form expressions for the optimal user associated bias factors. Compared to system-level optimization solutions based on specific network topology and channel realization, our offline analytical approach offers deployment insights. Simulation results demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Next generation cellular systems are expected to entail a wide variety of wireless coverage zones, with cells of different sizes and capacities that can overlap in space and share the transmission resources. In this scenario, which is referred to as Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets), a fundamental challenge is the management of the handover process between macro, femto and pico cells. To limit the number of handovers and the signaling between the cells, it will hence be crucial to manage the user’s mobility considering the context parameters, such as cells size, traffic loads, and user velocity. In this paper, we propose a theoretical model to characterize the performance of a mobile user in a HetNet scenario as a function of the user’s mobility, the power profile of the neighboring cells, the handover parameters, and the traffic load of the different cells. We propose a Markov-based framework to model the handover process for the mobile user, and derive an optimal context-dependent handover criterion. The mathematical model is validated by means of simulations, comparing the performance of our strategy with conventional handover optimization techniques in different scenarios. Finally, we show the impact of the handover regulation on the users performance and how it is possible to improve the users capacity exploiting context information. The authors obtain the optimum transmission ranges to maximize throughput for a direct-sequence spread-spectrum multihop packet radio network. In the analysis, they model the network self-interference as a random variable which is equal to the sum of the interference power of all other terminals plus background noise. The model is applicable to other spread-spectrum schemes where the interference of one user appears as a noise source with constant power spectral density to the other users. The network terminals are modeled as a random Poisson field of interference power emitters. The statistics of the interference power at a receiving terminal are obtained and shown to be the stable distributions of a parameter that is dependent on the propagation power loss law. The optimum transmission range in such a network is of the form CK sup alpha where C is a constant, K is a function of the processing gain, the background noise power spectral density, and the degree of error-correction coding used, and alpha is related to the power loss law. The results obtained can be used in heuristics to determine optimum routing strategies in multihop networks. > We consider the problem of dynamic spectrum access for network utility maximization in multichannel wireless networks. The shared bandwidth is divided into @math orthogonal channels. In the beginning of each time slot, each user selects a channel and transmits a packet with a certain transmission probability. After each time slot, each user that has transmitted a packet receives a local observation indicating whether its packet was successfully delivered or not (i.e., ACK signal). The objective is a multi-user strategy for accessing the spectrum that maximizes a certain network utility in a distributed manner without online coordination or message exchanges between users. Obtaining an optimal solution for the spectrum access problem is computationally expensive, in general, due to the large-state space and partial observability of the states. To tackle this problem, we develop a novel distributed dynamic spectrum access algorithm based on deep multi-user reinforcement leaning. Specifically, at each time slot, each user maps its current state to the spectrum access actions based on a trained deep-Q network used to maximize the objective function. Game theoretic analysis of the system dynamics is developed for establishing design principles for the implementation of the algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate the strong performance of the algorithm. In cellular networks, an important practical issue is how to limit the handoff dropping probability efficiently. One possible approach is to perform dynamic bandwidth reservation based on mobility predictions. With the rapid advances in mobile positioning technology, and the widespread availability of digital road maps previously designed for navigational devices, we propose a predictive bandwidth reservation scheme built upon these timely opportunities. In contrast to the common practice of utilizing only incoming handoff predictions at each cell to compute the reservations, our scheme is more efficient as it innovatively utilizes both incoming and outgoing handoff predictions; it can meet the same target handoff dropping probability by blocking fewer new calls. The individual base stations are responsible for the computations, which are shown to be simple enough to be performed in real-time. We evaluate the scheme via simulation, along with five other schemes for comparison. Simulation results show that those schemes that rely on positioning information are significantly more efficient than those that do not. Our scheme's additional use of the road topology information further improves upon this advantage, bringing the efficiency closer to the bound set by a benchmark scheme that assumes perfect knowledge about future handoffs. The performance evaluation of wireless networks is severely complicated by the specific features of radio communication, such as highly variable channel conditions, interference issues, and possible hand-offs among base stations. The latter elements have no natural counterparts in wireline scenarios, and create a need for novel performance models that account for the impact of these characteristics on the service rates of users. Motivated by the above issues, we review several models for characterizing the capacity and evaluating the flow-level performance of wireless networks carrying elastic data transfers. We first examine the flow-level performance and stability of a wide family of so-called ?-fair channel-aware scheduling strategies. We establish that these disciplines provide maximum stability, and describe how the special case of the Proportional Fair policy gives rise to a Processor-Sharing model with a state-dependent service rate. Next we turn attention to a network of several base stations with inter-cell interference. We derive both necessary and sufficient stability conditions and construct lower and upper bounds for the flow-level performance measures. Lastly we investigate the impact of user mobility that occurs on a slow timescale and causes possible hand-offs of active sessions. We show that the mobility tends to increase the capacity region, both in the case of globally optimal scheduling and local ?-fair scheduling. It is additionally demonstrated that the capacity and user throughput improve with lower values of the fairness index ?. We propose a probabilistic model based on stochastic geometry to analyze cognitive radio in a large wireless network with randomly located users sharing the medium with carrier sensing multiple access. Analytical results are derived on the impact of the interaction between primary and secondary users, on their medium access probability, coverage probability and throughput. These results can be seen as the continuation of the theory of priorities in queueing theory to spatial processes. They give insight into the guarantees that can be offered to primary users and more generally on the possibilities offered by cognitive radio to improve the effectiveness of spectrum utilization in such networks. Here we continue the analytic study of packet switching in radio channels which we reported upon m our two previous papers [1], [2] Again we consider a population of terminals communicating with a central station over a packet-switched radio channel. The allocation of bandwidth among the contending terminals can be fixed [e.g., time-division multiple access (TDMA) or frequency-division multiple access (FDMA)], random [e.g., ALOHA or carrier sense multiple access (CSMA)] or centrally controlled (e.g., polling or reservation). In this paper we show that with a large population of bursty users, (as expected) random access is superior to both fixed assignment and polling. We also introduce and analyze a dynamic reservation technique which we call split-channel reservation multiple access (SRMA) which is interesting in that it is both simple and efficient over a large range of system parameters.