Cooperative performance and resource management in multi-hop, multi-rat wireless access networks

为了应对日益增长的对各种移动宽带服务的需求，第四代(4G)无线技术已经考虑提高单位面积的频谱效率，通过探索先进的网络拓扑并结合包括正交频分多址(OFDMA)、网络多用户(MU)、多输入多输出(MIMO)、协作/认知通信在内的先进通信技术，为无线网络提供超越无线电链路改进的下一次性能飞跃。这一挑战需要一个有效的性能和无线电资源管理框架，该框架从共同的角度运作，并考虑到可用无线电接入网络(RAN)以合作方式提供的资源的总量。这一拟议的研究项目将探索如何在性能和资源管理基础设施的不同级别引入这一合作概念，以利用由于联合考虑不同网络元素而产生的频率重复使用。具体地说，我们将研究和开发多小区、多跳环境下的协作资源分配、传输调度和干扰协调的有效方案，以及多RAT异构网络中的协作性能和资源管理策略。研究工作将包括分析和模拟，以开发有效的技术并评估其性能。工业合作伙伴将能够及时获得新制定的计划及其评估的业绩。我们的研究将有助于下一代无线通信的成功部署，为无线服务提供商提供更好的容量/覆盖和用户满意度。该项目将通过培训高素质的人员以及他们与行业的互动来产生一套新的专业知识。这项拟议的研究意义重大，应加强加拿大在提供无线通信方面的竞争地位。

In response to the growing demand for various mobile broadband services, the fourth-generation (4G) wireless technologies have considered improving spectral efficiency per unit area to provide the next performance leap for wireless networks beyond radio link improvements by exploring advanced network topologies in conjunction with advanced communication techniques including orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), network multi-user (MU), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), cooperative/cognitive communications. This challenge calls for an efficient performance and radio resource management framework that operates from a common perspective and takes into account the overall amount of resources offered by the available radio access networks (RANs) in a cooperative manner. This proposed research project will explore ways to introduce this notion of cooperation at different levels of the performance and resource management infrastructure to exploit the frequency reuse resulting from the joint consideration of the different network elements. Specifically, we will investigate and develop efficient schemes in cooperative resource allocation, transmission scheduling and interference coordination in multi-cell, multi-hop environments and cooperative performance and resource management strategies in multi-RAT heterogeneous networks. The research work will include both analysis and simulation to develop efficient techniques and to evaluate their performance. The industrial partner will have access to the newly developed schemes and their evaluated performance in a timely fashion. Our research will contribute to the successful deployment of next-generation wireless communications with better capacity/coverage and user satisfaction for the wireless service providers. This project will produce a new set of expertise through training of highly qualified personnel and their interaction with industry. The proposed research is significant, and should be undertaken to enhance Canada's competitive position in providing wireless communications.