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

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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.