TY - JOUR
T1 - Control/User Plane Decoupled Architecture Utilizing Unlicensed Bands in LTE Systems
AU - Song, Hao
AU - Fang, Xuming
AU - Yan, Li
AU - Fang, Yuguang
N1 - Publication details (e.g. title, author(s), publication statuses and dates) are captured on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis at the time of record harvesting from the data source. Suggestions for further amendments or supplementary information can be sent to [email protected].
PY - 2017/10/1
Y1 - 2017/10/1
N2 - The explosive growth of wireless traffic demands and the shortage of licensed spectra motivate us to explore the utilization of unlicensed bands (including mmWave bands and opened licensed bands of other wireless systems for the future) in LTE systems, so-called LTE-U. However, since unlicensed spectra are normally distributed over high-frequency bands and may suffer from random and uncontrollable interference, there are many research challenges for LTE-U systems ahead. To tackle these challenges, we propose a C/U decoupled system architecture for LTE-U systems, which has the advantages of lower complexity, higher flexibility, higher reliability, and higher system capacity. Specifically, we first design a framework and the corresponding system procedures for our proposed C/U decoupled LTE-U systems, including network architecture, frame structure, and centralized resource management procedure. Then we put forward the corresponding enabling and supporting technologies to solve the research challenges, including frequent inter-microcell handoffs, available unlicensed spectrum harvesting, and quality of service guarantee for traffic with high reliability requirements. We also conduct a simulation study to demonstrate the performance gain of the unlicensed spectra transmissions in our proposed LTE-U systems. Finally, we discuss several remaining research challenges, which could be potential topics for future research.
AB - The explosive growth of wireless traffic demands and the shortage of licensed spectra motivate us to explore the utilization of unlicensed bands (including mmWave bands and opened licensed bands of other wireless systems for the future) in LTE systems, so-called LTE-U. However, since unlicensed spectra are normally distributed over high-frequency bands and may suffer from random and uncontrollable interference, there are many research challenges for LTE-U systems ahead. To tackle these challenges, we propose a C/U decoupled system architecture for LTE-U systems, which has the advantages of lower complexity, higher flexibility, higher reliability, and higher system capacity. Specifically, we first design a framework and the corresponding system procedures for our proposed C/U decoupled LTE-U systems, including network architecture, frame structure, and centralized resource management procedure. Then we put forward the corresponding enabling and supporting technologies to solve the research challenges, including frequent inter-microcell handoffs, available unlicensed spectrum harvesting, and quality of service guarantee for traffic with high reliability requirements. We also conduct a simulation study to demonstrate the performance gain of the unlicensed spectra transmissions in our proposed LTE-U systems. Finally, we discuss several remaining research challenges, which could be potential topics for future research.
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U2 - 10.1109/MWC.2017.1600119
DO - 10.1109/MWC.2017.1600119
M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal
SN - 1536-1284
VL - 24
SP - 132
EP - 142
JO - IEEE Wireless Communications
JF - IEEE Wireless Communications
IS - 5
M1 - 8088540
ER -