arXiv subjects

Guoqiang Mao

Publications and source records attributed to Guoqiang Mao.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Optimal Base Station Antenna Downtilt in Downlink Cellular Networks

From very recent studies, the area spectral efficiency (ASE) performance of downlink (DL) cellular networks will continuously decrease and finally to zero with the network densification in a fully loaded ultra-dense network (UDN) when the absolute height difference between a base station (BS) antenna and a user equipment (UE) antenna is larger than zero, which is referred as the ASE Crash. We revisit this issue by considering the impact of the BS antenna downtilt on the downlink network capacity. In general, there exists a height difference between a BS and a UE in practical networks. It is common to utilize antenna downtilt to adjust the direction of the vertical antenna pattern, and thus increase received signal power or reduce inter-cell interference power to improve network performance. This paper focuses on investigating the relationship between the base station antenna downtilt and the downlink network capacity in terms of the coverage probability and the ASE. The analytical results of the coverage probability and the ASE are derived, and we find that there exists an optimal antenna downtilt to achieve the maximal coverage probability for each base station density. Moreover, we derive numerically solvable expressions for the optimal antenna downtilt, which is a function of the base station density. Our theoretical and numerical results show that after applying the optimal antenna downtilt, the network performance can be improved significantly. Specifically, with the optimal antenna downtilt, the ASE crash can be delayed by nearly one order of magnitude in terms of the base station density.

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arXiv2018

Dense Small Cell Networks: From Noise-Limited to Dense Interference-Limited

Considering both non-line-of-sight (NLoS) and line-of-sight (LoS) transmissions, the transitional behaviors from noise-limited regime to dense interference-limited regime have been investigated for the fifth generation (5G) small cell networks (SCNs). Besides, we identify four performance regimes based on base station (BS) density, i.e., (i) the noise-limited regime, (ii) the signal-dominated regime, (iii) the interference-dominated regime, and (iv) the interference-limited regime. To characterize the performance regime, we propose a unified framework analyzing the future 5G wireless networks over generalized shadowing/fading channels, in which the user association schemes based on the strongest instantaneous received power (SIRP) and the strongest average received power (SARP) can be studied, while NLoS/LoS transmissions and multi-slop path loss model are considered. Simulation results indicate that different factors, i.e., noise, desired signal, and interference, successively and separately dominate the network performance with the increase of BS density. Hence, our results shed new light on the design and management of SCNs in urban and rural areas with different BS deployment densities.

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arXiv2017

On the Energy-Efficient Deployment for Ultra-Dense Heterogeneous Networks with NLoS and LoS Transmissions

We investigate network performance of ultra-dense heterogeneous networks (HetNets) and study the maximum energy-efficient base station (BS) deployment incorporating probabilistic non-line-of-sight (NLoS) and line-of-sight (LoS) transmissions. First, we develop an analytical framework with the maximum instantaneous received power (MIRP) and the maximum average received power (MARP) association schemes to model the coverage probability and related performance metrics, e.g., the potential throughput (PT) and the energy efficiency (EE). Second, we formulate two optimization problems to achieve the maximum energy-efficient deployment solution with specific service criteria. Simulation results show that there are tradeoffs among the coverage probability, the total power consumption, and the EE. To be specific, the maximum coverage probability with ideal power consumption is superior to that with practical power consumption when the total power constraint is small and inferior to that with practical power consumption when the total power constraint becomes large. Moreover, the maximum EE is a decreasing function with respect to the coverage probability constraint.

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arXiv2017

Multi-Path Cooperative Communications Networks for Augmented and Virtual Reality Transmission

Augmented and/or virtual reality (AR/VR) are emerging as one of the main applications in future fifth generation (5G) networks. To meet the requirements of lower latency and massive data transmission in AR/VR applications, a solution with software-defined networking (SDN) architecture is proposed for 5G small cell networks. On this basis, a multi-path cooperative route (MCR) scheme is proposed to facilitate the AR/VR wireless transmissions in 5G small cell networks, in which the delay of MCR scheme is analytically studied. Furthermore, a service effective energy optimal (SEEO) algorithm is developed for AR/VR wireless transmission in 5G small cell networks. Simulation results indicate that both the delay and service effective energy (SEE) of the proposed MCR scheme outperform the delay and SEE of the conventional single path route scheme in 5G small cell networks.

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arXiv2017

5G Ultra-dense networks with non-uniform Distributed Users

User distribution in ultra-dense networks (UDNs) plays a crucial role in affecting the performance of UDNs due to the essential coupling between the traffic and the service provided by the networks. Existing studies are mostly based on the assumption that users are uniformly distributed in space. The non-uniform user distribution has not been widely considered despite that it is much closer to the real scenario. In this paper, Radiation and Absorbing model (R&A model) is first adopted to analyze the impact of the non-uniformly distributed users on the performance of 5G UDNs. Based on the R&A model and queueing network theory, the stationary user density in each hot area is investigated. Furthermore, the coverage probability, network throughput and energy efficiency are derived based on the proposed theoretical model. Compared with the uniformly distributed assumption, it is shown that non-uniform user distribution has a significant impact on the performance of UDNs.

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arXiv2017

What is the Optimal Network Deployment for a Fixed Density of Antennas?

In this paper, we answer a fundamental question: when the total number of antennas per square kilometer is fixed, what is the optimal network deployment? A denser network with a less number of antennas per base station (BS) or the opposite case. To evaluate network performance, we consider a practical network scenario with a fixed antennas density and multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) operations for single-antenna users. The number of antennas in each BS is calculated by dividing the antenna density by the BS density. With the consideration of several practical network models, i.e., pilot contamination, a limited user equipment (UE) density and probabilistic line-of-sight (LoS)/non-line-of-sight (NLoS) path loss model, we evaluate the area spectral efficiency (ASE) performance. From our simulation results, we conclude that there exists an optimal BS density for a certain UE density to maximize the ASE performance when the antenna density is fixed. The intuition is that (i) by densifying the network with more BSs, we can achieve a receive power gain due to the smaller distance between the typical UE and its serving BS; (ii) by installing more antennas in each BS, we can achieve a beamforming gain for UEs using MU-MIMO, although such beamforming gain is degraded by pilot contamination; (iii) thus, a trade-off exists between the receive power gain and the beamforming gain, if we fix the antenna density in the network.

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arXiv2017

Optimum Interference Management in Underlay Inband D2D-Enhanced Cellular Networks

For device-to-device (D2D) communications underlaying a cellular network with uplink resource sharing, both cellular and D2D links cause significant co-channel interference. In this paper, we address the critical issue of interference management in the network considering a practical path loss model incorporating both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) transmissions. To reduce the severe interference caused by active D2D links, we consider a mode selection scheme based on the maximum received signal strength (MRSS) for each user equipment (UE) to control the D2D-to-cellular interference. Specifically, a UE will operate in a cellular mode, only if its received signal strength from the strongest base station (BS) is larger than a threshold beta; otherwise, the UE will operate in a D2D mode. Furthermore, we analyze the performance in terms of the coverage probability and the area spectral efficiency (ASE) for both the cellular network and the D2D one. Analytical results are obtained and the accuracy of the proposed analytical framework is validated through Monte Carol simulations. Through our theoretical and numerical analyses, we quantify the performance gains brought by D2D communications in cellular networks and we find an optimum mode selection threshold beta to maximize the total ASE in the network.

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arXiv2017

Ultra-Dense Networks: Is There a Limit to Spatial Spectrum Reuse?

The aggressive spatial spectrum reuse (SSR) by network densification using smaller cells has successfully driven the wireless communication industry onward in the past decades. In our future journey toward ultra-dense networks (UDNs), a fundamental question needs to be answered. Is there a limit to SSR? In other words, when we deploy thousands or millions of small cell base stations (BSs) per square kilometer, is activating all BSs on the same time/frequency resource the best strategy? In this paper, we present theoretical analyses to answer such question. In particular, we find that both the signal and interference powers become bounded in practical UDNs with a non-zero BS-to-UE antenna height difference and a finite UE density, which leads to a constant capacity scaling law. As a result, there exists an optimal SSR density that can maximize the network capacity. Hence, the limit to SSR should be considered in the operation of future UDNs.

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arXiv2017

Performance Impact of Idle Mode Capability on Dense Small Cell Networks

Very recent studies showed that in a fully loaded dense small cell network (SCN), the coverage probability performance will continuously decrease with the network densification. Such new results were captured in IEEE ComSoc Technology News with an alarming title of "Will Densification Be the Death of 5G?". In this paper, we revisit this issue from more practical views of realistic network deployment, such as a finite number of active base stations (BSs) and user equipments (UEs), a decreasing BS transmission power with the network densification, etc. Particularly, in dense SCNs, due to an oversupply of BSs with respect to UEs, a large number of BSs can be put into idle modes without signal transmission, if there is no active UE within their coverage areas. Setting those BSs into idle modes mitigates unnecessary inter-cell interference and reduces energy consumption. In this paper, we investigate the performance impact of such BS idle mode capability (IMC) on dense SCNs. Different from existing work, we consider a realistic path loss model incorporating both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) transmissions. Moreover, we obtain analytical results for the coverage probability, the area spectral efficiency (ASE) and the energy efficiency (EE) performance for SCNs with the BS IMC and show that the performance impact of the IMC on dense SCNs is significant. As the BS density surpasses the UE density in dense SCNs, the coverage probability will continuously increase toward one, addressing previous concerns on "the death of 5G". Finally, the performance improvement in terms of the EE performance is also investigated for dense SCNs using practical energy models developed in the Green-Touch project.

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arXiv2017

What Is the True Value of Dynamic TDD: A MAC Layer Perspective

Small cell networks (SCNs) are envisioned to embrace dynamic time division duplexing (TDD) in order to tailor downlink (DL)/uplink (UL) subframe resources to quick variations and burstiness of DL/UL traffic. The study of dynamic TDD is particularly important because it provides valuable insights on the full duplex transmission technology, which has been identified as one of the candidate technologies for the 5th-generation (5G) networks. Up to now, the existing works on dynamic TDD have shown that the UL of dynamic TDD suffers from severe performance degradation due to the strong DL-to-UL interference in the physical (PHY) layer. This conclusion raises a fundamental question: Despite such obvious technology disadvantage, what is the true value of dynamic TDD? In this paper, we answer this question from a media access control (MAC) layer viewpoint and present analytical results on the DL/UL time resource utilization (TRU) of synchronous dynamic TDD, which has been widely adopted in the existing 4th-generation (4G) systems. Our analytical results shed new light on the dynamic TDD in future synchronous 5G networks.

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arXiv2017

Ultra-Dense Networks: A New Look at the Proportional Fair Scheduler

In this paper, we theoretically study the proportional fair (PF) scheduler in the context of ultra-dense networks (UDNs). Analytical results are obtained for the coverage probability and the area spectral efficiency (ASE) performance of dense small cell networks (SCNs) with the PF scheduler employed at base stations (BSs). The key point of our analysis is that the typical user is no longer a random user as assumed in most studies in the literature. Instead, a user with the maximum PF metric is chosen by its serving BS as the typical user. By comparing the previous results of the round-robin (RR) scheduler with our new results of the PF scheduler, we quantify the loss of the multi-user diversity of the PF scheduler with the network densification, which casts a new look at the role of the PF scheduler in UDNs. Our conclusion is that the RR scheduler should be used in UDNs to simplify the radio resource management (RRM).

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arXiv2017

Will the Area Spectral Efficiency Monotonically Grow as Small Cells Go Dense?

In this paper, we introduce a sophisticated path loss model into the stochastic geometry analysis incorporating both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) transmissions to study their performance impact in small cell networks (SCNs). Analytical results are obtained on the coverage probability and the area spectral efficiency (ASE) assuming both a general path loss model and a special case of path loss model recommended by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards. The performance impact of LoS and NLoS transmissions in SCNs in terms of the coverage probability and the ASE is shown to be significant both quantitatively and qualitatively, compared with previous work that does not differentiate LoS and NLoS transmissions. Particularly, our analysis demonstrates that when the density of small cells is larger than a threshold, the network coverage probability will decrease as small cells become denser, which in turn makes the ASE suffer from a slow growth or even a notable decrease. For practical regime of small cell density, the performance results derived from our analysis are distinctively different from previous results, and shed new insights on the design and deployment of future dense/ultra-dense SCNs.

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arXiv2017

Approximation of Uplink Inter-Cell Interference in FDMA Small Cell Networks

In this paper, for the first time, we analytically prove that the uplink (UL) inter-cell interference in frequency division multiple access (FDMA) small cell networks (SCNs) can be well approximated by a lognormal distribution under a certain condition. The lognormal approximation is vital because it allows tractable network performance analysis with closed-form expressions. The derived condition, under which the lognormal approximation applies, does not pose particular requirements on the shapes/sizes of user equipment (UE) distribution areas as in previous works. Instead, our results show that if a path loss related random variable (RV) associated with the UE distribution area, has a low ratio of the 3rd absolute moment to the variance, the lognormal approximation will hold. Analytical and simulation results show that the derived condition can be readily satisfied in future dense/ultra-dense SCNs, indicating that our conclusions are very useful for network performance analysis of the 5th generation (5G) systems with more general cell deployment beyond the widely used Poisson deployment.

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arXiv2017

Study on the Idle Mode Capability with LoS and NLoS Transmissions

In this paper, we study the impact of the base station (BS) idle mode capability (IMC) on the network performance in dense small cell networks (SCNs). Different from existing works, we consider a sophisticated path loss model incorporating both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) transmissions. Analytical results are obtained for the coverage probability and the area spectral efficiency (ASE) performance for SCNs with IMCs at the BSs. The upper bound, the lower bound and the approximate expression of the activated BS density are also derived. The performance impact of the IMC is shown to be significant. As the BS density surpasses the UE density, thus creating a surplus of BSs, the coverage probability will continuously increase toward one. For the practical regime of the BS density, the results derived from our analysis are distinctively different from existing results, and thus shed new light on the deployment and the operation of future dense SCNs.

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arXiv2017

DNA-GA: A New Approach of Network Performance Analysis

In this paper, we propose a new approach of network performance analysis, which is based on our previous works on the deterministic network analysis using the Gaussian approximation (DNA-GA). First, we extend our previous works to a signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) analysis, which makes our DNA-GA analysis a formal microscopic analysis tool. Second, we show two approaches for upgrading the DNA-GA analysis to a macroscopic analysis tool. Finally, we perform a comparison between the proposed DNA-GA analysis and the existing macroscopic analysis based on stochastic geometry. Our results show that the DNA-GA analysis possesses a few special features: (i) shadow fading is naturally considered in the DNAGA analysis; (ii) the DNA-GA analysis can handle non-uniform user distributions and any type of multi-path fading; (iii) the shape and/or the size of cell coverage areas in the DNA-GA analysis can be made arbitrary for the treatment of hotspot network scenarios. Thus, DNA-GA analysis is very useful for the network performance analysis of the 5th generation (5G) systems with general cell deployment and user distribution, both on a microscopic level and on a macroscopic level.

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arXiv2017

Microscopic Analysis of the Uplink Interference in FDMA Small Cell Networks

In this paper, we analytically derive an upper bound on the error in approximating the uplink (UL) single-cell interference by a lognormal distribution in frequency division multiple access (FDMA) small cell networks (SCNs). Such an upper bound is measured by the Kolmogorov Smirnov (KS) distance between the actual cumulative density function (CDF) and the approximate CDF. The lognormal approximation is important because it allows tractable network performance analysis. Our results are more general than the existing works in the sense that we do not pose any requirement on (i) the shape and/or size of cell coverage areas, (ii) the uniformity of user equipment (UE) distribution, and (iii) the type of multi-path fading. Based on our results, we propose a new framework to directly and analytically investigate a complex network with practical deployment of multiple BSs placed at irregular locations, using a power lognormal approximation of the aggregate UL interference. The proposed network performance analysis is particularly useful for the 5th generation (5G) systems with general cell deployment and UE distribution.

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arXiv2017

On the Performance of Multi-tier Heterogeneous Cellular Networks with Idle Mode Capability

This paper studies the impact of the base station (BS) idle mode capability (IMC) on the network performance of multi-tier and dense heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs). Different from most existing works that investigated network scenarios with an infinite number of user equipments (UEs), we consider a more practical setup with a finite number of UEs in our analysis. More specifically, we derive the probability of which BS tier a typical UE should associate to and the expression of the activated BS density in each tier. Based on such results, analytical expressions for the coverage probability and the area spectral efficiency (ASE) in each tier are also obtained. The impact of the IMC on the performance of all BS tiers is shown to be significant. In particular, there will be a surplus of BSs when the BS density in each tier exceeds the UE density, and the overall coverage probability as well as the ASE continuously increase when the BS IMC is applied. Such finding is distinctively different from that in existing work. Thus, our result sheds new light on the design and deployment of the future 5G HCNs.

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arXiv2017

Analysis of Device-to-Device Communications in Uplink Cellular Networks with Lognormal Fading

In this paper, using the stochastic geometry theory, we present a framework for analyzing the performance of device-to-device (D2D) communications underlaid uplink (UL) cellular networks. In our analysis, we consider a D2D mode selection criterion based on an energy threshold for each user equipment (UE). Specifically, a UE will operate in a cellular mode, if its received signal strength from the strongest base station (BS) is large than a threshold β. Otherwise, it will operate in a D2D mode. Furthermore, we consider a generalized log-normal shadowing in our analysis. The coverage probability and the area spectral efficiency (ASE) are derived for both the cellular network and the D2D one. Through our theoretical and numerical analyses, we quantify the performance gains brought by D2D communications and provide guidelines of selecting the parameters for network operations.

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