On-Demand Coordinated Spectrum and Resource Provisioning under an Open C-RAN Architecture for Dense Small Cell Networks

Mobile networks have seen more than a thousand times traffic increases in the past decade. Network operators face an ever increasing demand and cost to deploy denser networks in order to maintain the quality of services. In view of this paradigm shift, an open cloud radio access network (C-RAN) service model is studied in this work. Integrating the cross-layer functions of spectrum resource sharing, channel and power allocation, and interference management in a C-RAN architecture, we explore the feasibility of providing a scalable yet efficient broadband wireless service with dense small cell networks (DSN). The proposed methods and architecture can be applied to DSN that support the functions of (further enhanced) inter-cell interference cancelation (feICIC/ICIC) techniques of 3GPP standard, and have the potential to provide a cost-effective solution for high-quality DSN. Simulation results across an area of 100 km2 show that the proposed scheme can offer an aggregate downlink throughput of 21 Gbps over a maximum channel bandwidth of 20 MHz, which is 5 times the throughput with a typical ICIC method. Moreover, the service satisfaction degree can reach 85% under the proposed C-RAN architecture, making it a promising and cost-effective solution for future broadband wireless services.