The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are envisioned to support the deluge of data traffic with reduced energy consumption and improved quality of service (QoS) provision. To this end, key enabling technologies, such as heterogeneous networks (HetNets), massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), and millimeter wave (mmWave) techniques, have been identified to bring 5G to fruition. Regardless of the technology adopted, a user association mechanism is needed to determine whether a user is associated with a particular base station (BS) before data transmission commences. User association plays a pivotal role in enhancing the load balancing, the spectrum efficiency, and the energy efficiency of networks. The emerging 5G networks introduce numerous challenges and opportunities for the design of sophisticated user association mechanisms. Hence, substantial research efforts are dedicated to the issues of user association in HetNets, massive MIMO networks, mmWave networks, and energy harvesting networks. We introduce a taxonomy as a framework for systematically studying the existing user association algorithms. Based on the proposed taxonomy, we then proceed to present an extensive overview of the state-of-the-art in user association algorithms conceived for HetNets, massive MIMO, mmWave, and energy harvesting networks. Finally, we summarize the challenges as well as opportunities of user association in 5G and provide design guidelines and potential solutions for sophisticated user association mechanisms.

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User Association in 5G Networks: A Survey and an Outlook

Several enabling technologies are being explored for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile system era. The aim is to evolve a cellular network that remarkably pushes forward the limits of legacy mobile systems across all dimensions of performance metrics. One dominant technology that consistently features in the list of the 5G enablers is the millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input-multiple-output (massive MIMO) system. It shows potentials to significantly raise user throughput, enhance spectral and energy efficiencies and increase the capacity of mobile networks using the joint capabilities of the huge available bandwidth in the mmWave frequency bands and high multiplexing gains achievable with massive antenna arrays. In this survey, we present the preliminary outcomes of extensive research on mmWave massive MIMO (as research on this subject is still in the exploratory phase) and highlight emerging trends together with their respective benefits, challenges, and proposed solutions. The survey spans broad areas in the field of wireless communications, and the objective is to point out current trends, evolving research issues and future directions on mmWave massive MIMO as a technology that will open up new frontiers of services and applications for next-generation cellular networks.

Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO Communication for Future Wireless Systems: A Survey

Wireless engineers and business planners commonly raise the question on where, when, and how millimeter-wave (mmWave) will be used in 5G and beyond. Since the next generation network is not just a new radio access standard, but instead an integration of networks for vertical markets with diverse applications, answers to the question depend on scenarios and use cases to be deployed. This paper gives four 5G mmWave deployment examples and describes in chronological order the scenarios and use cases of their probable deployment, including expected system architectures and hardware prototypes. The paper starts with 28 GHz outdoor backhauling for fixed wireless access and moving hotspots, which will be demonstrated at the PyeongChang winter Olympic games in 2018. The second deployment example is a 60 GHz unlicensed indoor access system at the Tokyo-Narita airport, which is combined with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) to enable ultra-high speed content download with low latency. The third example is mmWave mesh network to be used as a micro Radio Access Network ({\\mu}-RAN), for cost-effective backhauling of small-cell Base Stations (BSs) in dense urban scenarios. The last example is mmWave based Vehicular-to-Vehicular (V2V) and Vehicular-to-Everything (V2X) communications system, which enables automated driving by exchanging High Definition (HD) dynamic map information between cars and Roadside Units (RSUs). For 5G and beyond, mmWave and MEC will play important roles for a diverse set of applications that require both ultra-high data rate and low latency communications.

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Where, When, and How mmWave is Used in 5G and Beyond

Conventional cellular systems are designed to ensure ubiquitous coverage with an always present wireless channel irrespective of the spatial and temporal demand of service. This approach raises several problems due to the tight coupling between network and data access points, as well as the paradigm shift towards data-oriented services, heterogeneous deployments and network densification. A logical separation between control and data planes is seen as a promising solution that could overcome these issues, by providing data services under the umbrella of a coverage layer. This article presents a holistic survey of existing literature on the control-data separation architecture (CDSA) for cellular radio access networks. As a starting point, we discuss the fundamentals, concepts, and general structure of the CDSA. Then, we point out limitations of the conventional architecture in futuristic deployment scenarios. In addition, we present and critically discuss the work that has been done to investigate potential benefits of the CDSA, as well as its technical challenges and enabling technologies. Finally, an overview of standardisation proposals related to this research vision is provided.

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Control-Data Separation Architecture for Cellular Radio Access Networks: A Survey and Outlook

Mobile data traffic will continue its tremendous growth in some markets, and has already resulted in an apparent radio spectrum scarcity. There is a strong need for more efficient methods to use spectrum resources, leading to extensive research on increasing spectrum reusability on flexible radio platforms. This study solves this problem in two sub topics, millimeter wave communication on wireless backhaul for spectrum reusability, and flexible prototyping radio platform using software-defined radio (SDR).
Wireless backhaul has received significant attention as a key technology affecting the development of future wireless cellular networks because it helps to easily deploy many small size cells, an essential part of a high capacity system. Millimeter wave is considered a possible candidate for cost-effective wireless backhaul. In the outdoor deployment using a millimeter wave, beamforming methods are key techniques to establish wireless links in the 60 GHz to 80 GHz to overcome pathloss constraints (i.e., rainfall effect and oxygen absorption). The millimeter wave communication system cannot directly access the channel knowledge. To overcome this, a beamforming method based on codebook search is considered. The millimeter wave communication cannot access channel knowledge, therefore alternatively a beamforming method based on a codebook search is considered. In the first part, we propose an efficient beam alignment technique using adaptive subspace sampling and hierarchical beam codebooks. A wind sway analysis is presented to establish a notion of beam coherence time. This highlights a previously unexplored tradeoff between array size and wind-induced movement. Generally, it is not possible to use larger arrays without risking a performance loss from wind-induced beam misalignment. The performance of the proposed alignment technique is analyzed and compared with other search and alignment methods. Results show significant performance improvement with reduced search time.
In the second part of this study, SDR is discussed as an approach toward flexible wireless communication systems. Most layers of SDR are implemented by software. Therefore, only a software change is needed to transform the type of radio system. The translation of the signal processing into software performed by a regular computer opens up a huge number of possibilities at a reasonable price and effort. SDR systems are widely used to build prototypes, saving time and money. In this project, a robust wireless communication system in high interference environment was developed. For the physical layer (PHY) of the system, we implemented a channel sub-bandding method that utilizes frequency division multiplexing to avoid interference. Then, to overcome a further interfered channel, Direct Spread Spectrum System (DSSS) was considered and implemented. These prototyped testbeds were evaluated for system performance in the interference environment.

Millimeter wave beamforming for wireless backhaul and access in small cell networks and practical approaches in software-defined radio

SUMMARY Triggered by the explosion of mobile traffic, 5G (5th Generation) cellular network requires evolution to increase the system rate 1000 times higher than the current systems in 10 years. Motivated by this common problem, there are several studies to integrate mm-wave access into current cellular networks as multi-band heterogeneous networks to exploit the ultra-wideband aspect of the mm-wave band. The authors of this paper have proposed comprehensive architecture of cellular networks with mmwave access, where mm-wave small cell basestations and a conventional macro basestation are connected to Centralized-RAN (C-RAN) to effectively operate the system by enabling power efficient seamless handover as well as centralized resource control including dynamic cell structuring to match the limited coverage of mm-wave access with high traffic user locations via user-plane/control-plane splitting. In this paper, to prove the effectiveness of the proposed 5G cellular networks with mm-wave access, system level simulation is conducted by introducing an expected future traffic model, a measurement based mm-wave propagation model, and a centralized cell association algorithm by exploiting the C-RAN architecture. The numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed network to realize 1000 times higher system rate than the current network in 10 years which is not achieved by the small cells using commonly considered 3.5 GHz band. Furthermore, the paper also gives latest status of mm-wave devices and regulations to show the feasibility of using mm-wave in the 5G systems.

Millimeter-Wave Evolution for 5G Cellular Networks

Provided is a base station that enables data communications in a small cell to continue even if a handover between macro cells occurs. In the base station ( 100 ), a handover determination unit ( 105 ) determines whether the handover of a control plane from the base station ( 100 ) to another macro cell is necessary for a terminal. If it is determined that the handover is necessary, a radio resource control unit ( 109 ) and a slave radio resource control unit ( 110 ) continue the control of a user plane communication process when the terminal is located inside a small cell, and the radio resource control unit ( 109 ) and slave radio resource control unit ( 110 ) stop the control of the user plane communication process and perform a process of handover to the other macro cell when the terminal is located outside the small cell.

Toshiaki Sakurai

Papers

Millimeter-Wave Evolution for 5G Cellular Networks

Base station, terminal, and communication control method

Switched orthogonalization of fixed-codebook search in code-excited linear-predictive speech coder: Derivation of conditions for switching

Corrupted encoded data detection for a CELP decoder