The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a cluster-based collaborative transmission method in a wireless communication system and an apparatus therefor.
As an example of a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applicable, a 3rd generation partnership project long term evolution (hereinafter, referred to as LTE) communication system is described in brief.
Referring to
One or more cells are present per eNB. A cell is configured to use one of bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz to provide a downlink or uplink transmission service to multiple UEs. Different cells may be configured to provide different bandwidths. The eNB controls data transmission and reception to and from a plurality of UEs. Regarding downlink (DL) data, the eNB transmits DL scheduling information to notify a corresponding UE of a time/frequency domain within which data is to be transmitted, coding, data size, and hybrid automatic repeat and request (HARQ)-related information by transmitting DL scheduling information to the UE. In addition, regarding uplink (UL) data, the eNB transmits UL scheduling information to a corresponding UE to inform the UE of an available time/frequency domain, coding, data size, and HARQ-related information. An interface for transmitting user traffic or control traffic between eNBs may be used. A core network (CN) may include the AG and a network node for user registration of the UE. The AG manages mobility of a UE on a tracking area (TA) basis, each TA including a plurality of cells.
Although radio communication technology has been developed up to LTE based on wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), demands and expectations of users and providers continue to increase. In addition, since other radio access technologies continue to be developed, new advances in technology are required to secure future competitiveness. For example, decrease of cost per bit, increase of service availability, flexible use of a frequency band, a simplified structure, an open interface, appropriate power consumption of a UE, etc. are required.
Based on the aforementioned discussion, an object of the present invention is to provide a cluster-based collaborative transmission method in a wireless communication system and an apparatus therefor.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for receiving, by a UE, data in a wireless communication system comprises the steps of receiving a first division code from a first helper node in a first time unit; overhearing a second division code transmitted from a second helper node to another UE in a second time unit; and acquiring the data by using the first division code and the second division code.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a UE in a wireless communication system comprises a radio frequency (RF) module; and a processor, wherein the processor receives a first division code from a first helper node in a first time unit, overhears a second division code transmitted from a second helper node to another UE in a second time unit, and acquires the data by using the first division code and the second division code.
In this case, the first and the second division codes are previously arranged from a network to the first and second helper nodes. Preferably, the first and the second division codes are previously arranged in the first and second helper nodes on the basis of popularity of the UE for the data. Particularly, the first and the second division codes are rateless MDS (Maximum Distance Separable) codes.
Additionally, the first and the second division codes are not overlapped with each other. The first and the second helper nodes are determined considering the presence of the data and overlap of the first and second division codes.
According to the embodiment of the present invention, capacity of a cellular network may be increased remarkably, and improved quality of experience (QoE) may be provided to users. Also, since a cache memory needs cost cheaper than that for increase of base stations, the cost for communication network infrastructure construction may be saved remarkably.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the effects that can be achieved with the present invention are not limited to what has been particularly described hereinabove and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Hereinafter, structures, operations, and other features of the present invention will be readily understood from the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Embodiments which will be described hereinbelow are examples in which technical features of the present invention are applied to a 3GPP system.
In the present disclosure, a base station (eNB) may be used as a broad meaning including a remote radio head (RRH), an eNB, a transmission point (TP), a reception point (RP), a relay, etc.
Hereinafter, a MIMO system will be described. MIMO refers to a method using multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas to improve data transmission/reception efficiency. Namely, a plurality of antennas is used at a transmitter or a receiver of a wireless communication system so that capacity can be increased and performance can be improved. MIMO may also be referred to as multi-antenna in this disclosure.
MIMO technology does not depend on a single antenna path in order to receive a whole message. Instead, MIMO technology completes data by combining data fragments received via multiple antennas. The use of MIMO technology can increase data transmission rate within a cell area of a specific size or extend system coverage at a specific data transmission rate. MIMO technology can be widely used in mobile communication terminals and relay nodes. MIMO technology can overcome a limited transmission capacity encountered with the conventional single-antenna technology in mobile communication.
A transmitter has NT transmit (Tx) antennas and a receiver has NR receive (Rx) antennas. Use of a plurality of antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver increases a theoretical channel transmission capacity, compared to the use of a plurality of antennas at only one of the transmitter and the receiver. Channel transmission capacity increases in proportion to the number of antennas. Therefore, transmission rate and frequency efficiency are increased. Given a maximum transmission rate Ro that may be achieved with a single antenna, the transmission rate may be increased, in theory, to the product of Ro and a transmission rate increase rate Ri in the case of multiple antennas, as indicated by Equation 1. Ri is the smaller of NT and NR.
R
i=min(NT,NR) [Equation 1]
For example, a MIMO communication system with four Tx antennas and four Rx antennas may theoretically achieve a transmission rate four times that of a single antenna system. Since the theoretical capacity increase of the MIMO wireless communication system was verified in the mid-1990s, many techniques have been actively developed to increase data transmission rate in real implementations. Some of these techniques have already been reflected in various wireless communication standards including standards for 3rd generation (3G) mobile communications, next-generation wireless local area networks, etc.
Active research up to now related to MIMO technology has focused upon a number of different aspects, including research into information theory related to MIMO communication capacity calculation in various channel environments and in multiple access environments, research into wireless channel measurement and model derivation of MIMO systems, and research into space-time signal processing technologies for improving transmission reliability and transmission rate.
Communication in a MIMO system will be described in detail through mathematical modeling. It is assumed that NT Tx antennas and NR Rx antennas are present as illustrated in
s=[s
1
,s
2
, . . . ,s
N
]T [Equation 2]
Individual pieces of the transmission information s1, s2, . . . , sN
ŝ=[ŝ
1
,ŝ
2
, . . . ,ŝ
N
]T=[P1s1,P2s2, . . . ,PN
The transmission power-controlled transmission information vector ŝ may be expressed below, using a diagonal matrix P of transmission power.
Meanwhile, NT transmission signals x1, x2, . . . , xN
Generally, the physical meaning of the rank of a channel matrix is the maximum number of different pieces of information that can be transmitted on a given channel. Therefore, the rank of a channel matrix is defined as the smaller of the number of independent rows and the number of independent columns in the channel matrix. Accordingly, the rank of the channel matrix is not larger than the number of rows or columns of the channel matrix. The rank of the channel matrix H (rank(H)) is restricted as follows.
rank(H)≤min(NT,NR) [Equation 6]
A different piece of information transmitted in MIMO is referred to as a transmission stream or stream. A stream may also be called a layer. It is thus concluded that the number of transmission streams is not larger than the rank of channels, i.e. the maximum number of different pieces of transmittable information. Thus, the channel matrix H is determined by
# of streams≤rank(H)≤min(NT,NR) [Equation 7]
“# of streams” denotes the number of streams. It should be noted that one stream may be transmitted through one or more antennas.
One or more streams may be mapped to a plurality of antennas in many ways. This method may be described as follows depending on MIMO schemes. If one stream is transmitted through a plurality of antennas, this may be regarded as spatial diversity. When a plurality of streams is transmitted through a plurality of antennas, this may be spatial multiplexing. A hybrid scheme of spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing may be contemplated.
Meanwhile, it is expected that a LTE-A system, which is a standard of a next generation mobile communication system, will support a CoMP (coordinated multi point) transmission method, which is not supported by the conventional standard, to enhance a data transmission rate. In this case, the CoMP transmission method is a transmission method for two or more base stations or cells to communicate with the user equipment in a manner of cooperating with each other to enhance a communication performance between the user equipment situated at a radio shadow zone and the base station (a cell or a sector).
The CoMP transmission method can be classified into a join processing (CoMP-joint processing, CoMP-JP) method in the form of a cooperative MIMO via data sharing and a coordinated scheduling/beamforming (CoMP-coordinated scheduling/beamforming, CoMP-CS/CB) method.
According to the joint processing (CoMP-JP) method in DL, a user equipment may be able to instantaneously receive data simultaneously from each of the base stations performing the CoMP transmission method. And, a reception performance can be enhanced in a manner of combining the signals received from each of the base stations (Joint Transmission (JT)). And, it is also possible to consider a method of transmitting a data to the user equipment on a specific timing by one of the base stations performing the CoMP transmission method (Dynamic Point Selection (DPS)).
On the other hand, according to the coordinated scheduling/beamforming method (CoMP-CS/CB), the user equipment may be able to instantaneously receive data from a single base station via a beamforming.
According to the joint processing (CoMP-JP) method in UL, each of the base stations may be able to simultaneously receive PUSCH signal from the user equipment (Joint Reception (JR)). On the other hand, according to the coordinated scheduling/beamforming method (CoMP-CS/CB), only a single base station may be able to receive the PUSCH. In this case, the decision to use the coordinated scheduling/beamforming method is determined by the coordinating cells (or base stations).
Meanwhile, schemes for improving quality of experience by distributively arranging helper nodes having very large cache capacity, such as femto cells or user equipments, in a macro cell environment having limited backhaul link capacity to reduce a bottleneck of a backhaul link have been suggested.
For example, in a femto caching scheme, when popularity of video contents file is previously given by Zipf distribution, some parity bits of a file frequently requested are stored in a cache of a femto cell using rateless MDS (Maximum Distance Separable) code to minimize a delay time required for file transmission. If parity bits of a file requested by a user are stored in a cache of a neighboring femto cell, it is advantageous that backhaul traffic may be replaced and average delay time may be minimized during file transmission. In a coded content placement scheme of femto caching, if F video files, H helper nodes and U users exist and a ratio of a file f stored in a helper node h is R=[ρf,h], optimized cache control is performed as expressed by the following Equation 8.
In the above Equation 8,
In the above Equation 9, ωh,u is an average download time required to allow a user u to receive a unit bit from the helper node h, and (j)u represents the jth best helper node in user equipment u.
The caching scheme of the related art mainly handles a method for arranging files in a cache, and does not consider a method for effectively using files stored in the cache. Quality of experience of a user is determined complexly by the amount of files stored in the cache and a channel condition of a helper node accessed by a user, an optimized combined design that departs from a design of an individual caching scheme and a multiple access scheme is necessarily required. Moreover, helper nodes which take part in cooperation for file transmission require an optimized algorithm of low-complexity due to restriction on hardware, it is required to design a cache and multiple access considering the optimized algorithm.
The present invention suggests a method and apparatus for overcoming limited backhaul capacity of a macro cell through popularity distribution of files requested frequently and simultaneously in a wireless content delivery network (CDN) in which a plurality of users and helper nodes having a cache memory are distributed, and caching and cell association based on radio channel information and maximizing spectrum usage.
A method for transmitting contents in a communication system according to the present invention is characterized in that files requested frequently from a core network at an off-peak hour at which traffic of a cellular network is not busy are downloaded and arranged in helper nodes distributed in a cluster, and amorphous cell association is performed considering a cache and channel state of the helper nodes at a peak-traffic hour at which traffic of the network is concentrated.
According to the present invention, data of large capacity may be stored efficiently through cluster-based collaborative caching (CCC) in a compact small cell environment, and files may quickly be transmitted to a plurality of users through cache-enabled multiple access (CEMA), whereby excessive traffic of a macro cell is distributed and thus average spectrum efficiency of an entire network may be improved remarkably. Also, since the installation cost of the helper nodes is low, it is expected that cost load of a cellular network may be solved at a considerable range. This will be described in more detail with reference to the drawing.
Referring to
Referring to
Particularly, referring to
<1. Collaborative Caching Phase>
In Phase 1, when popularity distribution θ of files and an average delay
In the above Equation 10, θπ is popularity of a file π, and popularity distribution of a file f is given by
γ is Skewness of file popularity. n=1, . . . , N represent users, k=1, . . . , K represent helper nodes, and the K+1th helper node corresponds to a macro base station.
At this time, kj(n) represents a helper node having a jth good channel from the user n.
The optimization problem P1 of the Equation 10 is a Max-min problem for obtaining {qf,k}∈Q, Caching Matrix for maximizing worst-case utility, and the first restriction condition C1 means that the amount of parities stored in a cache of helper nodes cannot exceed a memory size M. Also, the second restriction condition C2 means that utility obtained by caching should be worst-case utility or more at a minimum range. The third restriction condition C3 means that files stored in the cache are encoded in a maximum distance separable (MDS) code and thus decoded if there are parity bits equivalent to the original file size. If Q is determined through the optimization problem, the cache may be updated by downloading files from a backhaul at an off-peak hour.
<2. Cell Association Phase>
In phase 2, cell association is performed to maximize momentary utility by using channel state information of a user, which is varied depending on time, that is, momentary delay τ and URP (User Request Profile) τ(t) as shown in
H
n
=H
n(πn(t),t)={k|qπ
The set of helper nodes is determined considering the presence of files requested by the user and also considered such that parity bits already transmitted for a time s∈[tn,0,t−1] are not transmitted by overlap.
Users who simultaneously request the same file in a cluster may receive a service through multicasting as shown in
In the above Equation 13, τn,k is a transmission time required to transmit 1 bit file from the helper node k to the user n, and is expressed by the following Equation 14.
In this case, Bn means a bandwidth allocated to the user n, Rb,n means a backhaul rate allocated to the user n, Pk means a transmission power of the helper node k, N0 means Power Spectral Density (PSD) of noise, and hn,k means a channel between the user n and the helper node k. Also, {tilde over (τ)}i,k is a transmission time required to transmit 1 bit file from the helper node k to the user i through time extension, and is expressed by the following Equation 15.
In the above Equation 15,
is a biasing factor when m users simultaneously access the helper node k, and may be obtained by discovering m for maximizing
given for the set Uπ
If the set of the helper nodes and the biasing factor for multicasting are given, cache-enabled multiple access (CEMA) is given by the following Equation 16.
The above optimization problem P1 is a problem for discovering {an,k}∈A, Association matrix for maximizing momentary utility obtained when users access the helper node at time ‘t’, wherein the first restriction condition C1 means that the time to which each user is allocated is limited to Δtn in TDMA, and the second restriction condition C2 means that minimum parity bits are transmitted to satisfy attribute of MDS code. The third restriction condition C3 means that the amount of parity bits transmitted by the helper node is controlled such that the user does not receive the same parity bit repeatedly.
If files requested by the user exist in the helper nodes which belong to a cluster, the files may be transmitted at very fast speed. If not so, the files should be transmitted from a macro base station connected with a core network. At this time, an,K+1(πn(t),t) is obtained as expressed by the following Equation 17.
Since the user may occasionally perform overhearing through CEMA in accordance with a type of files requested by himself/herself, average spectrum efficiency may be improved remarkably at metropolitan populated areas (hot spots) where traffic is congested.
According to the present invention, since the helper nodes underlaid on a macro cell of which backhaul link capacity is limited may effectively transmit files instead of the macro base station, as shown in
The present invention is applicable to a mobile communication system such as indoor/outdoor small cell environment or device-to-device (D2D) communication considered in the actual standard. This scheme may be applied to general low power wireless UEs and IoT (Internet of Things) devices in which backhaul link capacity is limited. Similarly, cluster based cache and cache-enabled multiple access (CEMA) may be applied to even a mobile cloud computing environment.
Referring to
The communication device 700 is illustrated for convenience of description and some modules may not be omitted. The communication device 700 may further include necessary modules. In addition, some modules of the communication device 700 may be subdivided. The processor 710 is configured to perform operations according to the embodiment of the present invention that is exemplified with reference to the diagrams. In detail, a detailed operation of the processor 710 would be understood with reference to
The memory 720 is connected to the processor 710 and stores an operating system, an application, a program code, data, etc. The RF module 730 is connected to the processor 710 and converts a baseband signal into a radio signal or converts a radio signal into a baseband signal. To this end, the RF module 730 performs analog conversion, amplification, filtering, and frequency up-conversion, or inverse procedures thereof. The display module 740 is connected to the processor 710 and displays various pieces of information. The display module 740 may use, but is not limited to, well-known elements such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED), and an organic light emitting diode (OLED). The user interface module 750 may be connected to the processor 710 and may include a combination of well-known user interfaces such as keypads, touchscreens, etc.
The embodiments of the present invention described above are combinations of elements and features of the present invention. The elements or features may be considered selective unless otherwise mentioned. Each element or feature may be practiced without being combined with other elements or features. Further, an embodiment of the present invention may be constructed by combining parts of the elements and/or features. Operation orders described in embodiments of the present invention may be rearranged. Some constructions of any one embodiment may be included in another embodiment and may be replaced with corresponding constructions of another embodiment. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that claims that are not explicitly cited in each other in the appended claims may be presented in combination as an embodiment of the present invention or included as a new claim by a subsequent amendment after the application is filed.
The embodiments of the present invention may be achieved by various means, for example, hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. In a hardware configuration, the methods according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be achieved by one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, etc.
In this specification, a specific operation which has been described as being performed by the base station may be performed by an upper node of the base station as the case may be. That is, it will be apparent that various operations performed for communication with the user equipment in the network which includes a plurality of network nodes along with the base station may be performed by the base station or network nodes other than the base station. The base station may be replaced with terminologies such as a fixed station, Node B, eNode B (eNB), and an access point (AP).
In a firmware or software configuration, an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in the form of a module, a procedure, a function, etc. Software code may be stored in a memory unit and executed by a processor. The memory unit is located at the interior or exterior of the processor and may transmit and receive data to and from the processor via various known means.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be carried out in other specific ways than those set forth herein without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the present invention. The above embodiments are therefore to be construed in all aspects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, not by the above description, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/KR2016/009632 | 8/30/2016 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62211862 | Aug 2015 | US |