Wireless Resources Virtualization for Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RAN)

TL;DR

This paper addresses virtualization of wireless resources in C-RANs, proposing dynamic, fair, and isolated resource sharing solutions for multiple MNOs, with both optimal and low-complexity suboptimal algorithms evaluated.

Contribution

It introduces novel virtualization solutions for C-RAN wireless resources, including formulations for optimal and suboptimal resource allocation with interference management.

Findings

Suboptimal solutions achieve performance close to optimal.

Proposed methods ensure high isolation and fairness among MNOs.

Low-complexity algorithms reduce computational cost significantly.

Abstract

This paper provides solutions for virtualizing C-RANs wireless resources and sharing them between multiple mobile network operators (MNOs). The proposed solutions dynamically allocate wireless resources to users who subscribe to MNOs across the network. In addition, the proposed solutions maintain a high level of isolation between different MNOs, provide efficient and fair resource utilization, enable different scheduling polices, and manage intercell interference (ICI). An optimal solution is formulated as a combinatorial problem, which is computationally expensive. Consequently, two low-complexity suboptimal solutions with comparable performance are provided. The optimal and suboptimal solutions are compared in terms of complexity and performance.