Hierarchical Beamforming: Resource Allocation, Fairness and Flow Level Performance

TL;DR

This paper introduces efficient algorithms for resource allocation in hierarchical beamforming, providing formulas for flow performance and demonstrating its potential for future cellular networks.

Contribution

It presents novel low-complexity algorithms for fair rate allocation and closed-form flow performance formulas in hierarchical beamforming.

Findings

Algorithms achieve fair rate allocation efficiently

Closed-form formulas accurately predict flow performance

Hierarchical beamforming shows promise for future cellular networks

Abstract

We consider hierarchical beamforming in wireless networks. For a given population of flows, we propose computationally efficient algorithms for fair rate allocation including proportional fairness and max-min fairness. We next propose closed-form formulas for flow level performance, for both elastic (with either proportional fairness and max-min fairness) and streaming traffic. We further assess the performance of hierarchical beamforming using numerical experiments. Since the proposed solutions have low complexity compared to conventional beamforming, our work suggests that hierarchical beamforming is a promising candidate for the implementation of beamforming in future cellular networks.