Wireless Networks with Cache-Enabled and Backhaul-Limited Aerial Base Stations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a backhaul-aware 3D placement and resource allocation algorithm for cache-enabled aerial base stations to improve network efficiency, reduce power consumption, and manage backhaul limitations in wireless networks.

Contribution

It introduces a joint optimization framework for ABS placement, user association, and bandwidth allocation considering backhaul constraints and caching, using an iterative decomposition approach.

Findings

The proposed algorithm effectively reduces transmit power.

Content caching decreases backhaul usage.

Optimal ABS placement improves network performance.

Abstract

Use of aerial base stations (ABSs) is a promising approach to enhance the agility and flexibility of future wireless networks. ABSs can improve the coverage and/or capacity of a network by moving supply towards demand. Deploying ABSs in a network presents several challenges such as finding an efficient 3D-placement of ABSs that takes network objectives into account. Another challenge is the limited wireless backhaul capacity of ABSs and consequently, potentially higher latency incurred. Content caching is proposed to alleviate the backhaul congestion and decrease the latency. We consider a limited backhaul capacity for ABSs due to varying position-dependent path loss values and define two groups of users (delay-tolerant and delay-sensitive) with different data rate requirements. We study the problem of jointly determining backhaul-aware 3D placement for ABSs, user-BS associations and corresponding bandwidth allocations while minimizing total downlink transmit power. Proposed iterative algorithm applies a decomposition method. First, the 3D locations of ABSs are found using semi-definite relaxation and coordinate descent methods, and then user-BS associations and bandwidth allocations are optimized. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and provide insights about the impact of traffic distribution and content caching on transmit power and backhaul usage of ABSs.