Relaxation-Free Min-k-Partition for PCI Assignment in 5G Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a relaxation-free, efficient framework for PCI assignment in 5G networks, reducing interference and collisions by reformulating the problem as a quadratic program and solving it with a penalized mirror descent algorithm.

Contribution

It presents a novel relaxation-free approach to Min-k-Partition problems using quadratic programming and a PMD algorithm, enhancing scalability and computational efficiency for 5G PCI assignment.

Findings

Reduces computational time by up to 20 times compared to existing methods.

Effectively mitigates interference and collisions in large-scale 5G networks.

Demonstrates superior scalability and practical applicability in real-world datasets.

Abstract

Physical Cell Identity (PCI) is a critical parameter in 5G networks. Efficient and accurate PCI assignment is essential for mitigating mod-3 interference, mod-30 interference, collisions, and confusions among cells, which directly affect network reliability and user experience. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for PCI assignment by decomposing the problem into Min-3-Partition, Min-10-Partition, and a graph coloring problem, leveraging the Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT). Furthermore, we develop a relaxation-free approach to the general Min-k-Partition problem by reformulating it as a quadratic program with a norm-equality constraint and solving it using a penalized mirror descent (PMD) algorithm. The proposed method demonstrates superior computational efficiency and scalability, significantly reducing interference while eliminating collisions and confusions in large-scale 5G networks. Numerical evaluations on real-world datasets show that our approach reduces computational time by up to 20 times compared to state-of-the-art methods, making it highly practical for real-time PCI optimization in large-scale networks. These results highlight the potential of our method to improve network performance and reduce deployment costs in modern 5G systems.