Performance analysis for MU-MIMO enabled LTE-U networks coexisting with D2D and WiFi network

Abstract

LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) network is a type of cellular communication network operating the unlicensed spectrum. Offloading cellular traffic to WiFi or Device-to-Device (D2D) network can lead to interference among them. Applying Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology in Cellular Base Station (CBS) and WiFi Access Point (WAP) can effectively reduce interference among D2D, WiFi and cellular networks. To our best knowledge, there is still no literature to explicitly study the characteristics of the traffic offloading in the Multiple-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) enabled network coexisting with D2D and WiFi networks. In this article, we thoroughly investigate the impact of D2D communication and MU-MIMO enabled WAP and CBS on the performance of the LTE-U network. More specifically, we derive the expressions of the downlink rates for cellular users, D2D users, and WiFi users with incomplete Channel State Information (CSI) feedback, and we validate our analysis through Monte-Carlo simulation. Numerous results illustrate the following conclusions. (i) Increasing the number of WiFi users, the length of CSI feedback, and the quantity of D2D pairs that reuse the channel with a single cellular user can increase the total throughput of the heterogeneous network. (ii) The total throughput decreases when more than two users are offloaded to D2D pairs, and increases as the number of offloaded users increases when less than six users are offloaded to WiFi network. (iii) Simultaneously offloading traffic to D2D pairs and WiFi network can obtain higher total throughput than offloading traffic to only one of them.

Keywords

LTE-unlicensed / WiFi AP / MU-MIMO / D2D

References

[1] Cisco, Cisco visual networking index: forecast and trends, https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?articleId=1955935, 2023. (Accessed 12 June 2023).

[2] S. Fang, Y. Gao, C. Zhang, X. Hei, Achieving 3GPP fairness for LTE-U and WiFi coexisting networks in unlicensed spectrum, in: 2019 IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics ICCE-TW, 2019, pp. 1-2.

[3] Y. Ni, Y. Wang, H. Zhu, Interference cancellation in device-to-device communica-tions underlying MU-MIMO cellular networks, China Commun. 16 (4) (2019) 75-88.

[4] J. Liu, N. Kato, J. Ma, N. Kadowaki, Device-to-device communication in LTE-advanced networks: a survey, IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 17 (4) (2015) 1923-1940.

[5] A. Asadi, Q. Wang, V. Mancuso, A survey on device-to-device communication in cellular networks, IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 16 (4) (2014) 1801-1819.

[6] L. Wang, J. Liu, M. Chen, G. Gui, H. Sari, Optimization-based access assignment scheme for physical-layer security in D2D communications underlaying a cellular network, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol. 67 (7) (2018) 5766-5777.

[7] F. Boccardi, R.W. Heath, A. Lozano, T.L. Marzetta, P. Popovski, Five disruptive tech-nology directions for 5G, IEEE Commun. Mag. 52 (2) (2014) 74-80.

[8] V. Angeline Beulah, S. Markkandan, Performance analysis of precoding techniques for Massive MU-MIMO systems, in: 2015 International Conference on Innovations in Information, Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS), 2015, pp. 1-5.

[9] J. Fan, Z. Xu, G.Y. Li, Performance analysis of MU-MIMO in downlink cellular net-works, IEEE Commun. Lett. 19 (2) (2015) 223-226.

[10] H. Sato, K. Nishimori,Study on simple performance evaluation for MU-MIMO-OFDMA, in:2020 International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP), 2021, pp. 513-514.

[11] T. Kuwabara, N. Tawa, Y. Maruta, S. Hori, T. Kaneko, A 39 GHz MU-MIMO using 256 element hybrid AAS with coherent beam-forming for 5G and beyond IAB appli-cations,in: 2021 51st European Microwave Conference (EuMC), 2022, pp. 580-583.

[12] B. Fan, Z. He, Y. Wu, J. He, Y. Chen, L. Jiang, Deep learning empowered traffic offloading in intelligent software defined cellular V2X networks, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol. 69 (11) (2020) 13328-13340.

[13] B. Fan, L. Jiang, Y. Chen, Y. Zhang, Y. Wu, UAV assisted traffic offloading in air ground integrated networks with mixed user traffic, IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 23 (8) (2022) 12601-12611.

[14] E. Pei, Y. Huang, L. Zhang, Y. Li, J. Zhang, Intelligent access to unlicensed spec-trum: a mean field based deep reinforcement learning approach, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 22 (4) (2023) 2325-2337.

[15] E. Pei, J. Jiang, Performance analysis of licensed-assisted access to unlicensed spec-trum in LTE release 13, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol. 68 (2) (2019) 1446-1458.

[16] E. Pei, X. Lu, B. Deng, J. Pei, Z. Zhang, The impact of imperfect spectrum sensing on the performance of LTE licensed assisted access scheme, IEEE Trans. Commun. 68 (3) (2020) 1966-1978.

[17] Q. Chen, G. Yu, H. Shan, A. Maaref, G.Y. Li, A. Huang, Cellular meets WiFi: traf-fic offloading or resource sharing?, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 15 (5) (2016) 3354-3367.

[18] Z. Li, C. Dong, A. Li, H. Wang, G. Zhang, Performance analysis for traffic offloading with MU-MIMO enabled AP in LTE-U networks, in: 2017 IEEE Global Communica-tions Conference, 2017, pp. 1-6.

[19] B.H. Jung, N. Song, D.K. Sung, A network-assisted user-centric WiFi-offloading model for maximizing per-user throughput in a heterogeneous network, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol. 63 (4) (2014) 1940-1945.

[20] H. Zhang, Y. Liao, L. Song, Device-to-device communications underlaying cellular networks in unlicensed bands, in: 2017 IEEE International Conference on Commu-nications (ICC), 2017, pp. 1-6.

[21] L. Wei, R.Q. Hu, T. He, Y. Qian, Device-to-device (d2d) communications underlay-ing MU-MIMO cellular networks, in: 2013 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), 2013, pp. 4902-4907.

[22] Y. Ni, S. Jin, W. Xu, Y. Wang, M. Matthaiou, H. Zhu, Beamforming and interference cancellation for D2D communication underlaying cellular networks, IEEE Trans. Commun. 64 (2) (2016) 832-846.

[23] Q. Chen, G. Yu, A. Maaref, G.Y. Li, A. Huang, Rethinking mobile data offloading for LTE in unlicensed spectrum, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 15 (7) (2016) 4987-5000.