Sujet de Thse : Auto-Optimisation des ressources

spectrales et nergtique de la tlphonie mobile de 4me

Gnration (LTE-Advanced) via lagrgation de porteuses
Concept

La tlphonie mobile regroupe de nos jours un ensemble de systmes daccs radio (RAN)
complmentaires tels que la 2G (GERAN), la 3G (UTRAN) et la 4G (EUTRAN). Lobjectif
du dploiement et du maintien de ces diffrents accs radio est de permettre un accs nomade
haut dbit. Pour loprateur, lenjeu est damliorer la capacit du rseau en tenant compte
de ces diffrentes technologies qui cohabitent ensemble. Actuellement, concernant le rseau
2G et 3G, de nombreux paramtres sont ajusts manuellement sur chaque station de base tels
que : la planification cellulaire, la configuration (Puissance, Handover, Tilt, ) et la gestion
des stations. [1][2][3]

Dans ce contexte, les oprateurs doivent faire face la fois la gestion de leur rseau
(configuration optimale des stations de base) tout en introduisant de nouveaux services et en
garantissant la satisfaction (QoE) de chaque utilisateur. Pour faciliter cette tche et rduire
lOPEX (cout dexploitation), lorganisme 3GPP a dfini plusieurs scnaris dauto-
optimisation des quipements actifs du rseau mobile via une procdure nomme SON Self-
Optimization Network. Lobjectif du SON est dune part doptimiser le rseau cellulaire en
temps rel en implmentant des algorithmes permettant dadapter le rseau aux nombres
dutilisateurs et aux services dsirs (QoS) et dautre part de r-organiser le rseau en cas de
panne dune station de base, ou en cas dextinction de stations de bases pour rduire la
consommation nergtique des quipements (Green).

Le SON se dfinit donc comme un processus sappuyant sur les mesures effectues entre les
terminaux (UE) et les stations de base (BS) pour auto-ajuster les paramtres radios. Les
paramtres rguler sont la puissance de transmission, le tiltage dantennes, les informations
des cellules voisines pour le Handover et dautres paramtres grs par les couches basses
(RRC/MAC/PHY). Le SO doit donc :
favoriser lquilibrage de charge (MLB : Mobile Load Balancing)
amliorer la robustesse des liens mobiles (MRO : Mobile Robustness Optimization)
amliorer la capacit et la couverture (CCO : Capacity and Coverage Optimization)

Lobjectif du MLB est de distribuer le trafic rseau entre les cellules favorisant ainsi le
transfert dune communication dune cellule congestionne vers une cellule moins charge.
Ceci peut tre obtenu de manire dynamique en modifiant les critres de Handover (HO) ou
en modifiant le tiltage des antennes. Nanmoins, le risque est daugmenter le nombre de
Handover Failure, et loptimisation consistera donc prendre en compte les mesures de
russite ou dchec du transfert de trafic. Le MRO permettra en parallle de rsoudre ce point
(HO Failure) en ajustant le moment de prise de dcision du HO (HO timing). Outre ces
optimisations, le CCO a pour objectif doptimiser la capacit de la cellule et la couverture de
la cellule avec une dcision commune lensemble des cellules : La modification de la
couverture impacte obligatoirement avec les cellules voisines. En mme temps, pour
minimiser laccs au rseau, la fonction daccs alatoire (RACH) pourra tre prise en compte
[4]. Le SON est inscrit depuis la release 7 du 3GPP mais les solutions sont loin dtre
apportes et aucun aspect du SON ne traite actuellement de lagrgation de porteuse, concept
introduit uniquement partir de la release 10.
Nous proposons donc dtudier dans cette thse lauto-optimisation du rseau prenant en
compte lagrgation de porteuses : La tlphonie mobile de 4me gnration, nomme LTE-
Advanced permettra datteindre en thorie des dbits descendants de 1Gb/s. Pour atteindre ce
dbit, il est ncessaire dagrger plusieurs porteuses entre elles. La technique Carrier
Aggregation (CA), dj utilise en Wi-Fi, permet lutilisation conjointe de 2 canaux 5
canaux de 20 MHz de bandes continues ou non.

Enjeux

Aujourdhui pour concilier les bnfices du CA et du SON, deux couches de la pile

protocolaire du LTE doivent tre abordes. La couche physique doit tre implmente puisque
celle-ci est en charge du dbit, du tiltage et de puissance de transmission, et la couche MAC
(Medium Access Control) doit tre tudie car celle-ci est en charge du partage de ressource
dans un contexte multi-utilisateurs. Ainsi, ltude consiste mettre en place un algorithme
entre couche (Cross-layer) pour rpondre au problme dauto-optimisation du rseau en
rpartissant les ressources spectrales en fonction du temps (Scheduling).

Lalgorithme dallocation des ressources (Scheduling) [5][6] dpend du dbit et de la QoS

demande par chaque utilisateur, ce qui signifie que chaque Composante Spectrale (CC :
Component Carrier) doit tre gre en fonction du temps. Le Scheduling Algorithm est
fondamental puisque cet algorithme gre chaque ressource frquentielle en fonction du temps
et permettra ou non lagrgation des ressources pour atteindre la QoS demande selon la
disponibilit des ressources radio entre tous les utilisateurs dune cellule et des cellules
voisines [7]. En effet, pour amliorer les ressources dun utilisateur, le systme devra
transfrer une partie du trafic vers les cellules voisines.

La technique CA permettra non seulement datteindre des dbits plus importants, mais
permettra aussi damliorer la couverture du rseau en diminuant la valence de la modulation
ce qui permettra de rduire la puissance de transmission et donc les interfrences. En
particulier, CA et SO peuvent tre implments conjointement afin damliorer les
performances des rseaux cognitifs.

Lobjectif de cette thse consiste donc utiliser les outils de lautomatique non linaire
afin de contrler chaque communication entre BS et UE dans un ensemble de cellules
(LA : Location Area) tout en conservant la QoS grce laugmentation du nombre de
porteuses (CA). Ainsi, un algorithme centralis permettra doptimiser lallocation spectrale de
chaque cellule [8].

Des problmes techniques doivent tre tudis comme limpact du CA sur la capacit du
systme. Au cours de cette thse nous allons notamment rpondre aux questions suivantes :

comment grer le Handover et le LoadBalancing lorsquune ou plusieurs porteuses

sont agrges
comment configurer automatiquement les antennes (azimuth) avec la technique de CA
toute en modifiant la valence des techniques de modulation et en paramtrant la
puissance dmission des mobiles
Quels sont les impacts cumuls sur la couverture et la capacit du rseau par
modification de plusieurs paramtres.
PhD proposal : Self-Optimization of spectral and power
resources using Carrier Aggregation of LTE-Advanced
mobile communication system
General Concept

The wireless ecosystem consists of numerous coexisting Radio Access Networks (RANs), e.g.
GERAN, UTRAN, EUTRAN. The aim of the combined deployment of the various RANs is
to provide efficient and ubiquitous broadband wireless access taking into consideration both
the different RANs architectures and the wide variety of spectrum availability. One important
goal in this context is to improve the network capacity as the operators handle simultaneously
different network entities e.g. BTS, Node B, eNode B. In todays 2G and 3G wireless
networks, many parameters are manually configured: planning, radio parameters
configuration and management are essential but actually only manual processes exist to tune
these network parameters in a time consuming and costly manner. In this challenging context,
competing wireless operators are faced with the complicated task of running their networks
while introducing new services and achieving goals in terms of customer satisfaction, benefit,
market share, innovation, reputation, etc. [1][2][3]
Towards this end, 3GPP has defined several use cases for the self-configuration, -optimization
and -healing of networks, also referred to as self-organizing networks (SON). The focus of
SON is on reducing human intervention in the network and hence the Operational Expenses
(OPEX) during the early deployment phase, i.e. when new network nodes must be placed,
configured, and taken into operation, as well as during optimization cycles, i.e. when certain
configurations in the nodes must be adapted to varying channel and load conditions. In
addition, SON is expected to assist the network operator during sudden network failures, thus
reducing both the maintenance costs and recovery time.
The SO technique is defined as the process where user equipment (UE) and BS
measurements are used to auto-tune the radio parameters in an operation mode. Radio
parameters refer to e.g. transmission power, antenna tilting, neighbour cell information,
handover parameters or other RRC/MAC/PHY parameters. Among SO use cases are
mobility load balancing (MLB), mobility robustness optimization (MRO), capacity and
coverage optimization (CCO) and RACH optimization defined in LTE Rel-9 and beyond.
Briefly, the objective of MLB is to balance the cells loads by transferring traffic from
congested cells to low-loaded cells. It can be achieved on a dynamic basis by adapting the
handover thresholds between the cells or at a slower pace by adapting the antenna tilting.
The former approach however needs to avoid handover (HO) failures such as too early
HO. This can be jointly managed with MRO which considers as well mobility problems
such as too late HO or handing over to wrong cells. Besides these optimizations, CCO
aims at providing optimal capacity and coverage in the network, whereas RACH
optimization function aims to minimize access delays for UEs and minimize the uplink
(UL) interferences due to RACH [4]. The aforementioned SON use cases have been an
integral part of the last LTE releases; however they are far from being completed and are
expected to still take considerable attention in the coming years among researchers as other
techniques are introduced in new LTE releases; for example, along with SON
functionalities, carrier aggregation (CA).
The mobile communication systems 4G, also named LTE Advanced (Long Term Evolution)
will evolve to reach theoretical one Gbits/s rates. To reach such rate, the technique will have
to be implemented consist to aggregate several carrier frequencies. This technique, name
Carrier Aggregation already used in Wi-Fi, will allow transmitting simultaneously between 2
and 5 continuous or not LTE-band of 20 MHz.

PhD Tasks
Yet to harness the benefits of CA and SON use cases, two issues are to be handled: both
technologies have to be jointly addressed along with their impact on other functionalities in
the LTE protocol stack, e.g. scheduling. In Mobile Communication, the physical layer (PHY)
is in charge of raw-bit transmission, while the medium access control (MAC) layer controls
multi-user access to the shared resources. Therefore, cross-layered design and optimization
across the PHY and MAC layers are desired for wireless resource allocation and scheduling.
The scheduler [5][6] is in control of the instantaneous data rates by allocating Resource
Blocks to the user, which means allocating CC with time allocation to each users. Scheduling
algorithms are fundamental components in the process of resource management in mobile
communication networks with heterogeneous QoS requirements [7] such as delay, delay jitter,
packet loss rate or throughput. As CA will impact the resource allocation, enhancement of the
Scheduling algorithm should be provided. Besides, to allocate more resource for one UE,
system may need to load balance the traffic between several eNodeBs.

CA not only helps to achieve higher data rates, but could also help to achieve better coverage
for medium data rates thanks to the use of lower orders of modulation and lower code rates,
which would reduce the required link budget, transmission power and interference. In
particular, CA and SO should be jointly implemented in an efficient fashion since the
performance objectives of the SO paradigm should follow the dynamically carrier extension
context provided by the CA technique as part of upcoming cognitive networks.

The objective of the work is to implement automatic tools to control each communication
and each BS situated in a certain area in order to maintain the QoS of users in case of carrier
aggregation of one or more transmissions. As a result, dynamic spectrum allocation and
dynamical coverage area has to be defined in each cell (serving and neighbouring cells) [8].
Some technical problems need to be solved as for example, the impact of CA in the capacity
of the system, how to handle handover and load-balancing of one or more aggregated carrier,
how to jointly tune Antenna configurations and CA with modulation scheme and transmitted
power to improve coverage and capacity.
References

[1] K. Tsagkaris, P. Vlacheas,G. Athanasiou, V. Stavroulaki,S. Filin, H. Harada,J. Gebert, M.

Mueck : Autonomics in wireless network management: Advances in standards and further
challenges, IEEE Network, vol. 6, pp. 41-49, Nov. 2011.
[2] M.J. Nawrocki, H. Aghvami and M. Dohler (eds.), Understanding UMTS radio network
modelling, planning and automated optimisation: theory and practice, John Wiley & Sons,
2006
[3] C. Prehofer, C. Bettstetter, Self-Organization in Communication Networks: Principles and
Design Paradigms. IEEE Comm. Mag., 2005; 43(7); pp.78-85.
[4] 3GPP36 300, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Acces (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal
Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); overall Description Stage 2 (Release 10)
[5] J. Ramis, L.Carrasco, G.Femenias and Felip Riera-Palou Sheduling algorithms for 4G
wireless networks, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.115.934
[6] W. Ajib, D. Haccoun, An Overview of Scheduling Algorithms in MIMO-Based Fourth-
Generation Wireless Systems, IEEE Network, pp 43-48, September/October 2005
[7] Huang, V.; Weihua Zhuang, QoS-oriented access control for 4G mobile multimedia CDMA
communications, IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol 40, n3, pp 118-125, Mar 2002
[8] 3GPP TS 32.541 V10.0.0 (2011-03), Technical Specification, 3rd Generation Partnership
Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Telecommunications
Management; Self-Organizing Networks (SON); Self-healing Concepts and Requirements
(Release 10).