Multicast eMBB and Bursty URLLC Service Multiplexing in a CoMP-Enabled RAN

• Published in: IEEE transactions on wireless communications Vol. 20; no. 5; pp. 3061 - 3077
• Main Authors: Yang, Peng, Xi, Xing, Fu, Yaru, Quek, Tony Q. S., Cao, Xianbin, Wu, Dapeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.05.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Broadband; bursty URLLC; coordinated multi-point transmission; Iterative algorithms; Mobile computing; multicast eMBB; Multicasting; Multiplexing; Network latency; Optimization; Quality of service; RAN slicing; Reliability; Resource management; service multiplexing; Slicing; Time; Time-frequency analysis; Ultra reliable low latency communication; Utilities
• ISSN: 1536-1276; 1558-2248
• DOI: 10.1109/TWC.2020.3047263

This paper is concerned with slicing a radio access network (RAN) for simultaneously serving two 5G-and-Beyond typical use cases, i.e., enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC). Although many researches have been conducted to tackle this issue, few of them have considered the impact of bursty URLLC. The bursty characteristic of URLLC traffic may significantly increase the difficulty of RAN slicing in terms of ensuring an ultra-low packet blocking probability. To reduce the probability, we re-visit the structure of physical resource blocks orchestrated for URLLC traffic based on theoretical results. Meanwhile, we formulate the problem of slicing a RAN enabling coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmissions for multicast eMBB and bursty URLLC service multiplexing as a multi-timescale optimization problem aiming at maximizing eMBB and URLLC slice utilities, subject to physical resource constraints. To mitigate this problem, we transform it into multiple single timescale problems by exploring sample average approximations. An iterative algorithm with provable performance guarantees is developed to obtain solutions to these single timescale problems and aggregate obtained solutions into those of the multi-timescale problem. We also design a CoMP-enabled RAN slicing system prototype and compare the iterative algorithm with the state-of-the-art algorithm to verify its effectiveness.