Radio access virtualization: Cell follows user

TLDR

Virtual radio access (VRA) technology, where cooperative transmit points form virtual TPs to serve user equipments, remains a key research focus for future wireless generations. The authors propose a UE‑centric partitioning technique that divides the network into multiple VTP sets. Their method partitions the network using UE‑centric metrics, introduces soft UE‑TP association for load balancing, selects the optimal VTP set per scheduling resource, and is evaluated through numerical simulations. The technique guarantees every UE gains a required improvement in at least one VTP, thereby eliminating edge‑user performance gaps.

Abstract

Virtual radio access (VRA) technology wherein groups of cooperative transmit points (TPs) form virtual TPs (VTPs) to serve user equipments (UEs) continue to be a thriving subject of research in future generations of wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a technique that uses UE-centric metrics to provide multiple partitions of a wireless network into VTP sets. Our technique guarantees that all UEs enjoy a required gain in at least one VTP; effectively eliminating the edge UE experience in the network. To further enhance the performance of the proposed VRA technique in practical scenarios wherein there is a large load imbalance in the network, we also introduce a new concept of soft UE-TP association in which each UE is partially associated with multiple TPs. The use of our soft association concept when forming VTP sets facilitates load-balancing among various TPs. Finally, a technique is also offered to select the best VTP set at each scheduling resource unit. Numerical simulations are used to demonstrate the performance of our virtualization techniques.