Fronthaul-Aware Software-Defined Wireless Networks: Resource Allocation and User Scheduling

Abstract

Software-defined networking (SDN) provides an agile and programmable way to\noptimize radio access networks via a control-data plane separation.\nNevertheless, reaping the benefits of wireless SDN hinges on making optimal use\nof the limited wireless fronthaul capacity. In this work, the problem of\nfronthaul-aware resource allocation and user scheduling is studied. To this\nend, a two-timescale fronthaul-aware SDN control mechanism is proposed in which\nthe controller maximizes the time-averaged network throughput by enforcing a\ncoarse correlated equilibrium in the long timescale. Subsequently, leveraging\nthe controller's recommendations, each base station schedules its users using\nLyapunov stochastic optimization in the short timescale, i.e., at each time\nslot. Simulation results show that significant network throughput enhancements\nand up to 40% latency reduction are achieved with the aid of the SDN\ncontroller. Moreover, the gains are more pronounced for denser network\ndeployments.\n