Q-Learning Based Fair and Efficient Coexistence of LTE in Unlicensed Band

Abstract

The increased demand for spectrum resources for multimedia communications and a limited licensed spectrum have led to widespread concern regarding the operation of long term evolution (LTE) in the unlicensed (LTE-U) band for internet of things (IoT) systems. Because Wi-Fi and LTE are diverse with dissimilar physical and link layer configurations, several solutions to achieve an efficient and fair coexistence have been proposed. Most of the proposed solutions facilitate a fair coexistence through a discontinuous transmission using a duty cycling or contention mechanism and an efficient coexistence through a clean channel selection. However, they are constrained only by fairness or efficient coexistence but not both. Herein, we propose joint adaptive duty cycling (ADC) and dynamic channel switch (DCS) mechanisms. The ADC mechanism supports a fair channel access opportunity by muting certain numbers of subframes for Wi-Fi users whereas the DCS mechanism offers more access opportunities for LTE-U and Wi-Fi users by preventing LTE-U users from occupying a crowded channel for a longer time. To support these mechanisms in a dynamic environment, LTE-U for IoT applications is enhanced using Q-learning techniques for an automatic selection of the appropriate combination of muting period and channel. Simulation results show the fair and efficient coexistence achieved from using the proposed mechanism.

Internet of Multimedia Things (IoMT): Opportunities, Challenges and Solutions

“…This mechanism causes spectrum inefficiency. Bajracharya et al [20] proposed a Machine Learning (ML)-based Adaptive Duty Cycle (ADC) and Dynamic Channel Switch (DCS) mechanism for network to access channel in dynamic network scenarios. ADC and DCS exploit Q-learning to determine the best policy to select an optimal channel and duty cycles.…”

Adaptive CNN-based Private LTE Solution for Fair Coexistence with Wi-Fi in Unlicensed Spectrum

“…The previously mentioned studies mainly consider a DL LTE to coexist with Wi-Fi where supportive licensed spectrum is used for control signals and/or UL transmissions. In [14]- [15], coexistence of LTE in TDD mode with Wi-Fi is studied. These studies also examine the effect of using muted subframe on the coexistence performance of LTE and Wi-Fi.…”

MACD e-ICIC: a dynamic LTE interference coordination method based on trend and trading know-how

“…The use of LTE in the 5 GHz bands is studied in [11][12][13][14]18,19]. From the very first investigations [11], the ABS was used to offer short channel access windows for Wi-Fi when coexisting with LTE.…”

“…Recent studies propose to dynamically set the ABS ratio tracking the network environment [7,8], especially in varying scenarios in terms of interference. The mute periods of ABS are also used in the context of multiple radio technologies coexistence [9][10][11], with several examples of solutions to automatically adapt ABS ratio to deal with the interference profile between the coexisting systems [12][13][14][15]. Following this trend, we propose to associate trend indicators [16] and trading know-how [17] to dynamically monitor and modify ABS parameters to improve HetNets performance.…”