User Performance in a 5G Multi-connectivity Ultra-Dense Network City Scenario

Abstract

Multi-connectivity and network densification are two solutions intended to improve performance and reliability. These solutions can improve 5G NR's system performance especially when using high-frequency bands. This work focuses on the user equipment (UE) performance using multi-connectivity within an ultra-dense deployment in a city environment. By being connected to more than one access node simultaneously, the UE should benefit from increased reliability and performance. However, this improved performance comes at the expense of a potentially increased power consumption. Simulation results show that multi-connectivity improves performance by up to 46% and 27% in downlink and uplink resp., increases UE energy efficiency by up to 30% and improves reliability for highly mobile users by up to 37%. The price to pay is an increased UE power consumption of up to 25% and 60% for dual-connectivity and tri-connectivity resp. A multi-connectivity scheme is presented to reduce the secondary connection's transmit power.

Impact of Multi-connectivity on Channel Capacity and Outage Probability in Wireless Networks

“…In [5], the authors show how the loss of line-of-sight affects the network throughput. Similarly, it has been shown that in ultra-dense urban scenarios [4], [9], [10] and indoor scenarios [11], MC increases the per-user throughput. Our work differs from these papers in the sense that we consider not only loss of line-of-sight, but a more general class of link failures, based on for example distance or number of links to a certain BS.…”

Impact of Multi-Connectivity on Channel Capacity and Outage Probability in Wireless Networks

“…In [4] and [9], the authors show how the loss of LoS affects the network throughput. Similarly, it has been shown that in ultra-dense urban scenarios [5], [10], [11], indoor scenarios [12] and under mobility [13], MC increases the per-user throughput. Our work differs from these papers in that we consider not only loss of LoS but a more general class of link failures, based on for example distance and channel impairments.…”

“…While the promise of MC over SC is demonstrated in the prior works such as [4], [5], a key question remains to find the optimal degree of MC, i.e., the number of connections per user, so that the throughput and network reliability is high. Since MC results in various complexities such as signalling overhead among multiple network nodes, traffic scheduling or combining at the receiver [2], it is desirable to find the degree of MC that achieves a significant improvement over a one-lower connectivity.…”

Evaluation of the effect of 5G Hardware Impairments on achieving high Energy Efficiency

“…Ultra-high data rates have been identified as a key aim goal for future production of wireless mobile networks. Successively to meet with increasing information transfer tariff, mobile device power consumption increases [5]. SWIPT is being offered as a constant source of power for cellular workstations, therefore boosting the standards of customer's comfort, as a result of the restricted battery lifespan of cellular gadgets.…”