Advanced Radio Access Networks for LTE and Beyond

Standardization efforts towards achieving 4G objectives have resulted in the development of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology. The flexible frequency assignment enabled by OFDMA allows for the introduction of new network elements such as distributed antenna ports, femto base-stations, and relays, and new coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission and reception techniques. New network elements require new radio access network (RAN) architectures and make radio resource management (RRM) a very challenging problem, requiring a new set of optimization techniques. First, we overview the evolution of 4G RANs, with special emphasis on the 3 Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced RAN architectures, and RRM optimization algorithms for OFDMA-based 4G RANs, such as LTE and LTE-Advanced. Second, P. Djukic, M. Rahman and H. Yanikomeroglu are with the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Canada, e-mail: {djukic,mmrahman,halim}@sce.carleton.ca, J. Zhang is with the Huawei Wireless Research, China, e-mail: [email protected]