{"title":"波束对齐:具有多连接的毫米波网络的分布式用户关联","authors":"L. Weedage, C. Stegehuis, S. Bayhan","doi":"10.1016/j.comnet.2025.111446","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since the spectrum below 6 GHz bands is insufficient to meet the high bandwidth requirements of 5G use cases, 5G networks expand their operation to mmWave bands. However, operation at these bands has to cope with a high penetration loss and susceptibility to blocking objects. Beamforming and multi-connectivity (MC) can together mitigate these challenges. But, to design such an optimal user association scheme leveraging these two features is non-trivial and computationally expensive. Previous studies either considered a fixed MC degree for all users or overlooked beamforming. Driven by the question <em>what is the optimal degree of MC for each user in a mmWave network,</em> we formulate a user association scheme that maximizes throughput considering beam formation and MC. Our numerical analysis shows that there is no one-size-fits-all degree of optimal MC; it depends on the number of users, their rate requirements, locations, and the maximum number of active beams at a BS. Based on the optimal association, we design <span>beam-align</span>: an efficient heuristic with polynomial-time complexity <span><math><mrow><mi>O</mi><mrow><mo>(</mo><mrow><mo>|</mo><mi>U</mi><mo>|</mo></mrow><mo>log</mo><mrow><mo>|</mo><mi>U</mi><mo>|</mo></mrow><mo>)</mo></mrow></mrow></math></span>, where <span><math><mrow><mo>|</mo><mi>U</mi><mo>|</mo></mrow></math></span> is the number of users. Moreover, <span>beam-align</span> only uses local BS information - i.e. the received signal quality at the user. Differing from prior works, <span>beam-align</span> considers beamforming, multiconnectivity and line-of-sight probability. Via simulations, we show that <span>beam-align</span> performs close to optimal in terms of per-user capacity and satisfaction while it outperforms frequently-used signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio based association schemes. We then show that <span>beam-align</span> has a robust performance under various challenging scenarios: the presence of blockers, rain, and clustered users.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50637,"journal":{"name":"Computer Networks","volume":"270 ","pages":"Article 111446"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"beam-align: Distributed user association for mmWave networks with multi-connectivity\",\"authors\":\"L. Weedage, C. Stegehuis, S. Bayhan\",\"doi\":\"10.1016/j.comnet.2025.111446\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<div><div>Since the spectrum below 6 GHz bands is insufficient to meet the high bandwidth requirements of 5G use cases, 5G networks expand their operation to mmWave bands. However, operation at these bands has to cope with a high penetration loss and susceptibility to blocking objects. Beamforming and multi-connectivity (MC) can together mitigate these challenges. But, to design such an optimal user association scheme leveraging these two features is non-trivial and computationally expensive. Previous studies either considered a fixed MC degree for all users or overlooked beamforming. Driven by the question <em>what is the optimal degree of MC for each user in a mmWave network,</em> we formulate a user association scheme that maximizes throughput considering beam formation and MC. Our numerical analysis shows that there is no one-size-fits-all degree of optimal MC; it depends on the number of users, their rate requirements, locations, and the maximum number of active beams at a BS. Based on the optimal association, we design <span>beam-align</span>: an efficient heuristic with polynomial-time complexity <span><math><mrow><mi>O</mi><mrow><mo>(</mo><mrow><mo>|</mo><mi>U</mi><mo>|</mo></mrow><mo>log</mo><mrow><mo>|</mo><mi>U</mi><mo>|</mo></mrow><mo>)</mo></mrow></mrow></math></span>, where <span><math><mrow><mo>|</mo><mi>U</mi><mo>|</mo></mrow></math></span> is the number of users. Moreover, <span>beam-align</span> only uses local BS information - i.e. the received signal quality at the user. Differing from prior works, <span>beam-align</span> considers beamforming, multiconnectivity and line-of-sight probability. Via simulations, we show that <span>beam-align</span> performs close to optimal in terms of per-user capacity and satisfaction while it outperforms frequently-used signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio based association schemes. We then show that <span>beam-align</span> has a robust performance under various challenging scenarios: the presence of blockers, rain, and clustered users.</div></div>\",\"PeriodicalId\":50637,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Computer Networks\",\"volume\":\"270 \",\"pages\":\"Article 111446\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":4.6000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-07-10\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Computer Networks\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"94\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138912862500413X\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"计算机科学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"COMPUTER SCIENCE, HARDWARE & ARCHITECTURE\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Computer Networks","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138912862500413X","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, HARDWARE & ARCHITECTURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
beam-align: Distributed user association for mmWave networks with multi-connectivity
Since the spectrum below 6 GHz bands is insufficient to meet the high bandwidth requirements of 5G use cases, 5G networks expand their operation to mmWave bands. However, operation at these bands has to cope with a high penetration loss and susceptibility to blocking objects. Beamforming and multi-connectivity (MC) can together mitigate these challenges. But, to design such an optimal user association scheme leveraging these two features is non-trivial and computationally expensive. Previous studies either considered a fixed MC degree for all users or overlooked beamforming. Driven by the question what is the optimal degree of MC for each user in a mmWave network, we formulate a user association scheme that maximizes throughput considering beam formation and MC. Our numerical analysis shows that there is no one-size-fits-all degree of optimal MC; it depends on the number of users, their rate requirements, locations, and the maximum number of active beams at a BS. Based on the optimal association, we design beam-align: an efficient heuristic with polynomial-time complexity , where is the number of users. Moreover, beam-align only uses local BS information - i.e. the received signal quality at the user. Differing from prior works, beam-align considers beamforming, multiconnectivity and line-of-sight probability. Via simulations, we show that beam-align performs close to optimal in terms of per-user capacity and satisfaction while it outperforms frequently-used signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio based association schemes. We then show that beam-align has a robust performance under various challenging scenarios: the presence of blockers, rain, and clustered users.
期刊介绍:
Computer Networks is an international, archival journal providing a publication vehicle for complete coverage of all topics of interest to those involved in the computer communications networking area. The audience includes researchers, managers and operators of networks as well as designers and implementors. The Editorial Board will consider any material for publication that is of interest to those groups.