Joint Optical and Wireless Resource Allocation for Cooperative Transmission in C-RAN

Cooperative multipoint transmission (CoMP) is one of the most promising paradigms for mitigating interference in cloud radio access networks (C-RAN). It allows multiple remote radio units (RRUs) to transmit the same data flow to a user to further improve the signal quality. However, CoMP may incur redundant data transmission over fronthaul network in the C-RAN. In a C-RAN employing CoMP, a key problem is how to coordinate heterogeneous resource allocation to maximize the cooperation gain while reducing the fronthaul load. In this paper, the cooperation transmission based on a multi-dimensional resource schedule (MRSCT) scheme, jointly considering user association, spectrum resource allocation, and wavelength resource allocation, is firstly envisioned in the underlying C-RAN integrating time and wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (TWDM-PON) to maximize fronthaul efficiency. Then a two-timescale resource allocation framework including two sub-approaches is established. More specially, the first sub-approach mainly focuses on exploiting reinforcement learning to obtain a wavelength resource allocation strategy to relieve fronthaul traffic load. Moreover, the second sub-approach adopts the overlapping coalition formation game to establish a user-centric cooperative set, where spectrum resources are dynamically allocated to further alleviate the interference issue. The theoretical analysis and simulation results validate the performance of MRSCT scheme on the fronthaul efficiency, user experience, and system service capability.