Modelling Virtual Radio Resource Management with traffic offloading support

Abstract

This paper proposes a new model for the management of virtual radio resources with traffic offloading support. The model has two key components: the estimation of network capacity and the data rate allocation. In the first one, the probability description of Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio is used to obtain cumulative and density functions for the total network throughput. The primary objective in the second one is to achieve the maximum weighted throughput, subject to global network constraints. By using weights in an objective function, a prioritisation among services is achieved. The total network capacity, the SLAs (Service Level Agreements) of Virtual Network Operators, and fairness, are the constraints in this optimisation problem. The novelty of this paper is the addition of support for traffic offloading by considering the collision rates in Wi-Fi. The aim is to prioritise services with higher data rate per session in the offloading procedure, since it leads to a lower collision rate and a higher network throughput. A practical heterogeneous network is considered as a case study, in order to evaluate the model performance. Results show an increase of 2.5 times in network capacity, by implementing an access point at the centre of each cell. The good performance of the model and the VNOs' SLAs effect is demonstrated through numeric results.