Statistical traffic control for cognitive radio empowered LTE-Advanced with network MIMO

Deploying 3GPP LTE-Advanced to the ISM band resolves the deployment issue of obtaining feasible bandwidth from crowded spectrum. However, considering that wireless local area networks (WLANs) have been deployed to the ISM band, recent researches show that LTE-Advanced needs to provide communication opportunities for WLANs. Such a coexistence relies on applying the cognitive radio technology to LTE-Advanced. However, the cognitive channel access leading to severe channel availability variation obstructs quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees in LTE-Advanced. To alleviate channel availability variation, we adopt a powerful technology known as the network multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) and propose the statistical traffic control scheme comprising the packet transmission scheduling and the admission control for LTE-Advanced to tackle critical challenges of the packet transmission coordination and the radio resources allocation in the network MIMO. Simulations results demonstrate an effective support of voice and video transmissions, thus enabling a successful coexistence with WLANs.