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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Title: Advanced Radio Access Network Featuring Flexible Per-UE Service Provisioning and Collaborative Mobile Edge Computing
Committee:
Dr. Xiaoli Ma, ECE, Chair, Advisor
Dr. Umakishore Ramachandran, CoC
Dr. Douglas Blough, ECE
Dr. Mary Ann Weitnauer, ECE
Dr. Gordon Stuber, ECE
Abstract: Enriched by numerous technological advances, radio access networks (RANs) strive to meet the goals of both mobile network operators (MNOs) and end-users. While MNOs seek efficiency, resiliency, reliability and flexibility of their networks, end-users are more concerned with the variety and quality of the provided, state-of-the-art, reasonably priced services. This has resulted in a complex, multi-tier, and heterogeneous RAN architecture that is severely challenged to achieve and maintain a strict reliability requirement of seven-nines (i.e., 99.99999% network up-time) and to meet ultra-reliable, low latency communications (URLLC) requirements with a latency upper bound of 1 ms end-to-end roundtrip time. Based on the flexible function split concept and data-plane programmability, this dissertation makes several key contributions to the body of knowledge on advanced, service-oriented RANs in two key core components. The first core component pertains to improving fronthaul efficiency, resiliency, flexibility, and latency performance with the cross-layer integration of Analog-Option-9 function split in a flexible fronthaul paradigm. The second core component is related to the design of lightweight, fronthaul-positioned multi-access edge computing (MEC) units to host Cooperative-URLLC applications at the edge of the fronthaul. Hence, from the vertical perspective, the dissertation provides solutions to support general URLLC applications and the Cooperative-URLLC variation by shrinking and eliminating latency sources at the Top-of-RAN and Low-RAN segments of advanced RANs.
