A cell outage management framework for dense heterogeneous networks

Onireti, O. , Zoha, A. , Moysen, J., Imran, A., Giupponi, L., Imran, M. A. and Abu-Dayya, A. (2016) A cell outage management framework for dense heterogeneous networks. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 65(4), pp. 2097-2113. (doi: 10.1109/TVT.2015.2431371)

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel cell outage management (COM) framework for heterogeneous networks with split control and data planes-a candidate architecture for meeting future capacity, quality-of-service, and energy efficiency demands. In such an architecture, the control and data functionalities are not necessarily handled by the same node. The control base stations (BSs) manage the transmission of control information and user equipment (UE) mobility, whereas the data BSs handle UE data. An implication of this split architecture is that an outage to a BS in one plane has to be compensated by other BSs in the same plane. Our COM framework addresses this challenge by incorporating two distinct cell outage detection (COD) algorithms to cope with the idiosyncrasies of both data and control planes. The COD algorithm for control cells leverages the relatively larger number of UEs in the control cell to gather large-scale minimization-of-drive-test report data and detects an outage by applying machine learning and anomaly detection techniques. To improve outage detection accuracy, we also investigate and compare the performance of two anomaly-detecting algorithms, i.e., k-nearest-neighbor- and local-outlier-factor-based anomaly detectors, within the control COD. On the other hand, for data cell COD, we propose a heuristic Grey-prediction-based approach, which can work with the small number of UE in the data cell, by exploiting the fact that the control BS manages UE-data BS connectivity and by receiving a periodic update of the received signal reference power statistic between the UEs and data BSs in its coverage. The detection accuracy of the heuristic data COD algorithm is further improved by exploiting the Fourier series of the residual error that is inherent to a Grey prediction model. Our COM framework integrates these two COD algorithms with a cell outage compensation (COC) algorithm that can be applied to both planes. Our COC solution utilizes an actor-critic-based reinforcement learning algorithm, which optimizes the capacity and coverage of the identified outage zone in a plane, by adjusting the antenna gain and transmission power of the surrounding BSs in that plane. The simulation results show that the proposed framework can detect both data and control cell outage and compensate for the detected outage in a reliable manner.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the National Priorities Research Program under Grant 5-1047-2437 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Zoha, Dr Ahmed and Imran, Professor Muhammad and Onireti, Oluwakayode
• Authors: Onireti, O., Zoha, A., Moysen, J., Imran, A., Giupponi, L., Imran, M. A., and Abu-Dayya, A.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
• Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
• Publisher: IEEE
• ISSN: 0018-9545
• Published Online: 08 May 2015
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2015 IEEE
• First Published: First published in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 65(4): 2094-2113
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy