Radio Resource Allocation Between Massive MIMO and LTE Using SDN

Massive multiple-input, multiple-output (Ma-MIMO) is currently being deployed in the fifth generation (5G) networks. It has increased the capacity for sub-6GHz wireless access. However, the ongoing development is a critical step in enhancing this technology in order to deliver the capacity gains and the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements in 5G. Here, a novel spatial Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controller framework for radio resource allocation between a single cell long-term evolution (LTE) and a single cell Ma-MIMO is proposed and shown to further enhance performance. For the first time, an SDN-based radio resource management (SDN-RRM) framework for multiple radio access technologies (multi-RATs) is introduced. The methodologies in this framework address the interference caused by the user channel vectors as well as hardware impairments in Ma-MIMO by mainly relying on the Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) and channel state information (CSI). The handover between the LTE Access Point (AP) and the Ma-MIMO AP is decided by the wireless SDN controller. This has led to maximize the throughput and to achieve the QoS requirement. The proposed framework has been built and evaluated in real-time by using a massive Ma-MIMO testbed and an LTE testbed controlled by an SDN controller.