Deployment and Management of Small Heterogeneous Cells for 5G

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2016

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Deployment and Management of Small Heterogeneous Cells for 5G.

To tackle the 1000X mobile data challenge, including high-bit service provisioning and ubiquitous-anywhere anytime-service provisioning, in the near future, the research of deployment and management
of small heterogeneous cells towards the 5th generation of mobile cellular networks have been extensively investigated currently in both academia and industry. The network area capacity can be improved hugely by the increasing level of network densification at different layers of the overall heterogeneous radio access system, together with various techniques, such as massive MIMO (multiple-in multiple-out) antenna, enhanced D2D and Millimeter wave communication. For example, characterized as networks with very short inter-site distances capable of ensuring low interference levels during communications, the ultra-dense networks are expected to operate in the millimeter-wave band, where wide bandwidth signals needed can be designed. The Massive MIMO technology assists the antenna transmission power to be reduced, and high-gain beamforming helps to mitigate path loss and ensure low interference.

With the densification of small cells, the traffic requirements within each cell will fluctuate noticeably, so that the traffic distribution and user behavior model in the spatial and temporary, need to be studied based on different deployment and management scenarios, for example, software-defined network (SDN), control and user plane splitting (C/U splitting), network function Virtualization (NFV). Based on these models, the new technologies, such as flexible duplex, flexible backhaul, cell virtualization, symmetric UL/DL and D2D, are also studying towards an integration next wireless systems. Furthermore, It is envisioned that 5G networks will be mostly for data centric applications rather than voice centric applications, therefore, one of the main consideration the operators are faced with today is how to build a novel network architecture, reducing the control and signaling overhead and reducing the power consumption while maintaining the quality-of-experience of terminals, for both high-quality video services and the low-data-rate type of services, e.g., Machine-type Communications (MTC). Rethinking the systems architecture for “5G” in various deployment and management of small heterogeneous cell, supporting ultra-reliable and low latency communications, is need to support variety of new services, e.g., automotive, health, energy and manufacturing. Therefore, designing ultra-dense cellular networks using new transmission technologies is promising and challenging.

This Special Section in IEEE Access has intended to review the economic opportunities, examine the technical challenges, and discuss possible paths to regulatory solutions. It will also bring together academic and industrial researchers to identify and discuss technical challenges and recent results related to the ultra-dense deployment of ultra-dense small heterogeneous cells for 5G technologies and forecast the future trends. The topics of interest for the special issue include, but are not limited to:

  • Small cell deployment in HetNet
  • Management of heterogeneous cells for 5G
  • Big data-enabled optimization in heterogeneous 5G networks
  • SDN based deployment and management of small heterogeneous cells
  • Resource allocation in ultra-dense network (UDN)
  • Traffic distribution and user behavior modelling in typical scenarios in UDN networks
  • Network architecture and protocols
  • Backhaul traffic management in ultra-dense cellular networks
  • Energy efficiency technologies
  • Interference management in ultra-dense cells and heterogeneous networks
  • Hyper transceivers design for cooperative ultra-dense cells

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

Associate Editor: Muhammad Ali Imran, University of Surrey, UK

Guest Editors:
1. Xing Zhang, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), China
2. Yan Zhang, Simula Research Laboratory and University of Oslo, Norway
3. Inkyu Lee, Korea University, Korea
4. Daniel B. da Costa, Federal University of Ceara, Brazil
5. Ali Imran, University of Oklahoma, USA

IEEE Access Editor in Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: Bora M. Onat, Managing Editor, IEEE Access (Phone: (732) 562-6036, ieeeaccess@ieee.org)