Network densification over space and spectrum is expected to be key to enabling the requirements of next generation mobile systems. The pitfall is that radio resource allocation becomes substantially more complex. In this paper, we propose LaSR, a practical multi-connectivity scheduler for OFDMA-based multi-RAT systems. LaSR makes optimal discrete control actions by solving a sequence of simple optimization problems that do not require prior information of traffic patterns. In marked contrast to previous work, the flexibility of our approach allows us to construct scheduling policies that achieve a good balance between system cost and utility satisfaction, while jointly operate across heterogeneous RATs, accommodate real-system requirements, and guarantee system stability. Examples of system requirements considered in this paper include (but are not limited to): constraints on how scheduling data can be encoded onto signaling protocols (e.g., LTE's DCI), delays when turning on/off radio units, or on/off cycles when using unlicensed spectrum. We evaluate our scheduler via a thorough simulation campaign in a variety of scenarios with e.g., mobile users, RATs using unlicensed spectrum (using a duty cycle access mechanism), imperfect queue state information, and constrained signaling protocol.

中文翻译：

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LaSR：适用于多 RAT OFDMA 系统的灵活多连接调度器

空间和频谱上的网络密集化有望成为满足下一代移动系统需求的关键。缺陷在于无线电资源分配变得更加复杂。在本文中，我们提出了 LaSR，这是一种适用于基于 OFDMA 的多 RAT 系统的实用多连接调度器。LaSR 通过解决一系列不需要交通模式先验信息的简单优化问题来优化离散控制动作。与以前的工作形成鲜明对比的是，我们方法的灵活性使我们能够构建在系统成本和效用满意度之间实现良好平衡的调度策略，同时跨异构 RAT 联合运行，适应实际系统要求，并保证系统稳定性。本文中考虑的系统要求示例包括（但不限于）：对如何将调度数据编码到信令协议（例如，LTE 的 DCI）上的限制、打开/关闭无线电单元时的延迟或打开/关闭周期时使用未经许可的频谱。我们通过在各种场景中的全面模拟活动评估我们的调度程序，例如移动用户、使用未授权频谱的 RAT（使用占空比访问机制）、不完善的队列状态信息和受限的信令协议。