Portfolio Theory Application for 5G Heterogeneous Cloud-RAN Infrastructure

Abstract

Mobile telecommunication infrastructure has been considered as the deployment of predefined network components at the end-user access. The advent of novel 5G technologies allows the re-conception of the traditional model through which network services are offered to network User Equipment (UE) devices, through the introduction of new network architectures. Cloud-based Radio Access Networks (Cloud-RANs) add to the network flexibility, allowing on-demand instantiation of new base stations. The introduction of heterogeneous technologies in the cells, and the fact that mobile devices are equipped with diverse wireless interfaces create fertile ground for the operators to select the technologies through which each UE in a cell is served, towards maximizing the perceived QoE. In this direction, we apply the Portfolio Theory, stemming from the finance field, to reveal that the appropriate combinations of networking technologies and traffic allocation can achieve the demanded throughput. In this work we provide a detailed description of this architecture and apply the Portfolio Theory for selecting the appropriate combinations of radio access technologies, towards achieving minimum volatility in throughput performance of a heterogeneous Cloud-RAN. We investigate our approach with proof-of-concept testbed experiments that showcase the applicability and performance of Portfolio Theory in real wireless environment conditions. © 2020 IEEE.