Adapting Downlink Power in Fronthaul-Constrained Hierarchical Software-Defined RANs

Abstract The proof-of-concept software-defined radio access network (RAN) is not flexible enough due to the inherent delay and the necessity of high-capacity fronthaul links. We are hence motivated to propose a hierarchical software-defined RAN architecture, over which the base stations (BSs) are abstracted into multiple virtual local controllers while these local controllers are administered by a high-level controller. Under such a hierarchical network architecture, we particularly investigate in this paper how to adapt the BS transmit power over a long term according to the network dynamics under the constraints of mobile user queue stability and limited fronthaul capacity. We first formu…