Matching-Based Resource Allocation for Multi-User URLLC in Unlicensed Frequency Bands

One of the key services of the upcoming fifth generation (5G) of wireless communications systems and beyond is considered to be ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC). However, enabling URLLC is challenging due to the strict requirements in terms of latency and reliability. Focusing on the demands of wireless factory automation, the scope of this work is to discuss conflicting priorities of resource allocation for URLLC networks such as matching stability, fairness between multiple users, and maximum throughput. Since wireless factory automation requires also cost-efficiency and global applicability, the unlicensed 5 GHz ISM band is modelled as an interference-limited multi-connectivity system. In the context of stable matching the influence of the parameter quota is studied, characterizing the maximum number of channels for any user. In order to link stable matching with minimum rate requirements, a new resource allocation algorithm is proposed. Selected approaches are applied to an exemplary scenario and their performance is comparatively evaluated to analyze the trade-offs between achieved maximum sum rates and fairness, i.e., minimum per user rate.