Multi-RAT Aggregation Through Spectrum Reallocation for Future Wireless Networks

Next generation wireless networks are becoming the main focus of the industry by putting efforts to launch beyond 4G (i.e. 5G) communication systems by 2020. Towards the 5G-system vision, the efficient spectrum aggregation by integrating multiple radio access technologies (multi-RAT) is one of the enablers to achieve the highest data rates. To this end, a multi-RAT aggregation is envisioned that can be provided using the spectrum reallocation technique. Spectrum reallocation among multi-RATs can provide spectrum opportunities for aggregation and, thus, the overall spectrum utilization and network capacity increase. Maintaining an optimum quality of experience (QoE) for users of different RATs in such an extremely complex network environment can be facilitated by such a multi-RAT aggregation (spectrum aggregation from different RATs), through spectrum reallocation. To this end, both network and functional architectures are specified and spectrum assignment solutions are proposed in this article. The goal is to efficiently increase the data rates supporting a required QoE for all users.