Backhaul-Aware and Context-Aware User-Cell Association Approach

The cell range extension (CRE) has been successfully implemented to bias the user to base station (BS) association policy in a way that achieves load balancing and increases the capacity of heterogeneous networks. The user-centric backhaul (UCB) scheme is a CRE evolution that is both backhaul-aware and user-context-aware—two constraints that are shaping the 5G network development. In this work, we formulate and solve the multi-objective optimisation problem of the UCB user-BS association. We derive analytical expressions of the ergodic throughput resulting from the UCB and, accordingly, identify the optimum association policy. The study demonstrates the gain margins that can be realised with pertinent user-cell association which is aware of the end-to-end network limitations and users requirements.