Centralized Joint Cell Selection and Scheduling for Improved URLLC Performance

A centralized joint cell selection and scheduling policy for ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) is studied in this paper for the 5G new radio (NR). A low complexity cell association and scheduling algorithm is proposed, while maintaining attractive performance benefits. By being able to centrally control from which cells the different users are instantaneously scheduled, we show that the undesirable queuing delays for URLLC traffic can be significantly reduced. 

The proposed solution is evaluated in a realistic multi-cell, multi-user, dynamic network setting in line with the 5G NR system design specifications, and calibrated against 3GPP NR assumptions. The presented performance results show promising gains, where the proposed centralized solution can accommodate 38% higher traffic offered load than a traditional distributed network implementation, while still fulfilling the challenging reliability and latency targets for URLLC.