Cloud Based mmWave WLANs: Architectural Paradigms, Proposals and Perspectives

With the explosive growth of data traffic over wireless access networks, the use of the millimeter- wave band becomes inevitable due to the spectrum scarcity in lower frequencies and the availability of large chunks of underutilized spectrum in this band. The rapid evolution of wireless technologies and co-existence of legacy and emerging wireless infrastructures are leading to complex network operation scenarios. For instance, to achieve the orchestration of co-existed networks and a large number of devices, dynamic operations of conventional distributed WLANs will become extremely challenging. Various technologies such as dense network deployment, dual-band cooperation, C-RAN, and AI, which have been developed for cellular networks, could be adopted to achieve intelligent and efficient WLAN operations. To meet the future traffic requirements of evolving WLAN, this article first outlines the architecture of future WLAN and the corresponding challenges. A centralized control architecture, named WLAN C-RAN, is proposed to achieve orchestrated coordination and improved network throughput. Critical technologies of WLAN C-RAN, for example, dual-band protocol stack and resource management schemes are also developed, and the simulation results demonstrate the improvements on system capacity. Finally, we present some potential challenges and feasible solutions for the future WLAN.