Multiconnectivity in Multicellular, Multiuser Systems: A Matching-Based Approach

Wireless communication systems have been evolving since the first generation. With the fifth generation of wireless systems, not only the evolutionary aspect of increased data rates is tackled but also the revolutionary aspect. Here, emerging use cases such as massive machine-type communication and ultrareliable low-latency communication will play a crucial role. Within this context, applications with stringent latency and reliability requirements are emerging. Wireless reliability is understood as successfully transmitting the desired amount of data within a given time. Diversity techniques, such as multiconnectivity, are potential solutions to achieve stringent reliability requirements. However, in a multi-user scenario, in which resources are shared, this might not always be possible. In this paper, we discuss the feasibility of various multiconnectivity approaches and propose a matching theory-based algorithm together with a novel scheduler aiming to guarantee the reliability requirements of as many users as possible in a multicellular, multiuser system. System-level simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves 100% reliability for the fifth-percentile users in a highly loaded system. The maximum gain of fifth-percentile user throughput as compared to a static multiconnectivity approach is 150%.