Due to the dense small cell deployment to cope with the increased data traffic of fifth generation (5G) networks, the direct backhaul (BH) connection of all small cells to the core network becomes challenging. To that end, millimeter wave (mmWave) technology is a promising solution for cost-efficient high capacity small cell BH links. However, due to the severe signal attenuation at high frequencies, mmWave can provide good coverage only for short distances, thus favoring a multihop 5G BH architecture. In this context, where BH is expected to play a key role, traditional problems such as user association that impact both the network and user performance call for BH-aware strategies. Hence, in this paper, we study the user association problem aiming at the joint energy and spectrum efficiency maximization of the network, without compromising the user quality of service. The problem is formulated as a generalized assignment problem, which considers the capacity and energy consumption both in the access network and BH links. Provided that the considered problem is shown to be NP-hard, we employ optimization techniques to obtain an upper bound on system performance. We also propose a low complexity algorithm, which is shown to outperform the state-of-the-art while achieving near-optimal performance.

Peer Reviewed