Load balancing in 5G cloud radio access networks supporting IoT communications for smart communities

Internet of Things (IoT) communication is vital for the developing of smart communities. The rapid growth of IoT depends on reliable wireless networks. The evolving 5G cellular system addresses this challenge by adopting cloud computing technology in Radio Access Network (RAN); namely Cloud RAN or CRAN. CRAN enables better scalability, flexibility, and performance that allows 5G to provide connectivity for the vast volume of IoT devices envisioned for smart cities. This work investigates the load balance (LB) problem in CRAN, with the goal of reducing latencies experienced by IoT communications. Eight practical LB algorithms are studied and evaluated in CRAN environment, based on real cellular network traffic characteristics provided by Nokia Research. Experiment results on queue-length analysis show that the simple, light-weight queue-based LB is almost as effectively as the much more complex waiting-time-based LB. We believe that this study is significant in enabling 5G networks for providing IoT communication backbone in the emerging smart communities; it also has wide applications in other distributed systems.