Decentralized Deep Reinforcement Learning-based Dynamic Uplink Band Selection in Enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access

Enhanced licensed-assisted access (eLAA) is an operational mode that allows the use of unlicensed band to support long-term evolution (LTE) service via carrier aggregation technology. The extension of additional bandwidth is beneficial to meet the demands of the growing mobile traffic. In the uplink eLAA, which is prone to unexpected interference from WiFi access points, resource scheduling by the base station, and then performing listen-before-talk by the users can seriously affect the resource utilization. In this paper, we present a decentralized deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based approach in which each user independently learns dynamic band selection strategy that maximizes its own rate. Through extensive simulations, we showed that the proposed DRL-based band selection scheme not only improves resource utilization, but also guarantee certain minimum Quality of Service (QoS).