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Infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications are often combined to extend the connectivity and coverage in the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) and its applications, e.g., augmented reality, real-time parking management and online shopping. Through multi-hop I2V and V2V communications, requesting vehicles are always connected to road side units (RSUs) even when they do not reside within the RSUs’ coverage range. However, there may be not adequate network resource for several I2V and V2V links when multiple vehicles request services simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a joint frequency scheduling and power control scheme to enhance connectivity in multi-hop I2V/V2V networks. We associate I2V and V2V links with tuple-links, then formulate an NP-hard problem in which a frequency scheduler and a power controller are jointly designed for the tuple-links. The NP-hard problem is decomposed into two separate subproblems by employing the delayed column generation technique. Then, we employ a method for linear programming and a greedy algorithm to address these subproblems. Through numerical experiments with practical parameter settings, we demonstrate the proposed scheme outperforms several existing ones in terms of connectivity enhancement, measured by the service resumption number and average achieved throughput. Furthermore, the efficiency of our scheme is further enhanced when the number of available channels is high, and buffer size equipped to the requesting vehicles is large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automotive infotainment systems are expected to be first deployed on highways to service drivers travelling long distances, who are more likely to utilize the infotainment applications. In order to meet the stringent requirements of the infotainment systems, road side units (RSUs) are installed along the highway to facilitate a continuous vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) connectivity. Due to the long travelling distance and small coverage of the individual RSU, a more cost-effective solution would be to combine V2I with the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications to maintain the continuous connectivity. In this paper, we propose a new dynamic cooperation scheme that employs a dynamic forwarder selection strategy to generate an adaptive multi-hop V2V path for connectivity maintenance and throughput enhancement at a vehicle located outside of the RSU’s coverage range. For the commonly assumed scenario that all vehicles travel in the same direction and at the same speed, we develop an analytical model and derive closed-formed expressions for the average out-of-range connection time, number of service resumptions and achieved throughput. The developed analytical model provides insights into the impacts of inter-RSU distance, vehicles’ assistance willingness and the target vehicle’s buffer size to the network performance. Simulation results with practical parameter settings show that our proposed scheme is effective in improving connectivity while offering a high throughput for the target vehicle. In particular, a high vehicle density, more assistance willingness by the forwarders and a large buffer size at the target vehicle are shown to be helpful in sparse RSU deployments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the tradeoff problem between hit ratio and content quality in edge caching systems for multiuser adaptive bitrate streaming (ABS) services. A dynamic policy for cache decision and quality level selection for each ABS content during every cache cycle is proposed. Achieving this policy is NP-complete. For this, the considered problem is transformed into a nested multidimensional 0/1 knapsack optimization problem which is then resolved by a cooperative transfer learning-accelerated genetic algorithm. Performance evaluation demonstrates an adaptation of the proposed algorithm on various video stream popularity models in terms of algorithmic convergence and cache balancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In automotive infotainment systems, vehicles using the applications are serviced via continuous infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communications. Additionally, the I2V communications can be combined with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) connectivity owing to the small area covered by road side units (RSUs). However, dozens of vehicles have to compete for limited bandwidth when they request service simultaneously in the covered area. In this paper, we propose a joint scheduling and power control scheme for I2V and V2V links in the RSUs’ coverage range. Mapping the I2V and V2V links to tuple-links, we formulate a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem where frequency scheduler and power controller for those tuple-links are jointly designed. Then, we employ the delayed column generation technique and the transmission pattern definition to decompose the MINLP problem into a transmission pattern scheduling problem, as well as a power control problem. Therein, the transmission pattern scheduling problem is solved by linear programming while a greedy power control algorithm is developed. Simulation results with practical parameter settings show that our proposed scheme outperforms several conventional schemes in terms of service disruption and achieved throughput while maintaining throughput fairness among the requesting vehicles. In particular, a high channel number, a small power level number, and a large buffer size at the requesting vehicles are shown to be helpful for our proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel scheme for cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CFmMIMO) networks to support any federated learning (FL) framework. This scheme allows each instead of all the iterations of the FL framework to happen in a large-scale coherence time to guarantee a stable operation of an FL process. To show how to optimize the FL performance using this proposed scheme, we consider an existing FL framework as an example and target FL training time minimization for this framework. An optimization problem is then formulated to jointly optimize the local accuracy, transmit power, data rate, and users’ processing frequency. This mixed-timescale stochastic nonconvex problem captures the complex interactions among the training time, and transmission and computation of training updates of one FL process. By employing the online successive convex approximation approach, we develop a new algorithm to solve the formulated problem with proven convergence to the neighbourhood of its stationary points. Our numerical results confirm that the presented joint design reduces the training time by up to 55% over baseline approaches. They also show that CFmMIMO here requires the lowest training time for FL processes compared with cell-free time-division multiple access massive MIMO and collocated massive MIMO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperative vehicular networks will play a vital role in the coming years to implement various intelligent transportation related applications. Both vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications will be needed to reliably disseminate information in a vehicular network. In this regard, a roadside unit (RSU) equipped with multiple antennas can improve the network capacity. While the traditional approaches assume antennas to experience independent fading, we consider a more practical uplink scenario where antennas at the RSU experience correlated fading. In particular, we evaluate the packet error probability for two renowned antenna correlation models, i.e., constant correlation (CC) and exponential correlation (EC). We also consider intermediate cooperative vehicles for reliable communication between the source vehicle and the RSU. Here, we derive closed-form expressions for packet error probability, which help to quantify the performance variations due to fading parameter, correlation coefficients, and the number of intermediate helper vehicles. To evaluate the optimal transmit power in this network scenario, we formulate a Stackelberg game, wherein, the source vehicle is treated as a buyer and the helper vehicles are the sellers. The optimal solutions for the asking price and the transmit power are devised which maximize the utility functions of helper vehicles and the source vehicle, respectively. We verify our mathematical derivations by extensive simulations in MATLAB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose joint sequencing and scheduling optimization for uplink machine-type communication (MTC). We consider multiple energy-constrained MTC devices that transmit data to a base station following the time division multiple access (TDMA) protocol. Conventionally, the energy efficiency performance in TDMA is optimized through multi-user scheduling, i.e., changing the transmission block length allocated to different devices. In such a system, the sequence of devices for transmission, i.e., who transmits first and who transmits second, etc., has not been considered as it does not have any impact on the energy efficiency. In this work, we consider that data compression is performed before transmission and show that the multi-user sequencing is indeed important. We apply three popular energy-minimization system objectives, which differ in terms of the overall system performance and fairness among the devices. We jointly optimize both multi-user sequencing and scheduling along with the compression and transmission rate control. Our results show that multi-user sequence optimization significantly improves the energy efficiency performance of the system. Notably, it makes the TDMA-based multi-user transmissions more likely to be feasible in the lower latency regime, and the performance gain is larger when the delay bound is stringent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless network slicing (i.e., network virtualization) is one of the potential technologies for addressing the issue of rapidly growing demand in mobile data services related to 5G cellular networks. It logically decouples the current cellular networks into two entities: infrastructure providers (InPs) and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). The resources of base stations (e.g., resource blocks, transmission power, and antennas), which are owned by the InP, are shared with multiple MVNOs who need resources for their mobile users. Specifically, the physical resources of an InP are abstracted into multiple isolated network slices, which are then allocated to MVNO’s mobile users. In this paper, two-level allocation problem in network slicing is examined while enabling efficient resource utilization, inter-slice isolation (i.e., no interference among slices), and intra-slice isolation (i.e., no interference between users in the same slice). A generalized Kelly mechanism (GKM) is also designed, based on which the upper level of the resource allocation issue (i.e., between the InP and MVNOs) is addressed. The benefit of using such a resource bidding and allocation framework is that the seller (InP) does not need to know the true valuation of the bidders (MVNOs). For solving the lower level of resource allocation issue (i.e., between MVNOs and their mobile users), the optimal resource allocation is derived from each MVNO to its mobile users by using Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions. Then, bandwidth resources are allocated to the users of MVNOs. Finally, the results of the simulation are presented to verify the theoretical analysis of our proposed two-level resource allocation problem in wireless network slicing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long term evolution (LTE)-unlicensed, an extension of LTE Advanced to unlicensed spectrum, can provide high performance and seamless user experience. To reap the full benefits of the LTE-unlicensed deployment, efficient resource allocation and interference management are critical to ensuring a harmonious coexistence between LTE-unlicensed and WiFi systems. In this paper, we study a resource orchestration scheme for an LTE-unlicensed network where small cells share the same unlicensed spectrum with a WiFi system. An optimization problem for channel and power allocations is formulated to maximize the overall network utility, which is an NP-hard problem. The problem is constrained on meeting the desired data rate demands of the served small-cell users, the capacity-limited backhaul links, and the maximum tolerable interference at the WiFi access point. To solve this challenging problem, a distributed solution based on Lagrangian relaxation is proposed to assist the LTE-unlicensed network in making decisions on channel allocation and transmit power. Furthermore, low-complexity solutions are devised upon applying the one-to-one matching game theory. The simulation results with practical parameter settings show that the proposed algorithms converge to the suboptimal solution after a small number of iterations in the considered examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to maximize the spectral and energy efficiencies of a content-centric cloud radio access network (C-RAN), where users requesting the same contents are grouped together. Data are transferred from a central baseband unit to multiple remote radio heads (RRHs) equipped with local caches. The RRHs then send the received data to each group’s user. Both multicast and unicast schemes are considered for data transmission. We formulate mixed-integer nonlinear problems in which user association, RRH activation, data rate allocation, and signal precoding are jointly designed. These challenging problems are subject to minimum data rate requirements, limited fronthaul capacity, and maximum RRH transmit power. Employing successive convex quadratic programming, we propose iterative algorithms with guaranteed convergence to Fritz John solutions. Numerical results confirm that the proposed joint designs markedly improve the spectral and energy efficiencies of the considered content-centric C-RAN compared to benchmark schemes. Importantly, they show that unicasting outperforms multicasting in terms of spectral efficiency in both cache and cache-less scenarios. In terms of energy efficiency, multicasting is the best choice for the system without cache whereas unicasting is best for the system with cache. Finally, edge caching is shown to improve both spectral and energy efficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to maximize the energy efficiency of a downlink cloud radio access network (C-RAN). Here, data is transferred from a baseband unit in the core network to several remote radio heads via a set of edge routers over capacity-limited fronthaul links. The remote radio heads then send the received signals to their users via radio access links. Both data sharing and compression-based strategies are considered for fronthaul data transfer. New mixed-integer nonlinear problems are formulated, in which the ratio of network throughput and total power consumption is maximized. These challenging problem formulations include practical constraints on routing, predefined minimum data rates, fronthaul capacity, and maximum remote radio head transmit power. By employing the successive convex quadratic programming, iterative algorithms are proposed with guaranteed convergence to the Fritz John solutions of the formulated problems. Significantly, each iteration of the proposed algorithms solves only one simple convex program. Numerical examples with practical parameters confirm that the proposed joint optimization designs markedly improve the C-RAN’s energy efficiency compared to benchmark schemes. They also show that the fronthaul data-sharing strategy outperforms its compression-based counterpart in terms of energy efficiency, in both single-hop and multi-hop network scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and energy can be transferred over the same radio-frequency channel. In the power-splitting (PS) mode, they are simultaneously transmitted using the same signal by the base station (BS) and later separated at the user (UE)’s receiver by a power splitter. In the time-switching (TS) mode, they are either transmitted separately in time by the BS or received separately in time by the UE. In this paper, the BS transmit beamformers are jointly designed with either the receive PS ratios or the transmit TS ratios in a multicell network that implements wireless information and power transfer (WIPT). Imposing UE-harvested energy constraints, the design objectives include: 1) maximizing the minimum UE rate under the BS transmit power constraint, and 2) minimizing the maximum BS transmit power under the UE data rate constraint. New iterative algorithms of low computational complexity are proposed to efficiently solve the formulated difficult nonconvex optimization problems, where each iteration either solves one simple convex quadratic program or one simple second-order-cone-program. Simulation results show that these algorithms converge quickly after only a few iterations. Notably, the transmit TS-based WIPT system is not only more easily implemented but outperforms the receive PS-based WIPT system as it better exploits the beamforming design at the transmitter side. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, new strategies are devised for joint load balancing and interference management in the downlink of a heterogeneous network, where small cells are densely deployed within the coverage area of a traditional macrocell. Unlike existing work, the limited backhaul capacity at each base station (BS) is taken into account. Here, users (UEs) cannot be offloaded to any arbitrary BS, but only to ones with sufficient backhaul capacity remaining. Jointly designed with traffic offload, transmit power allocation mitigates the intercell interference to further support the quality of service of each UE. The objective here is either: 1) to maximize the network sum rate subject to minimum throughput requirements at individual UEs, or 2) to maximize the minimum UE throughput. Both formulated problems belong to the difficult class of mixed-integer nonconvex optimization problems. The inherently binary BS-UE association variables are strongly coupled with the transmit power variables, making the problems even more challenging to solve. New iterative algorithms are developed based on an exact penalty method combined with successive convex programming, where the binary BS-UE association problem and the nonconvex power allocation problem are dealt with one at a time. At each iteration of the proposed algorithms, only two simple convex problems need to be solved at the same time scale. It is proven that the algorithms improve the objective functions at each iteration and converge eventually. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms in both traffic offloading and interference mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this letter, we study resource allocation for wireless virtualized networks considering both the backhaul capacity of the infrastructure provider (InP) and the users’ quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. We focus on the profit gained by a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which is a middleman who buys physical resource from the InP, bundling them into virtual resources called slides before selling off the service providers. The objective of the MVNO is to maximize its profit while guaranteeing the backhaul constraint and users’ QoS by jointly allocating the slices and the uplink transmit power to the users. To solve the formulated mixed integer non-convex problem, we propose a distributed solution framework based on Lagrangian relaxation to a find suboptimal decision about slice and transmit power allocations. We further propose a low-complexity solution based on the concept of a matching game that does not require any global information. Numerical results are provided to evaluate the performance of the proposed schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper first considers a multicell network deployment where the base station (BS) of each cell communicates with its cell-edge user with the assistance of an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay node. Equipped with a power splitter and a wireless energy harvester, the self-sustaining relay scavenges radio-frequency (RF) energy from the received signals to process and forward information. Our aim is to develop a resource allocation scheme that jointly optimizes 1) BS transmit power, 2) received power-splitting factors for energy harvesting and information processing at the relays, and 3) relay transmit power. In the face of strong intercell interference and limited radio resources, we formulate three highly nonconvex problems with the objectives of sum-rate maximization, max-min throughput fairness, and sum-power minimization. To solve such challenging problems, we propose applying the successive convex approximation approach and devising iterative algorithms based on geometric programming and difference-of-convex-function programming. The proposed algorithms transform the nonconvex problems into a sequence of convex problems, each of which is solved very efficiently by the interior-point method. We prove that our algorithms converge to the locally optimal solutions that satisfy the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions of the original nonconvex problems. We then extend our results to the case of decode-and-forward (DF) relaying with variable timeslot durations. We show that our resource allocation solutions in this case offer better throughput than that of the AF counterpart with equal timeslot durations, albeit at higher computational complexity. Numerical results confirm that the proposed joint optimization solutions substantially improve network performance, compared with cases where the radio resource parameters are individually optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperative wireless multicast is investigated, in which a source sends multicast messages to a number of users. For a multicast message from the source, some users do not successfully receive the message (called unsuccessful users). For a successful user (who successfully receives the message from the source), we define its worst relaying channel gain as the smallest channel gain among its channel gains to all unsuccessful users. It is proposed that the successful user whose worst relaying channel gain is the highest among the worst relaying channel gains of all successful users is selected to serve as a relay. Considering that the channels in the system are independent but nonidentically distributed Rayleigh fading, we derive a closed-form outage probability expression for the proposed scheme. It is shown that the proposed scheme can achieve full diversity, and thus, having a larger number of users can improve the outage performance. Furthermore, we study the time allocation strategy that determines the durations used by the source and the selected relay for their transmissions, respectively. An approximate optimal time allocation is derived. In addition, we also investigate the case with relay selection error and the case with mixed Rayleigh/Rician fading. Simulation results verify the performance of the proposed cooperative multicast scheme and time allocation strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper designs jointly optimal linear precoders for both base stations (BSs) and users in a multiuser multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) multicell network. The BSs are full-duplexing transceivers while uplink users and downlink users (DLUs) are equipped with multiple antennas. Here, the network quality-of-service (QoS) requirement is expressed in terms of the minimum throughput at the BSs and DLUs. We consider the problems of either QoS-constrained sum throughput maximization or minimum cell throughput maximization. Due to the nonconcavity of the throughput functions, the optimal solutions of these two problems remain unknown in both half-duplexing and full-duplexing networks. The first problem has a nonconcave objective and a nonconvex feasible set, whereas the second problem has a nonconcave and nonsmooth objective. To solve such challenging optimization problems, we develop iterative low-complexity algorithms that only invoke one simple convex quadratic program at each iteration. Since the objective value is proved to iteratively increase, our path-following algorithms converge at least to the local optimum of the original nonconvex problems. Due to their guaranteed convergence, simple implementation, and low complexity, the devised algorithms lend themselves to practical precoder designs for large-scale full-duplex MU-MIMO multicell networks. Numerical results demonstrate the advantages of our successive convex quadratic programming framework over existing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a joint subchannel and power allocation algorithm for the downlink of an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) mixed femtocell/macrocell network deployment. Specifically, the total throughput of all femtocell user equipments (FUEs) is maximized while the network capacity of an existing macrocell is always protected. Towards this end, we employ an iterative approach in which OFDM subchannels and transmit powers of base stations (BS) are alternatively assigned and optimized at every step. For a fixed power allocation, we prove that the optimal policy in each cell is to give each subchannel to the user with the highest signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) on that subchannel. For a given subchannel assignment, we adopt the successive convex approximation (SCA) approach and transform the highly nonconvex power allocation problem into a sequence of convex subproblems. In the arithmetic-geometric mean (AGM) approximation, we apply geometric programming to find optimal solutions after condensing a posynomial into a monomial. On the other hand, logarithmic and \underlinedifference-of-two-\underlineconcave-functions (D.C.) approximations lead us to solving a series of convex relaxation programs. With the three proposed SCA-based power optimization solutions, we show that the overall joint subchannel and power allocation algorithm converges to some local maximum of the original design problem. While a central processing unit is required to implement the AGM approximation-based solution, each BS locally computes the optimal subchannel and power allocation for its own servicing cell in the logarithmic and D.C. approximation-based solutions. Numerical examples confirm the merits of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes two Pareto-optimal power control algorithms for a two-tier network, where newly-deployed femtocell user equipments (FUEs) operate in the licensed spectrum owned by an existing macrocell. Different from homogeneous network settings, the inevitable requirement of robustly protecting the quality-of-service (QoS) of all prioritized macrocell user equipments (MUEs) here lays a major obstacle that hinders the successful application of any available solutions. Directly targeting at this central issue, the first algorithm jointly maximizes the total utility of both user classes. Specifically, we adopt the log-barrier penalty method to effectively enforce the minimum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios (SINRs) imposed by the macrocell, paving the way for the adaptation of load-spillage solution framework. On the other hand, the second algorithm is applied to the scenario where only the sum utility of all FUEs needs to be maximized. At optimality, we show that the MUEs' prescribed SINR constraints are met with equality in this case. With the search space for Pareto-optimal SINRs substantially reduced, the second algorithm features scalability, low computational complexity, short converging time, and stable performance. We prove that the two developed algorithms converge to their respective global optima, and more importantly, they can be implemented in a distributive manner at individual links. Effective mechanisms are also available to flexibly designate the access priority to MUEs and FUEs, as well as to fairly share radio resources among users. Numerical results confirm the merits of the devised approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is known that the design of optimal transmit beamforming vectors for cognitive radio multicast transmission can be formulated as indefinite quadratic optimization programs. Given the challenges of such nonconvex problems, the conventional approach in literature is to recast them as convex semidefinite programs (SDPs) together with rank-one constraints. Then, these nonconvex and discontinuous constraints are dropped allowing for the realization of a pool of relaxed candidate solutions, from which various randomization techniques are utilized with the hope to recover the optimal solutions. However, it has been shown that such approach fails to deliver satisfactory outcomes in many practical settings, wherein the determined solutions are found to be unacceptably far from the actual optimality. On the contrary, we in this contribution tackle the aforementioned optimal beamforming problems differently by representing them as SDPs with additional reverse convex (but continuous) constraints. Nonsmooth optimization algorithms are then proposed to locate the optimal solutions of such design problems in an efficient manner. Our thorough numerical examples verify that the proposed algorithms offer almost global optimality whilst requiring relatively low computational load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new design formulations that aim at optimizing the performance of an orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA) ad hoc cognitive radio network through joint subcarrier assignment and power allocation. Aside from an important constraint on the tolerable interference induced to primary networks, to efficiently implement spectrum-sharing control within the unlicensed network, the optimization problems considered here strictly enforce upper and lower bounds on the total amount of temporarily available bandwidth that is granted to individual secondary users. These new requirements are of particular relevance in cognitive radio settings, where the spectral activities of primary users are highly dynamic, leaving little opportunity for secondary access. A dual decomposition framework is then developed for two criteria (throughput maximization and power minimization), which gives rise to the realization of distributed solutions. Because the proposed distributed protocols require very limited cooperation among the participating network elements, they are particularly applicable to ad hoc cognitive networks, where centralized processing and control are certainly inaccessible. In this paper, we recommend that the network collaboration is made possible through the implementation of virtual timers at individual secondary users and through the exchange of pertinent information over a common reserved channel. It is shown that not only is the computational complexity of the devised algorithms affordable but that the performance of these algorithms in practical scenarios attains the actual global optimum as well. The potential of the proposed approaches is thoroughly verified by asymptotic complexity analysis and numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes distributed joint power and admission control algorithms for the management of interference in two-tier femtocell networks, where the newly-deployed femtocell users (FUEs) share the same frequency band with the existing macrocell users (MUEs) using code-division multiple access (CDMA). As the owner of the licensed radio spectrum, the MUEs possess strictly higher access priority over the FUEs; thus, their quality-of-service (QoS) performance, expressed in terms of the prescribed minimum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), must be maintained at all times. For the lower-tier FUEs, we explicitly consider two different design objectives, namely, throughput-power tradeoff optimization and soft QoS provisioning. With an effective dynamic pricing scheme combined with admission control to indirectly manage the cross-tier interference, the proposed schemes lend themselves to distributed algorithms that mainly require local information to offer maximized net utility of individual users. The approach employed in this work is particularly attractive, especially in view of practical implementation under the limited backhaul network capacity available for femtocells. It is shown that the proposed algorithms robustly support all the prioritized MUEs with guaranteed QoS requirements whenever feasible, while allowing the FUEs to optimally exploit the remaining network capacity. The convergence of the developed solutions is rigorously analyzed, and extensive numerical results are presented to illustrate their potential advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]