Abstract
Due to the exponential increase in wireless devices and a diversification of
network services, unprecedented challenges, such as managing heterogeneous data
traffic and massive access demands, have arisen in next-generation wireless
networks. To address these challenges, there is a pressing need for the
evolution of multiple access schemes with advanced transceivers.
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication emerges as a promising solution by
offering substantial bandwidth and accommodating massive connectivities.
Nevertheless, the inherent signaling directionality and susceptibility to
blockages pose significant challenges for deploying multiple transceivers with
narrow antenna beams. Consequently, beam management becomes imperative for
practical network implementations to identify and track the optimal transceiver
beam pairs, ensuring maximum received power and maintaining high-quality access
service. In this context, we propose a Contextual Combinatorial Beam Management
(CCBM) framework tailored for mmWave wireless networks. By leveraging advanced
online probing techniques and integrating predicted contextual information,
such as dynamic link qualities in spatial-temporal domain, CCBM aims to jointly
optimize transceiver pairing and beam selection while balancing the network
load. This approach not only facilitates multiple access effectively but also
enhances bandwidth utilization and reduces computational overheads for
real-time applications. Theoretical analysis establishes the asymptotically
optimality of the proposed approach, complemented by extensive evaluation
results showcasing the superiority of our framework over other state-of-the-art
schemes in multiple dimensions.