Delay-Aware Optimization Framework for Proportional Flow Delay Differentiation in Millimeter-Wave Backhaul Cellular Networks

The next generation of cellular networks (5G) will provide dense millimeter-wave backhaul architectures to wirelessly forward heterogeneous data traffic in a multihop fashion. In this paper, we present a general optimization framework for the design of delay-aware (DA) policies in multihop wireless networks, providing proportional prioritization of traffic. We develop three throughput-optimal DA algorithms (BP-DA, BPE-DA, and HD-DA) for joint dynamic routing and dynamic link-scheduling problems with good to optimal average network delay performance. Our DA framework considers both the classical back-pressure (BP) and the recent heat-diffusion (HD) algorithms, since queue back-pressure algorithms are being considered for mmWave backhauling management. We provide analytical results for the throughput-optimality of the proposed policies and average delay minimization of HD-DA within the class of DA policies. These are policies that make decisions at each timeslot based only on current channel state, current network queue sizes, and flow priorities. We discuss the applications of our proposals to backhaul management of mmWave cellular networks in light of recent works in the literature. Finally, we present extensive simulations of our proposed algorithms, which confirm the theoretical results and show how the algorithms effectively differentiate data traffic in terms of delay while satisfying flow rate requirements.