A Comprehensive Survey on Resource Allocation for CRAN in 5G and Beyond Networks

The diverse service requirements coming with the
advent of sophisticated applications as well as a large number
of connected devices demand for revolutionary changes in the
traditional distributed radio access network (RAN). To this end,
Cloud-RAN (CRAN) is considered as an important paradigm
to enhance the performance of the upcoming fifth generation
(5G) and beyond wireless networks in terms of capacity, latency,
and connectivity to a large number of devices. Out of several
potential enablers, efficient resource allocation can mitigate various
challenges related to user assignment, power allocation, and
spectrum management in a CRAN, and is the focus of this paper.
Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of resource allocation
schemes in a CRAN along with a detailed optimization taxonomy
on various aspects of resource allocation. More importantly,
we identity and discuss the key elements for efficient resource
allocation and management in CRAN, namely: user assignment,
remote radio heads (RRH) selection, throughput maximization,
spectrum management, network utility, and power allocation.
Furthermore, we present emerging use-cases including heterogeneous
CRAN, millimeter-wave CRAN, virtualized CRAN, Non-
Orthogonal Multiple Access (NoMA)-based CRAN and fullduplex
enabled CRAN to illustrate how their performance can
be enhanced by adopting CRAN technology. We then classify
and discuss objectives and constraints involved in CRAN-based
5G and beyond networks. Moreover, a detailed taxonomy of
optimization methods and solution approaches with different
objectives is presented and discussed. Finally, we conclude the
paper with several open research issues and future directions.