Performance Comparison Between Puncturing and Superposition Techniques Across Multiple Antenna Sites in Centralized RANs for the Coexistence of eMBB and URLLC

As fifth-generation wireless networks aim to meet the growing demand for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), while ensuring ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC), efficient resource-allocation strategies have become a critical research focus. Puncturing and superposition are promising techniques to satisfy the high data rate of eMBB, as well as the strict latency and high reliability of URLLC. In this study, we extend conventional puncturing and superposition techniques, originally applied in single-cell environments, to multi-antenna environments such as centralized radio access network (C-RAN) systems. Multi-antenna coordination facilitates puncturing across antennas and enables superposition by reusing the frequencies across antennas. However, puncturing and superposition for URLLC cause the degradation of eMBB data rates, and the superiority of either scheme depends on the effect on ongoing eMBB transmissions and the effect of interference. We provide a system model for resource allocation of puncturing and superposition in C-RAN where eMBB and URLLC coexist and formulate the optimization problem of minimizing the degradation of the eMBB data rate due to URLLC transmission by puncturing and superposition, respectively. Through computer simulations, we revealed the performance differences between puncturing and superposition techniques under various conditions. The results showed that dynamic selection between puncturing and superposition techniques based on real-time network conditions can enhance resource-allocation efficiency in C-RAN systems.