A Deep-Learning-based Link Adaptation Design for eMBB/URLLC Multiplexing in 5G NR

URLLC is an important use case in 5G NR that targets at 1-ms level delay-sensitive applications. For fast transmission of URLLC traffic, a promising mechanism is to multiplex URLLC traffic into a channel occupied by eMBB service through preemptive puncturing. Although preemptive puncturing can offer transmission resource to URLLC on demand, it will adversely affect throughput and link reliability performance of eMBB service. To mitigate such an adverse impact, a possible approach is to employ link adaptation (LA) through MCS selection for eMBB users. In this paper, we study the problem of maximizing eMBB throughput through MCS selection while ensuring link reliability requirement for eMBB users. We present DELUXE - the first successful design and implementation based on deep learning to address this problem. DELUXE involves a novel mapping method to compress high-dimensional eMBB transmission information into a low-dimensional representation with minimal information loss, a learning method to learn and predict the block-error rate (BLER) under each MCS, and a fast calibration method to compensate errors in BLER predictions. For proof of concept, we implement DELUXE through a link-level 5G NR simulator. Extensive experimental results show that DELUXE can successfully maintain the desired link reliability for eMBB while striving for spectral efficiency. In addition, our implementation can meet the real-time requirement (<; 125 μs) in 5G NR.