  Software-defined networking (SDN) provides an agile and programmable way to
optimize radio access networks via a control-data plane separation.
Nevertheless, reaping the benefits of wireless SDN hinges on making optimal use
of the limited wireless fronthaul capacity. In this work, the problem of
fronthaul-aware resource allocation and user scheduling is studied. To this
end, a two-timescale fronthaul-aware SDN control mechanism is proposed in which
the controller maximizes the time-averaged network throughput by enforcing a
coarse correlated equilibrium in the long timescale. Subsequently, leveraging
the controller's recommendations, each base station schedules its users using
Lyapunov stochastic optimization in the short timescale, i.e., at each time
slot. Simulation results show that significant network throughput enhancements
and up to 40% latency reduction are achieved with the aid of the SDN
controller. Moreover, the gains are more pronounced for denser network
deployments.
