scheduling algorithms for multi-carrier wireless data systems
We consider the problem of scheduling wireless data in systems such as 802.16 (WIMAX). Each scheduling decision involves constructing a frame of one or more time slots. Within each time slot multiple carriers must be assigned to users. The important aspect of our problem is that a scheduler knows the channel rates across all users and all carriers whenever a scheduling decision is made. Hence there is no need to treat each carrier in complete isolation. This gives a potential for enhancing performance by allocating multiple carriers simultaneously. We analyze this problem in a situation where finite queues are fed by a data arrival process. We generalize the well-known MaxWeight algorithm for the single-carrier setting to accommodate a number of natural optimization problems in the multi-carrier setting. We state the hardness of these problems and present simple algorithmic solutions with provable performance bounds. We also validate our algorithms via numerical examples.
scheduling wimax multiple carriers wireless communication queue performance stability max weight