Utility maximisation in channel-aware and queue-aware orthogonal frequency division multiple access scheduling based on arrival rate control

A channel-aware and queue-aware (CAQA) scheduling scheme is proposed for the downlink of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) networks. The scheduling scheme cooperates with a rate control policy, which controls arrival rates to the base station queues. The network resource allocation is formulated as a utility maximisation problem, which is decomposed into a CAQA OFDMA scheduling problem and a rate control problem. The authors decompose the scheduling problem into subproblems of rate allocation to subcarriers and propose a joint subcarrier assignment and rate allocation (JSARA) solution for the problem. Simulation is conducted to evaluate the performance of JSARA in terms of throughput, queue length and dropping probability. In addition, JSARA performance gain in allocating users' arrival rates and achieved aggregate utility, in cooperation with a rate control policy, is investigated.