Fairness-aware resource partition and routing in relay-enhanced orthogonal-frequency-division-multiple-accessing cellular networks

Unlike conventional cellular networks where the evolved Node B (eNB) performs centralised scheduling, future relay-enhanced cellular (REC) networks allow relay nodes (RNs) to schedule users independently. This decentralised nature of the REC networks brings about challenges to maintain fairness. In this study, we formulate the generalised proportional fair (GPF) resource allocation problem, where resource partition and routing are included as part of the overall radio resource management aiming to provide fairness across all users served by the eNB and its subordinate RNs. Although the traditional proportional fair scheduling algorithm is executed independently at the eNB and each RN to maintain local fairness, we propose efficient resource partition and routing algorithms to maintain global fairness by optimising the GPF objective for the whole relay-enhanced cell. Through system level simulations, the proposed algorithms are evaluated and compared with both non-relaying and relaying systems with benchmark resource partition and routing algorithms. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithms outperform the existing algorithms in providing a better trade-off between system throughput and fairness performance.