A dynamic resource allocation scheme for guaranteed bit rate services in OFDMA networks

While several previous works have considered the problem of resource (including subcarrier and power) allocation in multicell orthogonal frequency division multiple access networks, only a few contributions have explicitly taken into account the elastic nature of data applications. In this work, each user is associated with a minimum and maximum resource block requirement and the resource allocation problem consists of maximizing the overall throughput such that these requirements are met. We propose a hybrid method that partitions this problem into a centralized and a distributed algorithm that balances between maximizing the overall throughput and being feasible in real systems. By means of simulations we compare four resource allocation strategies that represent various degrees of multicell coordination and taking advantage of multi-user diversity. We find that a feasible dynamic coordination combined with intra-cell multi-user diversity provides large throughput gains compared with non-coordinated schemes or schemes that would limit the degree of freedom of multi-user diversity.