Data traffic scheduling algorithm for multiuser OFDM system with adaptive modulation considering fairness among users

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is regarded as a very promising digital modulation technique for achieving high rate transmission. However, the increasing number of wireless data users and the deployment of broadband wireless networks have brought about issues of fairness among users and system throughput. In this paper, we propose an efficient scheduling algorithm to maximize system throughput while providing a level of fairness among users for non-real-time data traffic in the downlink of a multiuser OFDM system. We establish a practical scheduling procedure to implement our scheme considering fairness among users and also formulate the resource allocation problem for rate, power, and subcarrier allocation as an integer program that maximizes system throughput. Next, we present a computationally efficient heuristic algorithm for a problem based on the Lagrangian relaxation procedure. Through the computing simulation, we show that the proposed scheme performs better than other schemes in terms of both system throughput and fairness among users. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.