Traffic models impact on OFDMA scheduling design

This article studies the impact on the design of scheduling algorithms for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems of two traffic models described in the evaluation methodology proposals from standardization bodies: the full buffer and the finite buffer traffic models. The analysis concentrates on utility-based scheduling with an α-fair utility function for Non-Real Time (NRT) services. The results show that a gradient scheduling algorithm is able to maximize the aggregate utility over all the users when the less realistic full buffer model is adopted; but not when the finite buffer model is applied. The results also show that with the full buffer model a gradient scheduler exhibits a trade-off between average user throughput and the user throughput at 5% outage, but it does not when the more realistic finite buffer is used. Therefore, it is concluded that designs of scheduling algorithms for NRT services for OFDMA systems carried out under the full buffer model assumption may fail to provide the desired performance benefits in realistic scenarios. Based on the results presented, a recommendation on scheduling design is provided.