QoS-Aware Distributed Resource Allocation for Hybrid FDMA/TDMA Multicellular Networks

This paper considers a multicellular network using a hybrid FDMA/TDMA medium access with a complete reuse of the resources among neighboring cells. The resource allocation mechanism runs in a completely distributed way, tracking the traffic dynamics, adapting itself to the channel and interference condition and provid- ing QoS differentiation among different traffic classes. The proposed algorithm performs both spectral efficiency optimization, by exploiting information on channel and interference, and traffic differentiation at MAC level, by means of a weighted share of the bandwidth among different priority traffic flows. The traffic differentiation mechanism, which is the original contribution presented in this paper, works locally on each cell but exploits values of interference measurements in order to acquire information on the neighboring cells load, with the goal of implementing a collaborative algorithm. Interference measurement is the only form of communication among cells and no explicit signalling is assumed. The aim of the proposed algorithm is to provide traffic differentiation at the MAC level in a global perspective, where the share of the bandwidth inside a cell depends also on the priority of the traffic in the surrounding cells. Finally, the algorithm is tested and validate on a multicellular network with a static and a time–variant channel, thus confirming its behavior.