Opportunistic Scheduling for OFDM Systems with Fairness Constraints

Abstract We consider the problem of downlink scheduling for multiuser orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Opportunistic scheduling exploits the time-varying, location-dependent channel conditions to achieve multiuser diversity. Previous work in this area has focused on single-channel systems. Multiuser OFDM allows multiple users to transmit simultaneously over multiple channels. In this paper, we develop a rigorous framework to study opportunistic scheduling in multiuser OFDM systems. We derive optimal opportunistic scheduling policies under three QoS/fairness constraints for multiuser OFDM systems—temporal fairness, utilitarian fairness, and minimum-performance guarantees. Our scheduler decides not only which time slot, but also which subcarrier to allocate to each user. Implementing these optimal policies involves solving a maximal bipartite matching problem at each scheduling time. To solve this problem efficiently, we apply a modified Hungarian algorithm and a simple suboptimal algorithm. Numerical results demonstrate that our schemes achieve significant improvement in system performance compared with nonopportunistic schemes.