Utility-oriented resource allocation scheme in LTE-WLAN heterogeneous networks

Abstract

In this paper, a utility-oriented resource allocation scheme (UORA) is proposed to improve network efficiency for LTE-WLAN heterogeneous networks. Isolated resources such as OFDMA subcarriers and WLAN time slots, which are always ignored in existing schemes, are considered in the proposed UORA scheme to give guidance on engineering practice. Aiming at improving user satisfaction, UORA scheme also considers various traffic characteristics and dynamic transmission rate. To guarantee high overall average level of user QoS, the resource allocation problem is formulated as an constrained optimization problem to maximize the total user utility but not total transmission rate. Based on optimization theory, a heuristic iterative algorithm is constructed to solve the problem. Numerical simulation is also adopted to prove the performance enhancement of our proposed UORA scheme compared with previous ones.