Survey of Channel Allocation Algorithms Research for Cellular Systems

Abstract

In recent years, we have witnessed a huge interest in the study of channel allocation and handoff strategies for cellular systems to ensure continuous services that guarantee QoS to mobile users. In this paper, we have a detailed discussion of different categories of wireless channel allocation schemes. The basic purpose of the study is to provide a comprehensive review of different categories of channel allocation algorithms in cellular systems and to recommend future directions of research in the area. The paper gives a survey of published papers for discussing channel allocation schemes for cellular system. The QoS is always a major concern for the services offered through cellular systems and it is observed that there are always trade-offs among various parameters of the QoS of these services. There are many published papers which have taken care of different QoS parameters such as call blocking probability, call dropping probability along with other performance parameters. This paper provides details of the different categories of channel allocation schemes including static channel allocation, dynamic channel allocation and hybrid channel allocation studied in literature. Also in this paper, we explore the different channel allocation strategies, including the scenarios in which channel allocation strategies based on centralized channel control, distributed channel control, mutual exclusion algorithms and genetic algorithms, are used. Also, we have summarizes trade-offs between different channel allocation schemes in terms of their complexity and performance. In this paper, channel allocation in different context of complex situations such as the ones arising in offering multimedia based services and other arising in the channel allocation for mobile base station systems and use of power management in channel allocation are explained. This paper also examines different handoff handling provision and prioritization schemes proposed in the literature for cellular systems.