Distributed power allocation and scheduling for parallel channel wireless networks

In this paper we develop distributed approaches for power allocation and scheduling in wireless access networks. We consider a model where users communicate over a set of parallel multi-access fading channels, as in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system. At each time, each user must decide which channels to transmit on and how to allocate its power over these channels. We give distributed power allocation and scheduling policies, where each user’s actions depend only on knowledge of their own channel gains. Assuming a collision model for each channel, we characterize an optimal policy which maximizes the system throughput and also give a simpler sub-optimal policy. Both policies are shown to have the optimal scaling behavior in several asymptotic regimes. Xiangping Qin received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University,China in 1998 and 2000 respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2005. She is currently a senior engineer at Samsung Information Systems America. In 2005/2006, She was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. In 2004, she was an intern on the technical staff of Intel Cooperate Technology Laboratory, Oregon. Her primary research interests include wireless communication and data networks. She is the recipient of aWalter P. Murphy Fellowship for the 2000/2001 academic year from the ECE Department at Northwestern University. Randall A. Berry received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1993 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996 and 2000, respectively. In September 2000, he joined the faculty of Northwestern University, where he is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In 1998 he was on the technical staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the Advanced Networks Group, where he worked on optical network protocols. His current research interests include wireless communication, data networks and information theory. Dr. Berry is the recipient of a 2003 NSF CAREER award and the 2001-02 best teacher award from the ECE Department at Northwestern. He is currently serving on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications and is a guest editor of an upcoming special issue of IEEE Transactions on Information Theory on “Relaying and Cooperation in Networks.”