Multiuser Scheduling and Pairing With Interference Mitigation for LTE Uplink Cellular Networks

In this paper, we investigate multiuser scheduling with joint user pairing, resource allocation, and power control (PC) in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) uplink cellular networks. We first derive the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) in spatial multiuser single-carrier frequency-division multiple-access (SC-FDMA) systems with frequency-domain minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalization. Based on this, we formulate an optimization problem as joint multiuser pairing, resource allocation, and PC to maximize the weighted throughput of the system. We then divide it into a two-step optimization problem, which is suboptimal but significantly reduces the complexity. The two-step problem first performs optimal frequency resource allocation and user pairing for a given transmit power value and then adjusts the transmit power to maximize the weighted throughput when frequency resources are allocated and users are paired. With the help of high-interference indicators exchanged among multiple base stations (BSs), we develop an iterative distributed and low-complexity algorithm to further simplify the two-step problem. System-level simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively mitigate interference and significantly outperforms the existing algorithms.