Dynamic reconfiguration and efficient resource allocation for indoor broadband wireless networks

A combined frequency and time division multiple access (FDMA/TDMA) mechanism for implementing an indoor broadband radio access system at 5 GHz is described Farnham (see IEEE ICUPC, p.918-22, 1997 and Broadband Wireless Communications, Springer-Verlag, l998). The main feature of this approach is that real-time co-ordinated prioritised time slot assignments are performed in clusters of access points (APs), which share the same carrier frequency. Re-use partitioning is performed in time by simultaneously assigning time slots within a cluster of APs based on the expected level of interference and in frequency by allowing the carriers to be re-used by clusters of APs that are sufficiently isolated. The AP cluster configuration is important for efficient utilisation of the scarce radio resources. If the clusters remain fixed then the system can support uneven load distributions within each cluster, but is not able to adapt to supporting load distributions which are unevenly distributed between clusters or to interference from other systems. In this paper a method of dynamically reconfiguring the clusters to support changes in the geographic load distribution over time and external interference is investigated. The performance in the presence of small scale signal fading is obtained and compared.