Data Traffic Fair Scheduling for Multi-user OFDM System Based on Heuristic Genetic Algorithm

We consider scheduling and resource allocation for the downlink of an OFDM-based wireless network. During each time-slot the scheduling and resource allocation problem involves selecting a subset of users for transmission, determining the assignment of available sub-carriers to selected users, and for each sub-carrier determining the transmission power and the coding and modulation scheme used. In this paper, we propose a heuristic genetic scheduling algorithm to maximize system throughput while providing a level of fairness among users for non-real-time data traffic in the downlink of a multi-user OFDM system. We first formulate the resource allocation problem for rate, power, and sub-carrier allocation as an integer program in the context of a utility-based scheduling. Next, we present a heuristic genetic algorithm for the problem. Through the simulation, we show that the proposed scheme performs better than other schemes in terms of both system throughput and fairness among users