Scheduling as an important cross-layer operation for emerging broadband wireless systems

Cross-layer scheduling is a promising solution for improving the efficiency of emerging broadband wireless systems. In this tutorial, various cross-layer design approaches are organized into three main categories namely air interface-centric, user-centric and route-centric and the general characteristics of each are discussed. Thereafter, by focusing on the air interface-centric approach, it is shown that the resource allocation problem can be formulated as an optimization problem with a certain objective function and some particular constraints. This is illustrated with the aid of a customer-provider model from the field of economics. Furthermore, the possible future evolution of scheduling techniques is described based on the characteristics of traffic and air interface in emerging broadband wireless systems. Finally, some further challenges are identified.