sGSA: An SDMA-OFDMA scheduling solution

Future wireless networks need to address the predicted growth in mobile traffic volume, expected to have an explosive growth in the next five years mainly driven by video and web applications. Transmission schemes based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) combined with Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) techniques are key promising technologies to increase current spectral efficiencies. A Joint SDMA-OFDMA system has to allocate resources in time, frequency and space dimensions to different mobile stations, resulting in a highly complex resource allocation problem. In this paper we take a comprehensive view at the complete SDMA-OFDMA scheduling challenge and propose a SDMA-OFDMA Greedy Scheduling Algorithm (sGSA) for WiMAX systems. The proposed solution considers feasibility constraints in order to allocate resources for multiple mobile stations on a per packet basis by using i) a cluster-based SDMA grouping algorithm and ii) a computationally efficient frame layout scheme which allocates multiple SDMA groups per frame according to their packet QoS utility. A performance evaluation of the proposed sGSA solution as compared to state of the art solutions is provided, based on a comprehensive WiMAX simulation tool.