On the Optimal Scheduling of Uplink Resources in OFDMA-Based Wireless Networks

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is used for both 802.11 and 802.16 wireless network standards and is being evaluated for Fourth Generation (4G) networks such as those being proposed in the 3GPP and 3GPP2 wireless standards bodies. In both uplink and downlink directions, resources can be allocated in three dimensions, frequency, time and power. The uplink resource allocation problem is more complicated due to the limited transmission power of the subscriber stations. In this paper we consider the uplink resource allocation problem for the case of 802.16 networks and derive the optimal solution taking into account constraints that were not considered in previous work.