Opportunistic Resource Scheduling for OFDMA Networks with Network Coding at Relay Stations

In this paper, we study an opportunistic resource scheduling problem for the relay-based OFDMA cellular network where relay stations (RSs) perform opportunistic network coding with downlink and uplink sessions of a mobile station (MS). To this end, we consider time-division duplexing (TDD) where each time-slot is divided into three phases according to the type of transmitter nodes, i.e., the base station (BS), MSs, and RSs. Moreover, to improve the flexibility for resource allocation, we allow dynamic TDD, in which the time duration of each phase in each time-slot can be adjusted. For opportunistic network coding, we introduce a novel model for network coding aware RSs with which an opportunistic network coding problem can be reduced to an opportunistic subchannel scheduling problem. We formulate an optimization problem that aims at maximizing the average weighted-sum rate for both downlink and uplink sessions of all MSs, while satisfying the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of each MS. By solving it, we develop a resource scheduling algorithm that optimally and opportunistically schedule subchannel, transmission power, network coding, and time duration of each phase in each time-slot. Through the numerical results, we study how each of network coding strategy and dynamic TDD affects the network performance with various network environments.