Resource allocation for cellular radio systems

High terminal traffic densities are expected in urban multiuser radio systems. An efficient allocation of resources is the key to high system capacity. In this paper, a distributed dynamic resource allocation (DDRA) scheme based on local signal and interference measurements is proposed for multiuser radio networks. It offers "soft capacity" for time division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, bounded above by N per base station, where N is the total number of channels in the system. The decisions are made local to a terminal and its base and are essentially independent of the rest of the system. A distributed dynamic channel assignment scheme is used to assign channels to new calls. This scheme assigns a channel that offers the maximum carrier to interference ratio (CIR) to a new call. A distributed constrained power control (DCPC) scheme based on CIR measurements is used for power control. The channel assignment scheme and the power control scheme are coupled to obtain an interactive resource allocation scheme. We compare the capacity of a system which uses the distributed dynamic resource allocation scheme described above with the capacity of a system which uses the channel assignment scheme alone. The system capacity is measured by simulation as the number of terminals that can be served by the system with a CIR above an acceptable minimum. In a 1D cellular system, coupling the channel assignment scheme with power control is discussed. Simulations were also used to show the effect of varying the maximum transmitter power on system capacity.