A multi-carrier scheduling algorithm for LTE-advanced

LTE-Advanced aims to provide a transmission bandwidth of 100 MHz by using Carrier Aggregation to aggregate LTE Rel. 8 carriers. In order to increase the system capacity, resource allocation becomes a very good tool, and, in the context of the existence of multiple Component Carriers in LTE-Advanced becomes a complex optimization problem. This paper proposes a Multi-Carrier Scheduling Algorithm that takes into account the user's QoS requirements and also targets the maximization of the user throughput. The algorithm is evaluated in a scenario with both macro and femto Base Stations (i.e. a HetNet scenario) that respects the 3GPP specifications. Numerical results show that this algorithm has better performances than the traditional Round Robin and Proportionally Fair resource scheduling algorithms.