HARQ Aware Frequency Domain Packet Scheduler with Different Degrees of Fairness for the UTRAN Long Term Evolution

In this paper we evaluate the performance of downlink channel dependent scheduling in time and frequency domains. The investigation is based on the 3GPP UTRAN long term evolution (LTE) parameters. A scheduler framework is developed encompassing frequency domain packet scheduling, HARQ management and inter-user fairness control. It is shown that by dividing the packet scheduler into a time-domain and a frequency-domain part the fairness between users can be effectively controlled. Different algorithms are applied in each scheduler part, and the combined performance is evaluated in terms of cell throughput, coverage, and capacity. We show that frequency-domain packet scheduling can provide a gain of around 35% in both throughput and coverage over opportunistic time-domain only scheduling. Furthermore, it is shown that by using an equal throughput scheduler, coverage can be improved by 100% at the expense of a 5% loss in average cell throughput in comparison with the proportional fair scheduler.