Throughput and fairness enhancement for OFDMA broadband wireless access systems using the maximum C/I scheduling

In this paper, we demonstrate that the simple maximum carrier to interference ratio (CA) scheduling can both enhance system throughput and maintain fairness performances for an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system. The maximum C/I scheduling has long been recognized as an effective method to enhance throughput, but it is viewed as an unfair scheduling policy in the single carrier time division multiple access (TDMA) or code division multiple access (CDMA) system. We reassess the fairness performance of the maximum C/I scheduling in the multi-carrier OFDMA system. Through analysis and simulations, our results show that the fairness of the maximum C/I scheduling in OFDMA systems is comparable to that of the proportional fair scheduling scheme.