A comparision of packet scheduling algorithms for OFDMA systems

Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) is an emerging multiple access technology. In this paper, we focus on the packet scheduling problems of the downlink of OFDMA wireless systems with delay requirements. We revised three different scheduling methods in order to reduce their complexity for practical application based on limited feedback. Furthermore, we simulate these algorithms under ideal traffic model of bit stream from the physical layer stand and under practical packet model from the stand of MAC layer, and the performance analysis and comparison are given. Simulation results show that scheduling schemes that perform well in the physical layer do not always have the same results when considering the characteristic of the upper layers, and in both different scenarios proportional fairness scheduling algorithm can get a good tradeoff between system throughput and user fairness.