Resource allocation methods in OFDMA distributed radio access networks

Distributed radio access network (DRAN) is a novel radio access architecture and can solve the problem of the available spectrum scarcity in wireless communications. We investigate two resource allocation methods for downlink of OFDMA DRAN. In the first method, each subcarrier is allocated to only one user, which is based on exclusive criterion (EC). By introduced the concept of shared criterion (SC), each subcarrier may serve for multiple users through different distributed antenna and for only one user through the same antenna. This second method is based on SC. The simulation results show that, according to spectrum efficiency and fairness index, the performances of the second way are superior to that of the first.