On delay-aware joint uplink/downlink resource allocation in OFDMA networks

The advancement of wireless communications standards and the introduction of new services with tight bidirectional quality of service requirements necessitated the development of novel and intelligent resource allocation algorithms. These include delay-aware scheduling techniques to cope with the tight round trip delay constraints imposed by the standards. In this paper, we present a novel delay-aware joint uplink/downlink resource allocation algorithm that controls the scheduling process in one direction by using delay information from the other direction. The main idea behind this design is the balancing of the transmission delays between the uplink and downlink to avoid resource wastage and service degradation that can result from transmission imbalances. Results show an improved constrained delay behavior of the system. Moreover, using the definition of a satisfaction index based on the well-known Jain fairness index, we show how our proposed scheme outperforms traditional single-link resource allocation schemes in terms of user satisfaction.