A Subcarrier Allocation Algorithm for Utility Proportional Fairness in OFDM Systems

In this paper, a concept of utility proportional fairness is defined, which achieves fairness of utility for different applications. The optimization problem of utility proportional fairness has been formulated meanwhile the optimal solution is presented. The utility proportional fairness is applied in the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) wireless networks, and the optimal subcarrier allocation for utility proportional fairness is deduced. An effective and practical simplified subcarrier allocation algorithm is proposed, in which the instantaneous data rate is substituted by average rate via exponentially weighted low pass time window. Simulation results illustrate that both the optimal and simplified subcarrier allocation algorithms guarantee the utility fairness between different applications well, and the simplified algorithm achieves a perfect tradeoff between utility fairness and system throughput and provides the quality of server (QoS) for multimedia applications.