An enhanced proportional fair scheduling algorithm to maximize QoS traffic in downlink OFDMA systems

OFDMA-based networks have been considered to be a promising solution to wireless networks especially for broadband multimedia mobile services. In this paper, we propose an enhanced proportional fair (E-PF) scheduling algorithm, which aims at maximizing QoS throughput while still retaining fairness as well as maximizing system throughput in downlink OFDMA systems. Proportional fair (PF) has emerged as a prominent candidate in wireless networks because it achieves a good tradeoff between system throughput and fairness. Nevertheless, the equivalent airtime allocation scheme via PF leads to low throughput of bad channel users, and also limits the attainable QoS throughput of the entire system. E-PF is an enhanced PF-based utility function, which is expected to support QoS and provide a low-complexity algorithm for multi-channel OFDMA networks. We demonstrate via extensive simulation results, that E-PF outperforms PF in terms of system throughput and mean delay. Also, the results show that E-PF well accommodates nearly twice the amount of high priority data than PF does.