Green joint user scheduling and power control in downlink multi-cell OFDMA networks

Energy-efficient resource allocation in the downlink of a multi-cell OFDMA-based cellular system with base station coordination is considered in this paper. Using the tools of fractional programming and alternating maximization, user scheduling on subcarriers and transmit power allocation is carried out in order to maximize a system-wide energy-efficient performance function. In keeping with a recent trend in related literature, the definition of the energy efficiency also considers the circuit power that is dissipated in order to enable transmission. The proposed algorithms only require the solution of concave problems and are guaranteed to converge. Moreover, numerical results indicate that they exhibit satisfactory performance.