Improved proportional fair scheduling algorithm in LTE uplink with single-user MIMO transmission

Scheduling with single carrier property restriction has a significant impact on system performance in Long Term Evolution (LTE) uplink (UL). Due to the unavoidable delay of control signaling, the scheduling decisions have great influence on the variation of inter-cell interference (ICI) which affects the performance of adaptive modulation and coding (AMC). Many studies have been carried out on the topic of resource allocation in single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) system. Some of them deal with the ICI variation with inter-cell measurements or coordination. In this paper, we present the problem of frequency domain packet scheduling (FDPS), analyze the negative effects of ICI variation and develop our improved proportional fair (PF) scheduling algorithm based on the traditional one for LTE UL. Our proposed algorithm decreases the ICI variation and improves AMC accuracy without any inter-cell coordination. Compared with the traditional way, system level performance shows that at least 29% gain can be obtained at both the cell user average spectral efficiency and the cell edge user spectral efficiency with comparable proportional fairness in typical interference-limited scenario.