Adaptive resource scheduling in wireless OFDMA relay networks

The ability of relay networks to improve capacity and coverage has led to their adoption in next generation wireless broadband networks (WiMAX, LTE-advanced). Unlike conventional cellular networks, there is a multitude of design features that impacts the performance of these relay networks. This has consequently increased the need for efficient scheduling algorithms to optimize such design features. The focus of this work is to improve relay network throughput through adaptive resource usage in the form of two key design features - (i) adaptive frame segmentation, and (ii) spatial reuse - that are allowed by the relay standard. To this end, we design efficient scheduling algorithms that optimize these two features jointly. We provide both algorithms with performance guarantees as well as those with fast running times. Our study reveals that with the help of properly designed scheduling algorithms, adaptive resource usage can (i) boost the network throughput performance by up to 50%; and (ii) optimize network throughput effectively, providing an effect similar to dynamic relay placement.