A Greedy Link Scheduler for Wireless Networks with Fading Channels

We consider the problem of link scheduling for wireless networks with fading channels, where the link rates are varying with time. Due to the high computational complexity of the throughput optimal scheduler, we provide a low complexity greedy link scheduler GFS, with provable performance guarantees. We show that the performance of our greedy scheduler can be analyzed using the Local Pooling Factor (LPF) of a network graph, which has been previously used to characterize the stability of the Greedy Maximal Scheduling (GMS) policy for networks with static channels. We conjecture that the performance of GFS is a lower bound on the performance of GMS for wireless networks with fading channel

Scheduling for next generation WLANs: filling the gap between offered and observed data rates

In wireless networks, opportunistic scheduling is used to increase system throughput by exploiting multi-user diversity. Although recent advances have increased physical layer data rates supported in wireless local area networks (WLANs), actual throughput realized are significantly lower due to overhead. Accordingly, the frame aggregation concept is used in next generation WLANs to improve efficiency. However, with frame aggregation, traditional opportunistic schemes are no longer optimal. In this paper, we propose schedulers that take queue and channel conditions into account jointly, to maximize throughput observed at the users for next generation WLANs. We also extend this work to design two schedulers that perform block scheduling for maximizing network throughput over multiple transmission sequences. For these schedulers, which make decisions over long time durations, we model the system using queueing theory and determine users' temporal access proportions according to this model. Through detailed simulations, we show that all our proposed algorithms offer significant throughput improvement, better fairness, and much lower delay compared with traditional opportunistic schedulers, facilitating the practical use of the evolving standard for next generation wireless networks

Distributed Opportunistic Scheduling For Ad-Hoc Communications Under Noisy Channel Estimation

Distributed opportunistic scheduling is studied for wireless ad-hoc networks, where many links contend for one channel using random access. In such networks, distributed opportunistic scheduling (DOS) involves a process of joint channel probing and distributed scheduling. It has been shown that under perfect channel estimation, the optimal DOS for maximizing the network throughput is a pure threshold policy. In this paper, this formalism is generalized to explore DOS under noisy channel estimation, where the transmission rate needs to be backed off from the estimated rate to reduce the outage. It is shown that the optimal scheduling policy remains to be threshold-based, and that the rate threshold turns out to be a function of the variance of the estimation error and be a functional of the backoff rate function. Since the optimal backoff rate is intractable, a suboptimal linear backoff scheme that backs off the estimated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and hence the rate is proposed. The corresponding optimal backoff ratio and rate threshold can be obtained via an iterative algorithm. Finally, simulation results are provided to illustrate the tradeoff caused by increasing training time to improve channel estimation at the cost of probing efficiency.Comment: Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Communications, Beijing, May 19-23, 200

Multipath streaming: fundamental limits and efficient algorithms

We investigate streaming over multiple links. A file is split into small units called chunks that may be requested on the various links according to some policy, and received after some random delay. After a start-up time called pre-buffering time, received chunks are played at a fixed speed. There is starvation if the chunk to be played has not yet arrived. We provide lower bounds (fundamental limits) on the starvation probability of any policy. We further propose simple, order-optimal policies that require no feedback. For general delay distributions, we provide tractable upper bounds for the starvation probability of the proposed policies, allowing to select the pre-buffering time appropriately. We specialize our results to: (i) links that employ CSMA or opportunistic scheduling at the packet level, (ii) links shared with a primary user (iii) links that use fair rate sharing at the flow level. We consider a generic model so that our results give insight into the design and performance of media streaming over (a) wired networks with several paths between the source and destination, (b) wireless networks featuring spectrum aggregation and (c) multi-homed wireless networks.Comment: 24 page

Opportunistic Interference Mitigation Achieves Optimal Degrees-of-Freedom in Wireless Multi-cell Uplink Networks

We introduce an opportunistic interference mitigation (OIM) protocol, where a user scheduling strategy is utilized in $K$-cell uplink networks with time-invariant channel coefficients and base stations (BSs) having $M$ antennas. Each BS opportunistically selects a set of users who generate the minimum interference to the other BSs. Two OIM protocols are shown according to the number $S$ of simultaneously transmitting users per cell: opportunistic interference nulling (OIN) and opportunistic interference alignment (OIA). Then, their performance is analyzed in terms of degrees-of-freedom (DoFs). As our main result, it is shown that $KM$ DoFs are achievable under the OIN protocol with $M$ selected users per cell, if the total number $N$ of users in a cell scales at least as $\text{SNR}^{(K-1)M}$. Similarly, it turns out that the OIA scheme with $S$($<M$) selected users achieves $KS$ DoFs, if $N$ scales faster than $\text{SNR}^{(K-1)S}$. These results indicate that there exists a trade-off between the achievable DoFs and the minimum required $N$. By deriving the corresponding upper bound on the DoFs, it is shown that the OIN scheme is DoF optimal. Finally, numerical evaluation, a two-step scheduling method, and the extension to multi-carrier scenarios are shown.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Communication

Distributed SIR-Aware Opportunistic Access Control for D2D Underlaid Cellular Networks

In this paper, we propose a distributed interference and channel-aware opportunistic access control technique for D2D underlaid cellular networks, in which each potential D2D link is active whenever its estimated signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is above a predetermined threshold so as to maximize the D2D area spectral efficiency. The objective of our SIR-aware opportunistic access scheme is to provide sufficient coverage probability and to increase the aggregate rate of D2D links by harnessing interference caused by dense underlaid D2D users using an adaptive decision activation threshold. We determine the optimum D2D activation probability and threshold, building on analytical expressions for the coverage probabilities and area spectral efficiency of D2D links derived using stochastic geometry. Specifically, we provide two expressions for the optimal SIR threshold, which can be applied in a decentralized way on each D2D link, so as to maximize the D2D area spectral efficiency derived using the unconditional and conditional D2D success probability respectively. Simulation results in different network settings show the performance gains of both SIR-aware threshold scheduling methods in terms of D2D link coverage probability, area spectral efficiency, and average sum rate compared to existing channel-aware access schemes.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to be presented at IEEE GLOBECOM 201