A Load Adaptive Subcarrier and Bit Allocation Algorithm for Non-real Time Services in an OFDMA System

Hossam Fattah, Hussein Alnuweiri

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University
hossamf@ieee.org

AbstractOrthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is an efcient access technique that allocates different subcarriers to multiple users where each subcarrier is loaded with a number of bits belonging to that user. Allocating subcarriers and bits to multiple users has been the focus of many algorithms that attempt to maximize the throughput or minimize the total transmit power used. Non-real time applications such as web browsing are dominant applications in most of the emerging wireless networks. A key performance measure of such applications is the average packet delay provided by the network. In this paper, we propose a novel Load Adaptive (LA) algorithm for non-real time services that allocates the subcarriers and bits to each user according to its individual load and the available transmit power so as to minimize the overall average packet delay for all users. The algorithm takes into account queueing theory and the quality of service requirement of each user. Numerical results show that the overall average packet delay of the proposed algorithm is signicantly reduced compared to other algorithms. Index TermsWireless Networks, Subcarrier allocation, OFDM, OFDMA, WiMAX, IEEE 802.16, Queueing Analysis.

I. I NTRODUCTION Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), which is used in emerging WiMAX wireless networks [1], [2], has been adopted as an efcient physical layer due to many benets such as scalability, frequency reuse, spectrum utilization, mobility support, and better immunity to wireless channel aws. In an OFDMA system, multiple users share the same frequency band and transmit simultaneously on different subcarriers. The subcarriers of each user carry all bits corresponding to that user. A subcarrier and bit allocation algorithm can be categorized as either a static [3] or dynamic [4], [5] allocation where in the latter, the subcarrier and bit allocations vary based on the instantaneous channel condition. Typically, dynamic allocation algorithms achieve higher throughput, lower power consumption, and higher system capacity. User applications can be divided into two categories: real time services and non-real time services. Users with real time services require guaranteed bit rate, delay, and/or Bit Error Rate (BER) while users with non-real time services do not require guaranteed

bit rate, rather, they seek lower delay or higher throughput as much as permitted by the network resources [6]. Packet transfer delay, dened as the time between the arrival of a packet at the transmitter and its complete reception at the receiver, is a commonly used measure of performance for non-real time services such as web browsing or FTP applications. Most recent subcarrier and bit allocation algorithms for non-real time services focus on maximizing throughput while achieving proportional fairness [4], [7]. While achieving fairness is important, it is not the only requirement users need nor it is very easy to determine the relative weights to be assigned to users. Delay and packet loss rate are, however, important and measurable quantities that directly impact the Quality of Service (QoS) provided to the user. Delay, in particular, affects the user Quality of Experience (QoE). Moreover, minimizing delay is strongly justied by the fact that even most common multimedia streaming services, such as Skype and Windows Media Services [8], are carried over delay-friendly TCP connections [8]. Therefore, reducing delay for TCP connections results in signicant improvement to multimedia streaming services. Reducing delay for non-real time services is an important target for content delivery over wireless networks [9]. In this paper, a Load Adaptive (LA) subcarrier and bit allocation algorithm for non-real time services is proposed. The algorithm assigns subcarriers and bits to each non-real time service according to its load so as to minimize the overall average packet delay, while satisfying BER and queue stability constraints. Since non-real time services do not seek guaranteed delay, the algorithm does not provide guaranteed delay but instead, it minimizes the overall average packet delay as much as can be provided by the network resources. We show that the LA algorithm achieves lower average delay than other algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the rst subcarrier and bit allocation algorithm that considers packet delay as an objective for enhancing QoS. This paper is organized as follows: Section II outlines the system model and problem formulation. Section III covers the proposed load adaptive algorithm. Simulation results and conclusion are provided in Section IV and Section V respectively.

978-1-4244-3584-5/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

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ISWCS 2009

Control channel OFDMA System User 1 queue C OFDMA System C

Rn =
User 1

an,k bn,k .
k=1

(3)

1
User 2 queue

Subcarrier 1
C

Subcarrier 1
C

The LA algorithm can be formulated as follows:

Subcarrier 2
Data channel

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(P)

User N queue

{Rn }N n=1

min

D=

1 1 + 2 + + N

N n=1

n Dn

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C C

subject to the following constrains:

User N

Subcarrier K

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N
OFDMA Tansmitter Feedback channel OFDMA Receiver

C1 : C2 : C3 :

an,k n=1 N K
n=1 k=1

1,

k S, (4)

Fig. 1.

OFDMA system model.

an,k Pn,k Pt , R n > n , n U,

II. S YSTEM M ODEL AND P ROBLEM F ORMULATION Figure 1 shows the system model of an OFDMA system with LA subcarrier and bit allocation algorithm. The available bandwidth, B, is shared among K available subcarriers in the set S = {1, 2, . . . , K}. Each subcarrier bandwidth, B/K, is much less than the coherence bandwidth of the wireless channel so that the channel response on each subcarrier is at. At the transmitter, there are N non-real time users who do not have a bit rate requirement but BER requirement. Each user is represented by an M/D/1 queue. Data packets are of xed length and arrive at queue n according to a Poisson process with an arrival rate n bits per OFDM symbol. Queue n packets are serviced with a service rate Rn bits per OFDM symbol. The average packet transfer delay of a user is given by [10]: 1 n ], n U, [1 + Dn = Rn 2(1 n ) (1)

where C1 guarantees that each subcarrier can only be used by at most one user; C2 indicates that transmit power on all subcarriers does not exceed the total available transmit power Pt , and C3 guarantees that the service rate is larger than the arrival rate. The problem P is a complex combinatorial optimization problem for minimizing the weighted delay for all users. It is hard to nd an optimal solution to this problem using known optimization techniques. For such a purpose, we propose a solution to this problem as outlined in the next section. III. L OAD A DAPTIVE A LGORITHM In this section, we provide an algorithm for solving problem P. The algorithm is outlined in Fig. 2. The algorithm proceeds in four stages. The rst stage starts by initializing the subcarrier indices allocated to each user, an,k , the bits allocated to each subcarrier, bn,k , the set of allocated subcarriers to user n, Sn , the total used transmit power, Pu , the set of non-real time users, U , the power budget needed by each subcarrier, Pn,k , to carry one bit, and nally the weight of each user, wn . Step (1.c) sets the user weight proportional to the user arrival rate (i.e., it is the ratio of a user arrival rate to the minimum arrival rate). In the second stage, the algorithm allocates a subcarrier to a user according to its weight, the number of its allocated subcarriers, |Sn |, and subcarrier power budget. In stage 3, the algorithm distributes Rn = n + 1 bits for each user among its allocated subcarriers in order to full constraint C3. In stage 4, the algorithm starts by determining the reduction in weighted delay, Dn , for each user when its service rate Rn is increased by one bit (Step (a)). Steps (b) and (c) select the user with the maximum reduction in weighted delay, Dmax , and its respective subcarrier with the minimum power budget, Pmin respectively. Selecting a user with the maximum reduction in weighted delay may come at the cost of consuming signicantly higher power budget that other users. This will deplete power quickly and leads to higher delays for other users and eventually higher overall average packet delay.

where n = n /Rn and U = {1, 2, . . . , N }. We let hn,k denote the channel gain on the kth (k S) subcarrier of the nth (n U ) user. A feedback channel from the receiver to the transmitter is used to convey the channel response information. Another control channel from the transmitter to the receiver is used to convey the subcarrier and bit allocation information to all users. Let Pn,k denote the transmit power allocated to the kth subcarrier of the nth user and 2 denote the variance of additive white Gaussian noise. The maximum number of bits allocated at the kth subcarrier of the nth user can be given as: hn,k Pn,k ) , (2) 2 where x denotes the largest integer number which is less than or equal to x, and is a constant Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) related to the target BER. Let an,k be the subcarrier allocation indicator (i.e. an,k = 1 if subcarrier k is allocated to user n and an,k = 0 if subcarrier k is not allocated to user n). The service rate for user n can be calculated as: bn,k = log2 (1 +

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Input: n , N, S, hn,k , , 2 , Pt output: bn,k (1) Initialization (a) Set an,k = 0, bn,k = 0, Sn = , Pu = 0, U = {1, 2, , N }; 2 , n U, k S; (b) Calculate Pn,k = hn,k (n + 1) , n, i U ; (c) Calculate wn = arg mini (i + 1) (2) while S = , |Sn | (a) Find n = arg min ; n wn (b) Find k = arg min Pn ,k , k S; (c) Set an ,k = 1, S = S k , Sn = Sn + k ; (3) for each n U , (a) Set Rn = n + 1; (b) while Rn > 0, (b.1) Find k = arg min Pn,k , k Sn ; (b.2) Set bn,k = bn,k + 1, Rn = Rn 1, 2 bn,k Pu = Pu + Pn,k , Pn,k = 2 ; hn,k (4) while U = , (a) for each n U K (a.1) Set Rn = k=1 bn,k ; n when Rn is incremented; (a.2) Calculate D (b) Find n+ = arg max Dn , n U ;
k k

other words, it aims at nding a reasonable cost that balances between reduction in weighted delay and the increase in power budget. After calculating C(.) for all users, the algorithm selects the user n with the minimum cost function and its corresponding subcarrier k with minimum power budget as shown in Steps (f) and (g) respectively. Finally, Step (h), increments the bits allocated to subcarrier k of user n , updates the total used transmit power, and updates the power budget needed by that subcarrier when it carries one more bit. If the minimum power budget, needed by a user when its subcarriers carry one more bit, will result in exceeding the total available transmit power, the user will no longer be considered for further processing. Assuming K >> N , stages 1 and 3 have complexity O(N K). Stage 2 has complexity O(K 2 ). Finally, the number of iterations in stage 4 depends on the total available transmit power, Pt , and has complexity O(N K). Therefore, the LA algorithm complexity is O(N K) + O(K 2 ) = O(K 2 ). IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS

In this section, we present simulation results for the LA algorithm. We use an OFDMA system with a number of subcarriers, K, equals to 256 over a 15 MHz bandwidth and an OFDM symbol duration of 4us. We assume = 9dB, 2 = 1mW , and Pt = 10W . We used a unity channel gain and a channel gain obtained from a TGn channel model D with n (c) Find k + = arg min Pn+ ,k , k Sn+ ; 50ns rms delay spread as in [11]. Arrival and service rates are k max = Dn+ and Pmin = Pn+ ,k+ ; in bits per OFDM symbol and packet sizes are assumed to be (d) Set D xed and of size 500 bits. (e) for each n U n , Pn,k ), k Sn ,as in Eq.(5) We compared the proposed LA algorithm to the Rate (e.1) Calculate C(D Adaptive (RA) algorithm [4], which aims at maximizing the (f) Find n = arg min C(.); n throughput for non-real time users, and to a static allocation (g) Find k = arg min Pn ,k , k Sn ; k algorithm [3]. In the static algorithm, the number of subcarriN (h) Set bn ,k = bn ,k + 1, Pu = Pu + Pn ,k , ers, Kn , allocated to user n is Kn = wn K/ i=1 wi . Each 2 bn ,k N ; Pn ,k = hn ,k 2 of the K n=1 Kn remaining subcarriers is allocated to a user with the best channel condition where each user can get (i) for each n U at most one unassigned subcarrier. The bits and corresponding (i.1) if (Pu + min Pn,k ) > Pt , Set U = U n; k power are distributed by the bit allocation step of the RA algorithm [4]. Fig. 2. Pseudo code for the load adaptive algorithm. User weights in both the RA and static algorithms are set equal to those obtained from the LA algorithm (i.e., Step (1.c) For this reason, a balance between the reduction in weighted in Fig. 2). We assume all users are divided into two groups: delay and the corresponding increase in power budget needs group A and group B where the arrival rates, A , of users in to be considered so that the power resource can be utilized group A are always equal to each other and allowed to vary more efciently to obtain the minimum overall average packet together. The arrival rates, B , of users in group B are always delay. As such, a Cost function is introduced in Step (e) and xed and set to 10 bits per OFDM symbol. Figures 3 and 4 show the overall average packet delay versus calculated for all users as follows: arrival rate, A , for N = 8 and N = 16 respectively when the channel gain is unity. We can see that the LA algorithm Pn,k Dn n U, (5) provides lower delay than the other two algorithms. When C(Dn , Pn,k ) = Pmin Dmax A = 100 and A = 40 bits/OFDM symbol respectively, a where Dn is user n reduction in weighted delay and Pn,k reduction of about 1s is obtained. However, increasing the is the corresponding minimum power budget for subcarrier k arrival rates, increases the packet delay for all algorithms. of the same user. The Cost function C(.) is a function that Figures 5 and 6 show the overall average packet delay determines the overall cost between a reduction in weighted versus arrival rate, A , for N = 8 and N = 16 respectively delay and the corresponding increase in power budget. In when a TGn channel model D is used. The LA algorithm

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K=256, N=8, h 18 LA RA Static

n,k

=1 13 LA RA Static

K=256, N=8, TGn channel model

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Fig. 3.

Delay versus arrival rate for N = 8 when channel gain is xed.

K=256, N=16, hn,k=1

Fig. 5.

Delay versus arrival rate for N = 8 using TGn channel model D.

K=256, N=16, TGn channel model

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Delay versus arrival rate for N = 16 when channel gain is xed.

Fig. 6.

Delay versus arrival rate for N = 16 using TGn channel model D.

provides signicant reduction in the overall packet delay. When A = 45 and A = 32 bits/OFDM symbol, a reduction of about 2s and 5s is obtained respectively. The reduction in the overall average packet delay as provided by the LA algorithm is more noticeable when the channel gain is variable. That is, the LA algorithm provides more reduction in the overall average packet delay when the channel gain is variable (Figs. 5 and 6) than when the channel gain is xed (Figs. 3 and 4). This is because channel condition is exploited better by the LA algorithm and power resource is efciently utilized especially through the use of Eq. (5). V. C ONCLUSION We have proposed a novel load adaptive subcarrier and bit allocation algorithm for non-real time services in an OFDMA

system. An optimal optimization problem and an algorithm that provides a solution to this problem are given. The algorithm minimizes the overall average packet delay and is shown to provide signicantly lower delay than other algorithms. Although an M/D/1 queueing model and an average packet transfer delay were used in this paper, the algorithm can be extended to more general queueing models and other performance metrics. R EFERENCES
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[3] R. Van Nee and R. Prasad, OFDM Wireless Communications. Artech House, 2000. [4] G. Yu, Z. Zhang, and P. Qiu, Adaptive subcarrier and bit allocation in OFDMA systems supporting heterogeneous services, Wireless Personal Communications: An International Journal, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 1057 1070, 2007. [5] G. Song and Y. Li, Cross-layer optimization for OFDM wireless networks-part I: theoretical framework, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 614624, March 2005. [6] H. Fattah and C. Leung, A load-based transmission rate assignment scheme for an integrated voice/data DS-CDMA system, IEE Electronics Letters, vol. 39, no. 13, pp. 10111013, June 2003. [7] C. Mohanram and S. Bhashyam, A sub-optimal joint subcarrier and power allocation algorithm for multiuser OFDM, IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 9, pp. 685687, August 2005. [8] E. Brosh, S. A. Baset, D. Rubenstein, and H. Schulzrinne, The delay-friendliness of TCP, in SIGMETRICS 08: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGMETRICS international conference on Measurement and modeling of computer systems. ACM, 2008, pp. 4960. [9] S. Ganguly, M. Chatterjee, and R. Izmailov, Non-real-time content scheduling algorithms for wireless data networks, IEEE Transactions On Computers, vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 893905, 2006. [10] L. Kleinrock, Queueing Systems. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1975, vol. 1. [11] IEEE, TGn channel models, IEEE 802.11-03/940r4, May 2004.

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