Downlink power allocation for multi-class wireless systems

• Published in: IEEE/ACM transactions on networking Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 854 - 867
• Main Authors: Jang-Won Lee, Mazumdar, R.R., Shroff, N.B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-08-2005; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Base stations; Downlink; Elasticity; Mobile communications networks; Multiaccess communication; Next generation networking; nonconvex optimization; Optimization algorithms; Optimization techniques; power allocation; Power control; Pricing; Quality of service; Signal to noise ratio; Studies; Utility functions; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 1063-6692; 1558-2566
• DOI: 10.1109/TNET.2005.852888

In this paper we consider a power allocation problem in multi-class wireless systems. We focus on the downlink of the system. Each mobile has a utility function that characterizes its degree of satisfaction for the received service. The objective is to obtain a power allocation that maximizes the total system utility. Typically, natural utility functions for each mobile are nonconcave. Hence, we cannot use existing convex optimization techniques to derive a global optimal solution. We develop a simple (distributed) algorithm to obtain a power allocation that is asymptotically optimal in the number of mobiles. The algorithm is based on dynamic pricing and consists of two stages. At the mobile selection stage, the base station selects mobiles to which power is allocated. At the power allocation stage, the base station allocates power to the selected mobiles. We provide numerical results that illustrate the performance of our scheme. In particular, we show that our algorithm results in system performance that is close to the performance of a global optimal solution in most cases.