Chapter 20: Resource Allocation and Scheduling

Learning Objectives

• Explain multiuser diversity and prove that the sum-rate capacity of an opportunistic scheduler scales as log(log(K)) with the number of users under i.i.d. Rayleigh fading
• Formulate the proportional fair scheduling problem as a gradient ascent on the sum of log-throughputs and derive its convergence properties
• Solve the OFDMA subcarrier-and-power allocation problem using greedy and Hungarian-method approaches and quantify the gap to the optimal solution
• Describe link adaptation and adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), including CQI feedback, MCS selection, and the role of target BLER in spectral efficiency
• Explain cross-layer interactions between the MAC scheduler and the physical layer, and how channel-aware scheduling exploits fading rather than combating it
• Analyse inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) and fractional frequency reuse (FFR) strategies, quantifying cell-edge SINR improvement
• Characterise the throughput--fairness trade-off using the alpha-fair utility framework and identify the Pareto-optimal operating frontier