Joint Resource Allocation for LTE over Licensed and Unlicensed Spectrum

Abstract

LTE over unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) is one of the promising approaches to further improve LTE network throughput. To maximize the benefit of LTE-U, in this work we study joint resource allocation for LTE over the legacy licensed spectrum and the sharing unlicensed spectrum in a multi-cell scenario. Specifically, we formulate a mixed-integer power-channel allocation problem aiming at maximizing the network throughput, with the constraints of protecting the coexisting Wi-Fi networks and hardware limitation of user equipments in the LTE-U networks. To solve the resource allocation problem efficiently, we exploit delay column generation approach to decompose the original optimization problem and then propose a novel algorithm based KKT conditions. Simulation results show the advantage of LTE-U networking and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of convergence speed and network throughput.