Resource Allocation for OFDMA-based multicast wireless systems

Abstract

Regarding the problems of resource allocation in OFDMA-based wireless communication systems, much of the research effort mainly focuses on finding efficient power control and subcarrier assignment policies. With systems employing multicast transmission, the available schemes in literature are not always applicable. Moreover, the existing approaches are particularly inaccessible in practical systems in which there are a large number of OFDM subcarriers being utilized, as the required computational burden is prohibitively high. The ultimate goal of this research is therefore to propose affordable mechanisms to flexibly and effectively share out the available resources in multicast wireless systems deploying OFDMA technology. Specifically, we study the resource distribution problems in both conventional and cognitive radio network settings, formulating the design problems as mathematical optimization programs, and then offering the solution methods. Suboptimal and optimal schemes with high performance and yet of acceptable complexity are devised through the application of various mathematical optimization tools such as genetic algorithm and Lagrangian dual optimization. The novelties of the proposed approaches are confirmed, and their performances are verified by computer simulation with the presentation of numerical examples to support the findings.