Opportunistic packet loss fair scheduling for delay-sensitive applications over LTE systems

Abstract

We consider in this paper downlink scheduling at the Medium Access Layer (MAC) layer for delay sensitive traffic in wireless systems based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). We refer in particular to next generation wireless systems such as 3GPP-LTE. We propose an Opportunistic Packet Loss Fair (OPLF) scheduling algorithm based on calculating a simple dynamic priority function which depends on the Head of Line (HOL) packet delay, the packet loss rate (PLR) and the achievable instantaneous downlink rate of each user. This algorithm overcomes the main limitations of existing algorithms, achieving better performance than state-of-the art algorithms, such as Modified Largest Weighted Delay First (M-LWDF), Proportional Fair (PF), and Packet Loss Fair (PLF), in terms of throughput, PLR and fairness among users.