Study of Downlink Scheduling Algorithms in LTE Networks

Abstract

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is one of the fastest growing technologies which supports variety of applications like video conferencing, video streaming, VoIP, file transfer, web browsing etc. In order to support multiple applications, Radio Resource Management (RRM) procedure is one of the key design roles for improving the system performance. LTE system effectively utilizes the resources by dynamically scheduling the users in both frequency and time domain. However, scheduling algorithms are not defined in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications. Therefore, it becomes one of the special interests for service providers. In this paper a study of downlink scheduling algorithms present in the literature is put forth and performance evaluation of four algorithms proposed for LTE downlink is carried out. This paper also discusses the key issues of scheduling algorithms to be considered for future traffic requirements.