An OFDMA RRM strategy based on QoE maximization and radio resource redistribution

Abstract

The optimal allocation of power and subcarrier resources in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems represents a hot topic widely dealt with in literature, given the need to balance the tradeoff between efficiency and fairness. Current state-of-the-art solutions are suboptimal. Indeed, efficiency often privileges users that can exploit favorable channel conditions, while fairness ignores the notion that different users might have different requirements. In this paper, we propose a balanced OFDMA Radio Resource Management (RRM) strategy targeted at maximizing the Quality-of-Experience (QoE), rather than Quality-of-Service (QoS). The proposed RRM is inspired by Game Theory and aims at maximizing the application-oriented Mean-Opinion Score (MOS). The proposed work is intended to go beyond the state-of-the-art by enabling flexibility and dynamicity through re-allocation of resources utilized by those users strongly disadvantaged by adverse channel conditions. The radio resources “wasted” by such users (not able to reach the required QoE level) can be reassigned to the remaining users in order to increase their MOS metrics. Preliminary results showed a sensible QoE increase for the users' population after the radio resource redistribution, in particular for low signal-to-noise ratios and larger number of users.