Revisiting Proportional Fairness: Anonymity Among Users in Interference Coupled Wireless Systems

Abstract

The paper revisits the problem of proportional fairness in interference coupled wireless systems. It models interference coupling in wireless systems based on an interference function framework through a set of axioms (introduced by Yates in 1995). It utilizes the collective choice function to represent resource allocation strategies and an axiomatic framework to emulate certain desirable properties of resource allocation strategies. We introduce the axiom of equal priority in the power domain (and in the interference domain) and motivate it as interference coordination fairness. We consider this as an anonymity among the users, from the perspective of a central controller, e.g. a base station or an operator. We show that the proportional fair resource allocation strategy is anonymous to the identity of the users at the signal processing layer. Such an anonymity is relevant to obtain interference coordination fairness in iterative resource allocation strategies frequently encountered in wireless systems.