Utility Proportional Resource Allocation for Users with Diverse SLAs in Virtualized Radio Access Networks

Abstract

A virtualization platform is responsible for allocation and aggregation of radio resources from different access technologies as well as the distribution of the total capacity among Virtual Network Operators (VNOs). The Radio Resource Management (RRM) employed by each VNO should comply with the requirements specified in the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) of each user. A joint admission control and resource management scheme based on proportionally fair rate allocation among different users was proposed in our previous publication. Although, all SLAs are satisfied in that scheme, users with vastly different QoS requirements might not necessary be treated fairly in terms of the allocated rates. This is especially the case when the available capacities of the VNOs cannot support the maximum requested rates for all such users. This paper attempts to overcome this weakness by replacing the proportional fairness strategy with a more general concept of utility-proportional fairness. The proposed approach is evaluated by simulations under increasing congestion scenarios and the results show improved fairness in the allocated rates.