Throughput fairness and efficiency of link adaptation techniques in wireless networks

Link adaptation techniques aim to maximise the quality of service and resource utilisation in wireless networks. However, fairness must be taken into consideration, particularly, in low-mobility environments where the channel dynamic variation is small. The authors propose and analyse three link adaptation techniques [using joint power control (PC) and adaptive coding and modulation (ACM)] for fairness enhancement. In the first technique, called aggregate throughput maximisation with fairness constraint, the authors formulate the fairness problem as a constrained optimisation problem where the authors try to maximise the aggregate throughput subject to the throughput fairness constraint. In order to solve the optimisation problem, the authors convert the constrained optimisation problem to an unconstrained optimisation one using the penalty method. Then, the unconstrained optimisation problem is solved using the steepest descent technique. The second techniques, called individual throughput balancing, tries to equalise the individual throughput by using a higher throughput level for disadvantaged users and using a lower throughput level for advantaged users. Finally, the third technique, called adaptive virtual maximum power constraint, uses virtual maximum power cap, which is lower than the real maximum power cap. The virtual maximum power cap of each user is variable and it adapts based on the user’s individual throughput to compensate disadvantaged users. The authors analyse the three proposed techniques in terms of the throughput fairness and the throughput efficiency and compare them with three basic link adaptation techniques (PC, ACM, and joint PC and ACM). The three proposed techniques are shown to be able to enhance the fairness with different degrees and with different levels of aggregate throughput degradation.