Scheduling and Resource Optimization in Next Generation Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Next generation wireless networks have many promising features, such as high datarates, hybrid voice and data services, integration of different wireless access technologies, andintelligent networks with self-maintenance. With these features, several scheduling andresource optimization issues arise. In this dissertation, I aim to address these issues by firstformulating the problems and then proposing solutions accordingly. These challengingresearch problems include the resource allocation problem for the Worldwide MicrowaveInteroperability for Mobile Access (WiMAX) networks, the minimum-cost data deliveryproblem in heterogeneous wireless networks, the self-maintenance scheduling problem fornext generation wireless networks, and the scheduling problem for multi-hop cellular relaynetworks.In the WiMAX scheduling, I propose a two-phase Fair and Efficient Queueing (FEQ)scheduling algorithm, which effectively combines Weighted Round Robin (WRR) andEarliest Deadline First (EDF) algorithms. I also build an elegant queueing model to derive intheory the performance metrics. In minimum-cost data delivery, I first prove the costminimization problem to be NP-hard, and then present an efficient minimum-cost datadelivery algorithm based on linear programming, with various constraints and scenarios takeninto consideration. In self-maintenance scheduling, I consider resource maintenance andresource conflicting constraints and propose a linear programming model and two heuristicalgorithms to schedule the maintenance requests, aiming at minimizing the total maintenancetime. In scheduling for multi-hop cellular relay networks, I develop a scheduling algorithmbased on linear programming to maximize system throughput while maintaining system fairness. This scheduling algorithm takes into account the dynamic queue change in the relaystations, the frame boundary of the cellular networks, and fairness among different concurrenttransmission scenarios. Extensive simulations have been conducted to verify the effectivenessof the scheduling algorithms proposed above.In summary, we have proposed several scheduling algorithms to address variousscheduling and optimization issues for next generation heterogeneous wireless networks, andwe anticipate that the proposed scheduling algorithms will become necessary components ofnext generation heterogeneous wireless networks.