Scalable Multiple Channel Scheduling with Optimal Utility in Wireless Local Area Networks

This paper studies scheduling algorithms for an infra-structure based wireless local area network with multiple simultaneous transmission channels. A reservation-based medium access control protocol is assumed where the base station (BS) allocates transmission slots to the system mobile stations based on their requests. Each station is assumed to have a tunable transmitter and tunable receiver. For this network architecture, the scheduling algorithms can be classified into two categories: contiguous and noncontiguous, depending on whether slots are allocated contiguously to the mobile stations. The main objective of the scheduling algorithms is to achieve high channel utility while having low time complexity. In this paper, we propose three scheduling algorithms termed contiguous sorted sequential allocation (CSSA), non-contiguous round robin allocation (NCRRA) and non-contiguous sorted round robin allocation (NCSRRA). Among these, CSSA schedules each station in contiguous mode, while other two algorithms, NCRRA and NCSRRA, schedule stations in non-contiguous mode. Through extensive analysis and simulation, the results demonstrate that the CSSA with only slightly increased complexity can achieve much higher channel utility when compared to the existing contiguous scheduling algorithms. The NCRRA and NCSRRA on the other hand, results in significantly lower complexity, while still achieving the optimal channel utility compared to existing non-contiguous scheduling algorithms.