Improved Channel-Dependent User Selection for an SC-FDMA System

In this letter, we consider user scheduling for single-carrier frequency division multiple access with iterative multiuser detection. To achieve high spectral efficiency, a scheduler should allocate a common set of subcarriers to as many users as possible, while guaranteeing the quality-of-service (QoS) of each user. To address this problem, we first investigate optimal user selection via an exhaustive search method. Based on this investigation, we then propose a pattern-aware user scheduling algorithm for the optimal user selection. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm provides higher spectral efficiency than conventional algorithms and achieves the performance of optimal user selection with much reduced computational complexity.