The value of feedback for LTE resource allocation

The LTE cellular network is designed for meeting the requirements of a broad range of applications in very dynamic conditions. This explains its great flexibility in resource allocation. In order to provide the mobile stations with the exact required services, the base station relies on feedback information reported by each mobile station. In this paper, several feedback reduction schemes are analysed and compared, for a broad range of LTE resource allocation schemes and deployment scenarios, by means of simulation and a quantitative cost model. It is concluded that feedback reduction should be adapted to the scenario, as function of users, resource allocation strategy or channel properties, and up to 139% gain in overall throughput can be obtained by doing so.