An efficient downlink packet scheduling algorithm for real time traffics in LTE systems

Long term evolution (LTE) represents new technological advance, which is conceived to significantly boost cellular network performance of real time services. However, scheduling algorithms that support real time applications have not been defined in the third generation partnership project (3GPP) specifications. In this paper a packet scheduling scheme with low complexity based on Earliest Deadline First (EDF) and Proportion Fair (PF) algorithm is proposed to enhance the Quality of Service (QoS) for real time traffics such as video and VoIP in LTE downlink system and we call it Modified EDF-PF (M-EDF-PF). System level simulations are conducted to verify the efficiency of M-EDF-PF. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed M-EDF-PF scheduling algorithm can achieve obvious performance improvement for real time flows in LTE downlink system. The performance of the packet scheduling algorithm is evaluated based on traffic flow throughput, packet loss ratio (PLR), packet delay, fairness index, and cell spectral efficiency.