Min-max power allocation for successive decoding

This paper studies resource allocation in the multi-access, fading channel, with power constraints. Given a desired bit rate vector R^* , we wish to determine if it is possible to achieve it with a power budget P¯: the call admissions problem. If so, we wish to achieve it using “minimal” power: the resource allocation problem. We take a min-max fairness approach to determining the “minimum” power. Using “power prices” that arise from a Lagrangian characterization of the Shannon capacity region, we provide an algorithm to vary the power prices to obtain the solution to the min-max resource allocation problem. This algorithm simultaneously solves the call admissions problem