Design and performance evaluation of packet scheduler algorithms for video traffic in the high speed downlink packet access

In order to provide the growing demand of data services, several wireless standards are evolving to support packet data more efficiently. In particular 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) is studying a new access technique called high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) to support UMTS users with high speed data services. The present paper is focused on scheduling problems for video streaming services in the HSDPA. Two classical scheduling algorithms (weighted first queuing and earliest deadline first) are applied to this access technique and a new algorithm, based on an hybrid procedure between the above, is also designed. Furthermore two strategies for radio resource allocation are introduced: frame-by-frame assignment and fast scheduling, respectively. A software simulation using OPNET modeler is performed in order to compare and find out benefits and drawbacks in the application of each above mentioned strategy.