Optimal Energy Efficient Resource Allocation for Heterogeneous Multi-Homing Networks

This paper studies the problem of resource allocation for uplink multi-homing users in heterogeneous network where users can simultaneously transmit data to multiple radio access networks (RANs). The considered design problem is to optimally assign bandwidth and power to each user-RAN connection so as to maximize the overall energy efficiency of the network subject to QoS requirements and resource budgets. By the definition of energy efficiency which is the ratio of the aggregate throughput to the power consumption, the resulting problem is formulated as a fractional program. Then, we propose an energy efficient algorithm using the Dinkelback method that solves a series of convex problems to obtain the optimal design. Particularly, we derive closed-form expressions for the design parameters and provide useful insights into the proposed energy efficient resource allocation algorithm. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is superior to other resource allocation strategies in terms of energy efficiency.