WAY: a resource allocation scheme for packet switched wireless networks

This paper addresses the problem of radio resource allocation for packet switched wireless networks. The proposed approach is based on a FDMA/TDMA scheme with time slot partitioning and exploits the reuse factor concept applied to the time domain. This technique is used in combination with a specific time slot assignment in the MAC protocol, so that radio resources sharing among users within the same cell is controlled, while interference among users belonging to different cells is minimized. The scheme allows mobile users to make soft handovers while they move from one cell to contiguous ones. Adaptive time slot allocation algorithms can be envisioned to deal with hot spot traffic without requiring major frequency allocation replanning. Preliminary performance results that show that throughput benefits can be obtained are presented