QoS-Based Resource Allocation with Cooperative Diversity in OFDMA

Cooperative diversity at a system level is a promising method to improve the performance of the users located at the border of cells in distributed cellular networks. In this paper, we propose a Quality-of-Service based resource allocation algorithm for downlink OFDMA, in which Base Stations trigger cooperative diversity for users requiring a minimum data rate. As Downlink cooperation increases the spectral efficiency for users at the border of the cells, it enables to decrease the power required for these users. The remaining Best Effort users can then be served with more power, therefore increasing their sum throughput. The proposed distributed method is compared with other resource allocation techniques, and proves to be very efficient for the users with both types of Quality of Service.