Search-Tree Based Uplink Channel Aware Packet Scheduling for UTRAN LTE

UTRAN long term evolution is currently under standardization within 3GPP with the aim of providing a spectral efficiency 2 to 4 times higher than its predecessor HSUPA/HSDPA release 6. Single carrier FDMA has been selected as multiple access for the uplink. This technology requires the subcarriers allocated to a single user to be adjacent. The consequence is a reduced allocation flexibility which makes it challenging to design effective packet scheduling algorithms. This paper provides a search-tree based channel aware packet scheduling algorithm and evaluates its performance in terms of throughput and noise rise distributions. It is shown that, despite measurement errors and high inter-cell interference variability, the proposed algorithm can increase the uplink capacity by 24% for the macro 1 scenario and 19% for the macro 3 scenario.