Interference Minimization and Dynamic Sub-Carrier Allocation in Broadband Wireless Networks

Efficient channel allocation is the key to fully exploit the signal diversity presented in the multi-carrier physical link in today's broadband wireless access networks. There are mounting evidences that the 4G and future-generation systems will take advantage of two opposite types of access methods, one using centralized control method and the other using a distributed approach. The authors study the distributed channel allocation problem in this article, formulated as a non-linear optimization problem, in broadband wireless networks. The signal properties of the multi-carrier radio interface in 3G and 4G networks are discussed to comprehend the complexity of the channel allocation problem. The authors propose a novel distributed heuristic algorithm based on the particle-swarm searching method. The distributed approach allows user stations to quickly switch sub-carriers with minimum intervention from the base station. The work presented in this paper shows an effective method to allocate a large number of channels while minimizing the possible interference. Extensive numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate several versions of distributed channel allocation algorithm for these new problem settings. The authors' results show that PSO-based method converges quickly in all our numerical experiments despite the high-dimensional searching space. The proposed technologies will eventually allow the true mobile steaming video/audio experience anywhere and anytime, which will have the huge impact to business, entertainment and people's quality of life.