Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Coordinated load balancing, handoff/cell-site selection, and scheduling in multi-cell packet data systems

  • Published:
Wireless Networks Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We investigate a wireless system of multiple cells, each having a downlink shared channel in support of high-speed packet data services. In practice, such a system consists of hierarchically organized entities including a central server, Base Stations (BSs), and Mobile Stations (MSs). Our goal is to improve global resource utilization and reduce regional congestion given asymmetric arrivals and departures of mobile users, a goal requiring load balancing among multiple cells. For this purpose, we propose a scalable cross-layer framework to coordinate packet-level scheduling, call-level cell-site selection and handoff, and system-level cell coverage based on load, throughput, and channel measurements. In this framework, an opportunistic scheduling algorithm—the weighted Alpha-Rule—exploits the gain of multiuser diversity in each cell independently, trading aggregate (mean) downlink throughput for fairness and minimum rate guarantees among MSs. Each MS adapts to its channel dynamics and the load fluctuations in neighboring cells, in accordance with MSs’ mobility or their arrival and departure, by initiating load-aware handoff and cell-site selection. The central server adjusts schedulers of all cells to coordinate their coverage by prompting cell breathing or distributed MS handoffs. Across the whole system, BSs and MSs constantly monitor their load, throughput, or channel quality in order to facilitate the overall system coordination.

Our specific contributions in such a framework are highlighted by the minimum-rate guaranteed weighted Alpha-Rule scheduling, the load-aware MS handoff/cell-site selection, and the Media Access Control (MAC)-layer cell breathing. Our evaluations show that the proposed framework can improve global resource utilization and load balancing, resulting in a smaller blocking rate of MS arrivals without extra resources while the aggregate throughput remains roughly the same or improved at the hot-spots. Our simulation tests also show that the coordinated system is robust to dynamic load fluctuations and is scalable to both the system dimension and the size of MS population.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. R. Knopp and P.A. Humblet, “Information capacity and power control in single cell multiuser communications,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Commun. (ICC) (June 1995) pp. 331–335.

  2. A. Jalali, R. Padovani and R. Pankaj, “Data throughput of CDMA-HDR a high efficiency-high data rate personal communication wireless system,” in Proc. IEEE Veh. Technol. (VTC) (May 2000) pp. 1854–1858.

  3. X. Liu, E.K.P. Chong and N. B. Shroff, “Opportunistic transmission scheduling with resource-sharing constraints in wireless networks,” IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., Vol. 19, No. 10 (Oct. 2001) pp. 2053–2064.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. M. Andrews, K. Kumaran, K. Ramanan, A. Stolyar, P. Whiting and R. Vijayakumar, “Providing quality of service over a shared wireless link,” IEEE Commun. Mag. (Feb. 2001) pp. 150–154.

  5. P. Viswanath, D.N.C. Tse and R. Laroia, “Opportunistic beamforming using dumb antennas,” IEEE Trans. on Inform. Theory, Vol. 48, No. 6 (June 2002) pp. 1277–1294.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. S. Shakkottai and A. Stolyar, “Scheduling algorithms for a mixture of real-time and non-real-time data in HDR,” in Proc. 17th Int. Teletraffic Congress (ITC-17) (Sep. 2001).

  7. S. Borst, “User-level performance of channel-aware scheduling algorithms in wireless data networks,” in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, San Franscisco, CA (Apr. 2003).

  8. P. Bender et al., “CDMA/HDR: a bandwidth-efficient high-speed wireless data service for nomadic users,” IEEE Commun. Mag. (July 2000) pp. 70–77.

  9. 3GPP2 C.S0024 Version 4.0, CDMA2000 high rate packet data air interface specification (Dec. 2001).

  10. 3GPP Technical Specification 25.308 version 5.2.0, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA): Overall description (March 2002).

  11. S. Das, H. Viswanathan and G. Rittenhouse, “Dynamic load balancing through coordinated scheduling in packet data systems,” in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, San Franscisco, CA (April 2003).

  12. S.V. Hanly, “An algorithm for combined cell-site selection and power control to maximize cellular spread spectrum capacity,” IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., Vol. 13, No. 7 (Sept. 1995) pp. 1332–1340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. R. Yates and C.-Y. Huang, “Integrated power control and base station assignment,” IEEE Trans. on Veh. Technol., Vol. 44, No. 3 (Aug. 1995) pp. 638–644.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Telecommunication Industry Association/Electronics Industry Association Interim Standard (TIA/EIA) IS95 Standard, Mobile Station-base Station Compatibility Standard for Dual-Mode Wideband Spread Spectrum Cellular System, Washington, D.C. (1995) (IS-A) and (1999) (IS-B).

  15. S.K. Das, S.K. Sen, R. Jayaram and P. Agrawal, “A distributed load balancing algorithm for the hot cell problem in cellular mobile networks,” in Proc. Sixth IEEE Int’l Sym. High Perform. Dist. Comput. (Aug. 1997) pp. 254–263.

  16. M. Naghshineh and M. Schwartz, “Distributed call admission control in mobile/wireless networks,” IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., Vol. 14, No. 4 (May 1996) pp. 711–717.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Y. Iraqi and R. Boutaba, “When is it worth involving several cells in the call admission control process for multimedia cellular networks,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Commun. (ICC) (June 2001) pp. 336–340.

  18. G. Bianchi and I. Tinnirello, “Improving load balancing mechanisms in wireless packet networks,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Commun. (ICC) 891–895 (May 2002).

  19. T. Bonald and A. Proutiere, “Wireless downlink data channels: user performance and cell dimensioning,” in Proc. ACM MOBICOM, San Diego, CA (Sept. 2003).

  20. M. Gudmundson, “Correlation model for shadow fading in mobile radio systems,” IEE Electronics Letters, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Nov. 1991) pp. 2145–2146.

    Google Scholar 

  21. X. Liu, E.K.P. Chong and N.B. Shroff, “Transmission scheduling for efficient wireless utilization,” in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM (April 2001).

  22. S. Shenker, “Fundamental design issues for the future internet,” IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., Vol. 13, No. 7 (Sept. 1995) pp. 1176–1188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. C.H. Papadimitriou and K. Steiglitz, Combinatorial Optimization: Algorithms and Complexity, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, New York (1998).

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. A. Sang, X. Wang, M. Madihian and R.D. Gitlin, “Downlink scheduling schemes in cellular packet data systems of multiple-input multiple-output antennas,” in Proc. IEEE GLOBECOM, Dallas, TX (Nov. 2004). A revised version to appear in IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications.

  25. A. Sang, X. Wang, M. Madihian and R.D. Gitlin, “Coordinated load balancing, handoff/cell-site selection, and scheduling in multi-cell packet data systems,” in Proc. ACM MOBICOM, Philadelphia, PA (Oct. 2004).

  26. J. Mo and J. Walrand, “Fair end-to-end window-based congestion control,” IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking, Vol. 8, No. 5 (Oct. 2000) pp. 556–567.

  27. R. Agrawal and V. Subramanian, “Optimality of certain channel-aware scheduling policies,” in Proc. 40th Annual Allerton Conf. Commun., Control, Comp., Monticello, IL (Sept. 2002) pp. 1532–1541.

  28. H.J. Kushner and P.A. Whiting, “Asymptotic properties of proportional fair sharing algorithms,” in Proc. 40th Annual Allerton Conf. Commun., Control, Comp., Monticello, IL (Sept. 2002) pp. 1051–1059.

  29. H.J. Kushner and P.A. Whiting, “Convergence of proportional fair sharing algorithms under general conditions,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., Vol. 3, No. 4 (July 2004) pp. 1250–1259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. V. Tsibonis and L. Georgiadis, “General optimal scheduling policies for wireless time-varying channels,” in Proc. Int’l Conf. on Software, Telecom., and Comp. Net. (SoftCOM) (Oct. 07–10, 2003).

  31. A.L. Stolyar, “On the asymptotic optimality of the gradient scheduling algorithm for multi-user throughput allocation,” Operations Research, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan.–Feb. 2005) pp. 12–25.

  32. M. Andrews, L. Qian and A.L. Stolyar, “Optimal utility-based multi-user throughput allocation subject to throughput constraints,” in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, Miami, Fl. (March 2005).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NEC Laboratories America, 4 Independence Way, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA

    Aimin Sang, Xiaodong Wang, Mohammad Madihian & Richard D. Gitlin

Authors
  1. Aimin Sang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xiaodong Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mohammad Madihian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Richard D. Gitlin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aimin Sang.

Additional information

Aimin Sang received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001. His Ph.D. dissertation is on the measurement-based traffic management for QoS guarantee in multi-service networks. From May 2000 to July 2002, he was a member of technical staff and software engineer at Santera System Inc., a startup company in designing and implementing the next-generation multi-service gateway. His duty was to design, implement, and test core traffic management algorithms on the switch fabric and control boards, integrating IP routing, ATM switching, and Class 4 and 5 telephony switching functionalities for multi-service Internet access at the Central Offices. From July 2002 to Nov. 2002, he was a post-doc at UT-Austin, researching on VPN provisioning and ad hoc sensor networks. He joined NEC Lab America in Nov. 2002.

Dr. Sang is currently a research staff member in Broadband & Mobile Networking Department, NEC Lab. America, focusing on cross-layer design of 4G wireless systems, such as 4G Cellular base station, WiMax/WLAN systems, and their inter-networking architecture. His duty is to develop the core technologies including the radio resource management and QoS schemes over an IP-optimized MC-CDMA or OFCDM/MIMO air interfaces. He is also interested in ad hoc sensor networks and personal area networks.

Xiaodong Wang received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics (with the highest honor) from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 1992; the M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 1995; and the Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 1998. From July 1998 to December 2001, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University. In January 2002, he joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University.

Dr. Wang’s research interests fall in the general areas of computing, signal processing and communications. He has worked in the areas of digital communications, digital signal processing, parallel and distributed computing, nanoelectronics and bioinformatics, and has published extensively in these areas. Among his publications is a recent book entitled “Wireless Communication Systems: Advanced Techniques for Signal Reception”, published by Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, in 2003. His current research interests include wireless communications, Monte Carlo-based statistical signal processing, and genomic signal processing. Dr. Wang received the 1999 NSF CAREER Award, and the 2001 IEEE Communications Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications, the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, and the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.

Mohammad Madihian received the Ph.D. Degree in Electronic Engineering from Shizuoka University, Japan, in 1983. He joined NEC Central Research Laboratories, Kawasaki, Japan, where he worked on research and development of Si and GaAs device-based digital as well as microwave and millimeter-wave monolithic IC’s. In 1999, he moved to NEC Laboratories America, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey, and is presently the Department Head and Chief Patent Officer. He conducts PHY/MAC layer signal processing activities for high-speed wireless networks and personal communications applications. He has authored or co-authored more than 130 scientific publications including 20 invited talks, and holds 35 Japan/US patents. Dr. Madihian has received the IEEE MTT-S Best Paper Microwave Prize in 1988, and the IEEE Fellow Award in 1998. He holds 8 NEC Distinguished R&D Achievement Awards. He has served as Guest Editor to the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Japan IEICE Transactions on Electronics, and IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. He is presently serving on the IEEE Speaker’s Bureau, IEEE Compound Semiconductor IC Symposium (CSICS) Executive Committee, IEEE Radio and Wireless Conference Steering Committee, IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) Technical Program Committee, IEEE MTT-6 Subcommittee, IEEE MTT Editorial Board, and Technical Program Committee of International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials (SSDM). Dr. Madihian is an Adjunct Professor at Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Richard D. Gitlin Is currently President of Innovatia Networks a wireless startup company and a member of the Board of Directors of PCTEL [NASDAQ: PCTI]. Previously he was Visiting Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University and Vice President, Technology of NEC Laboratories America. After receiving his doctorate from Columbia University, he was with Lucent Technologies (Bell Labs), where for more than 32 years he held several research and executive positions, including Senior Vice President, Communications Systems Research and Chief Technical Officer and VP of R&D of Lucent’s Data Networking Business Unit.

Throughout his career Dr. Gitlin has both personally conducted and led pioneering research and development in digital communications and networking, digital signal processing, wireless systems, and broadband networking that has resulted in many innovative products, including: the industry leading ATLANTA ATM Chipset, the world’s first 20 gigabit/sec ATM switch, wire-speed and quality of service [QoS]-aware IP switches, multicode CDMA (IS-95B), and the record-setting BLAST broadband fixed-wireless loop system based on advanced spatial domain (smart antenna) processing. Earlier in his career he led the team that pioneered the V.32/V.34 voice-band modems, and in 1986 he was a co-inventor of the DSL technology. He has more than 90 referred publications, is the recipient of three prize papers, has delivered numerous keynotes, and he holds 43 US patents, and co-author of the text Data Communications. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Mobile Networks and Applications and the Journal of Communications Networks (JCN).

Dr. Gitlin has been elected as a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, is a Fellow of the IEEE, and is a Bell Laboratories Fellow. Dr. Gitlin has served as Chair of the Communication Theory Committee of the IEEE Communications Society, as a member of the COMSOC Awards Board, as Editor for communication theory of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, as a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society, and a member of the Nominations and Elections Board. He has served on the Advisory Committee for Computer Science and Engineering (CISE) of the National Science Foundation.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sang, A., Wang, X., Madihian, M. et al. Coordinated load balancing, handoff/cell-site selection, and scheduling in multi-cell packet data systems. Wireless Netw 14, 103–120 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-006-8533-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-006-8533-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation