Auction Based Distributed Resource Allocation for Delay Aware OFDM Based Cloud-RAN System

Cloud-radio access network (C-RAN) is regarded as a promising solution to manage heterogeneity and scalability of future wireless networks. The centralized cooperative resource allocation and interference cancellation methods in C-RAN significantly reduce the interference levels to provide high data rates. However, the centralized solution will not be scalable due to the dense deployment of small cells with fractional frequency reuse by small cells, causing severe inter-tier and inter-cell interference turning the resource allocation and user association into a more challenging problem. In this paper, we propose an auction based distributed resource allocation method (ADRA) for a two-tier OFDM based C-RAN system. We investigate a joint user association, radio resource and power allocation problem for small cells underlying a macro C-RAN system. First, we establish a queueing model in C- RAN. We then formulate an optimization problem for joint user association and resource allocation with the aim to minimize mean response time. Resource allocation, interference and queueing stability constraints are considered in the optimization problem. To solve this problem, we propose a distributed method where small cell users and small cell base stations jointly participate using the concept of auction theory. The ADRA method is evaluated via simulations by considering the different ratio of bandwidth utilization.