Resource allocation with proportional rate fairness in orthogonal frequency division multiple access relay networks

We address the problem of subchannel and transmission power allocation in orthogonal frequency division multiple access relay networks with an aim to maximize the sum rate and maintain proportional rate fairness among users. Because the formulated problem is a mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problem with an extremely high computational complexity, we propose a low-complexity suboptimal algorithm, which is a two-step separated subchannel and power allocation algorithm. In the first step, subchannels are allocated to each user, whereas in the second step, the optimal power allocation is carried out on the basis of the given subchannel allocation and the nonlinear interval Gauss–Seidel method. Simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed algorithm can achieve a good trade-off between the efficiency and the fairness compared with two other existing relevant algorithms. In particular, the proposed algorithm can always achieve 100% fairness under various conditions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.