Uplink Scheduling and Power Allocation for M2M Communications in SC-FDMA-Based LTE-A Networks With QoS Guarantees

Providing diverse and strict quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees is one of the most important requirements in machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, which is particularly need for appropriate resource allocation for a large number of M2M devices. To efficiently allocate resource blocks (RBs) for M2M devices while satisfying QoS requirements, we propose group-based M2M communications, in which M2M devices are clustered based on their wireless transmission protocols, their QoS characteristics, and their requirements. To perform joint RB and power allocation in SC-FDMA-based LTE-A networks, we formulate a sum-throughput maximization problem, while respecting all the constraints associated with SC-FDMA scheme, as well as QoS requirements in M2M devices. The constraints in uplink SC-FDMA air interface in LTE-A networks complicate the resource allocation problem. We solve the resource allocation problem by first transforming it into a binary integer programming problem and then formulate a dual problem using the Lagrange duality theory. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms traditional Greedy algorithm in terms of throughput maximization while satisfying QoS requirements, and its performance is close to the optimal design.