Near optimal resource allocation algorithm for users with proportional data rate fairness in MU-OFDM systems

We optimize the throughput of a single cell multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system with proportional data rate fairness requirements. The concept is to support mobile users with different levels of service. The optimization problem is a mixed binary integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, which is computationally very expensive. We propose a computationally efficient near-optimal solution. The original MINLP problem is broken down to two subproblems by introducing auxiliary optimization variables and employing integer relaxation. A stochastic multi-start approach is invoked to facilitate escape from possible local minima. The simulation results show that the proposed solution exhibits very strong adherence to the desired proportional data rate fairness while achieving higher system throughput compared to the other existing solutions.