Abstract-In this paper we focus on resource allocation for next generation wireless communication systems with aggregation of multiple Component Carriers (CCs), i.e., how to assign the CCs to each user, and how to multiplex multiple users in each CC. We first investigate two carrier load balancing methods for allocating the CCs to the users-Round Robin (RR) and Mobile Hashing (MH) balancing -by means of a simple theoretical formulation, as well as system level simulations. At Layer-2 we propose a simple cross-CC packet scheduling algorithm that improves the coverage performance and the resource allocation fairness among users, as compared to independent scheduling per CC. The Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced is selected for the case study of a multi-carrier system. In such a system, RR provides better performance than MH balancing, and the proposed simple scheduling algorithm is shown to be effective in providing up to 90% coverage gain with no loss of the overall cell throughput, as compared to independent scheduling per CC.Index Terms-Multi-carrier, carrier aggregation, load balancing, packet scheduling, LTE-Advanced.
Carrier aggregation (CA) is one of the key features for LTE-Advanced. By means of CA, users gain access to a total bandwidth of up to 100 MHz in order to meet the IMT-Advanced requirements. The system bandwidth may be contiguous, or composed of several non-contiguous bandwidth chunks, which are aggregated. This paper presents a summary of the supported CA scenarios as well as an overview of the CA functionality for LTE-Advanced with special emphasis on the basic concept, control mechanisms, and performance aspects. The discussion includes definitions of the new terms primary cell (PCell) and secondary cell (SCell), mechanisms for activation and deactivation of CCs, and the new cross-CC scheduling functionality for improved control channel optimizations. We also demonstrate how CA can be used as an enabler for simple yet effective frequency domain interference management schemes. In particular, interference management is anticipated to provide significant gains in heterogeneous networks, envisioning intrinsically uncoordinated deployments of home base stations.
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