Comparative Performance Study of LTE Uplink Schedulers

Abstract

Long Term Evolution (LTE) constitutes a significant milestone in the evolution of 3G systems towards fourth generation (4G) technologies. The performance targets promised by LTE makes it an ideal solution to accommodate the ever increasing demand for wireless broadband. LTE's promised performance targets were made possible due to improvements such as a simplified system access architecture and a fully IP-based platform. LTE has also great enhancements in its enabling radio technologies by introducing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and advanced antenna technologies. In addition, LTE capabilities are further improved with enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) support for multiple data services, such as voice and other multimedia applications.

LTE packet scheduling plays an essential role as part of LTE's Radio Resource Management (RRM) to enhance the system's data rate and to support the diverse QoS requirements of mobile services. LTE packet scheduler should intelligently allocate radio resources to mobile User Equipments (UEs) such that the LTE network adheres to its performance requirements. In our work, we perform a performance evaluation of multiple LTE scheduling algorithms proposed for LTE uplink transmission. The evaluation takes place in single and mixed traffic scenarios to exploit the strengths and weaknesses of proposed algorithms. Simulation results illustrated the importance of a scheduler's awareness of uplink channel conditions and QoS requirements in the presence of single and multiple traffic scenarios. Accordingly, we provide recommendations for future scheduling algorithm proposals, and ways to enhance the existing schedulers.