Utility Fair Rate Allocation in LTE/802.11 Networks

TL;DR

This paper presents a distributed method for achieving utility fair rate allocation in heterogeneous LTE/802.11 networks, enabling efficient offloading and path diversity utilization for improved user traffic management.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to solve the non-convex utility fair optimization problem through a sequence of convex problems, facilitating practical implementation.

Findings

Global optimum can be approximated via convex optimization sequences.

Method enables effective LTE and 802.11 offloading.

Exploits path diversity for better traffic demand satisfaction.

Abstract

We consider proportional fair rate allocation in a heterogeneous network with a mix of LTE and 802.11 cells which supports multipath and multihomed operation (simultaneous connection of a user device to multiple LTE BSs and 802.11 APs). We show that the utility fair optimisation problem is non-convex but that a global optimum can be found by solving a sequence of convex optimisations in a distributed fashion. The result is a principled approach to offload from LTE to 802.11 and for exploiting LTE/802.11 path diversity to meet user traffic demands.