Max-utility resource allocation for indoor small cell networks

The development of indoor small cell provides network operators with new opportunities to address surging mobile data traffic, coverage infill and capacity boost scenarios, and finally results in growing expectations relative to quality of experience (QoE). However, the deployment of indoor small cell base station also raises some resource allocation issues. This study aims to propose an max-utility resource allocation mechanism that maximises all users’ utility for indoor small cell networks. The objective of the proposed max-utility resource allocation algorithm is to optimise the total user's QoE while guaranteeing as many as possible users can enjoy their request service at an acceptable quality. This is achieved by considering user's QoE state and signal strength into the resource allocation algorithm. Multiservice scenario is also considered in the proposed max-utility resource allocation algorithm. To compare the performance of the proposed max-utility resource allocation mechanism with round-robin, max-throughput and max-minMOS approach, a simulation analysis is implemented. The simulation result showed that the proposed strategy achieves the best average utility compared with other approaches. Result also showed that the proposed strategy is suitable for indoor small cell networks under various kinds of scenarios with different user behaviours and network topologies.