Published in IET Communications

Received on 10th August 2011

Revised on 27th January 2012
doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2011.0560
ISSN 1751-8628
Interference aware resource allocation in orthogonal
frequency-division multiple access-based relay
networks
E.S. Alikhani B. Mahboobi M. Ardebilipour
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
E-mail: B.Mahboobi@ee.kntu.ac.ir
Abstract: Adaptive radio resource allocation in a cellular and multiuser orthogonal frequency-division multiple access
(OFDMA)-based relay network is studied here. The authors have considered a margin adaptive optimisation problem to
minimise the total transmitted power of the base and relay stations subject to the requested data rates of the users. In this
study, a novel algorithm is presented for subcarrier allocation to the users with frequency reusing in the network. The
interference among users in non-adjacent cells has been considered in the proposed algorithm which results in interference
aware power allocation. Tolerable bit error rate is satised as quality of service (QoS) factor for each subcarrier. Linear
programming approach has been proposed to solve this problem, such that power allocation problem is isolated for each of
the subcarriers and total transmitted power is minimised in the network. According to this technique, the cost of interference
in the system in terms of the excess consumed power to satisfy QoS constraints can be computed. The gain achieved in the
power consumption is demonstrated through the simulations and the results are compared with the previous works.
1 Introduction
Owing to the increasing demands of quality of service (QoS)
in wireless networks, multiuser orthogonal frequency-
division multiple access (OFDMA)-based relay networks
have recently been in the focus of attention in wireless
systems. Using relays improves network performance by
extending coverage, enhancing capacity and reducing costs.
Efcient resource allocation algorithms are necessary to
satisfy the requests of communication services. Resource
allocation problem has been extensively investigated with
different objective and constraint functions in a variety of
networks and scenarios.
In [1], different resource allocation algorithms have been
surveyed for the downlink of multiuser orthogonal
frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The
authors in [1] categorise the algorithms into two major
classes: margin adaptive (MA) and rate adaptive (RA). In
the rst class, the objective is to minimise the total
transmitted power with the constraint on the data rate of the
users, whereas in the second class the objective is to
maximise the total throughput with the constraint on the
total power. Optimal bit loading and subcarrier allocation to
solve MA and RA problems in a multiuser OFDM system
have been formulated in [2, 3], respectively. The results
demonstrate that dynamic resource allocation saves power
and increases capacity, compared with the static multiuser
OFDM systems. The non-linear optimisation problems in
[2, 3] have integer variables and can be solved only after
relaxation of the variables to the real numbers. The authors
in [4] have focused on reformulation of these non-linear
optimisation problems into the integer programming (IP).
They have shown that joint subcarrier and power allocation
can be performed by optimal subcarrier and bit allocation.
Owing to the high complexity of the IP, transportation of IP
problem to the suboptimal problems has been considered in
[4]. Therefore linear programming (LP) and suboptimal
Vogels method have been proposed to solve the
transportation problem for the subcarrier allocation.
Besides, MA and RA problems have been solved in a
multiuser OFDM system, whereas a xed set of discrete
modulation levels has been considered. In [5], MA and RA
problems have been formulated and solved for a continuous
modulation set in a multiuser OFDM system. Subcarrier
allocation in [5] is a non-convex problem; however, the
authors have observed that the solutions using Lagrange
dual relaxation method result in a performance near to the
optimal, especially as the number of subcarriers increases.
Subgradient methods such as ellipsoid method, which have
slow convergence and high complexity, lead to the joint
optimal subcarrier and power allocation. The problems in
[4, 5] have been, respectively, extended in [6, 7] for a
multiuser OFDMA-based relay network. In [6], the MA
problem for power minimisation and a dynamic method for
subframe allocation have been proposed. Base station (BS)
and relay stations (RSs) transmissions are occurred in the
rst and second subframes, respectively. Subcarrier
allocation and adaptive bit loading are separately performed
in each of the subframes, as done in [4]. In [7], joint
subframe, bandwidth and power allocation to minimise
1364 IET Commun., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 11, pp. 13641373
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2012 doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2011.0560
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power and satisfy the rate constraints have been studied with
optimal and suboptimal algorithms. It has been shown that the
proposed suboptimal algorithm has a performance near to the
ellipsoid optimal solution.
In the described previous works, each subcarrier can be
used by at most one user and so the interference among the
users does not happen. The frequency reusing technique has
not been considered in the mentioned works. Therefore
increased numbers of the users and data rates result in an
increase in the total transmitted power of the system.
In this paper, an MA optimisation problem is considered
that minimises the total downlink transmitted power of the
BS and RSs subject to the requested data rate of the users.
Each two-hop relay network can be presented as a scenario;
however, we have considered a cellular network as a
scenario for developing the algorithms and simulations. BS
and RSs are located in centre of the cells and the users are
distributed randomly in the network. We have proposed a
dynamic method for user assignment to the central stations
based on the channel conditions to minimise power
consumption of the network. In this paper, a dynamic
algorithm is proposed for subcarrier allocation to the users
with frequency reusing in the relay transmissions. This
algorithm can be applied to different frequency reusing
factors in the cellular network. We have also proposed a
novel technique based on the LP for interference
cancellation in the cellular network. Three cases are studied
in this paper to compute the total transmitted power of the
BS and RSs. In the rst case, power is allocated to the
subcarriers without frequency reusing. In the second case,
using the proposed algorithm, power is allocated to the
subcarriers with frequency reusing in the network. In the
third case, power is allocated to the subcarriers while
frequency reusing and considering interference in the
cellular network. Interference powers of each set of
subcarriers are allocated via solving an optimisation
problem for each of the sets. Tolerable bit error rate is
satised as QoS factor for each subcarrier. Comparison
between these cases in total transmitted power has been
performed for a different number of users and requested
data rates.
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 presents the
system model and our considered scenario. Section 3
develops the problem formulation. In Section 4, a dynamic
method for user assignment to the central stations is
proposed. Subcarrier allocation with frequency reusing and
interference aware power allocation are presented in
Sections 5 and 6, respectively. Section 7 focuses on the
simulation parameters and results. Also, discussion of the
paper is presented in Section 8. Finally, the conclusion is
provided in Section 9.
2 System model and considered scenario
The topology we have considered for OFDMA-based relay
network consists of a BS; some xed located RSs and some
random located mobile stations (MSs). The system has been
considered with K links, N subcarriers and the total
bandwidth of B is divided into N subcarriers. It is assumed
that the transmissions experience path loss, Rayleigh fading
and log-normal shadowing. Channel conditions are assumed
to be static during a frame and coherence time of the
channel assumes to be larger than the frame duration. Each
subchannel experiences slow at fading and transmissions
can occur in different subchannels. There are K
1
links for
BSMS and BSRS transmissions in the rst subframe
and K
2
links for RSMS transmissions in the second
subframe (K
1
+K
2
K). RSs use decode-and-forward
system to relay between BS and MSs. BS receives
downlink channel information from RSs and MSs. Using
channel information, BS assigns a set of subcarriers to each
link and determines the number of bits per OFDM symbol
to be transmitted through each subcarrier. Fig. 1 shows a
general two-hop relay network.
3 Problem formulation
Several notations are introduced to describe the optimisation
problems. R
k
signies the data rate of the link k and is equal to
the number of bits that should be transmitted in an OFDM
symbol. We use c
k,n
to denote the number of bits of the kth
link assigned to the nth subcarrier. It is assumed that
c
k,n
[ D, where D is a set of non-negative integers C
m
.
C
m
is the maximum number of bits per symbol that can be
transmitted by each subcarrier. Now, data rate R
k
can be
expressed in (1) in terms of c
k,n
and r
k,n
[4], where r
k,n
is
the index variable to express subcarrier allocation and can
be dened by
R
k
=

N
n=1
c
k,n
r
k,n
, k = 1, 2, . . . , K (1)
r
k,n
=
_
0, c
k,n
= 0,
1, otherwise,

K
k=1
r
k,n
= 1, n = 1, 2, . . . , N
(2)
The sum equality part of (2) means that a subcarrier can be
occupied only by one link and the links cannot share
Fig. 1 Two-hop relay network with BSRS and BSMS
transmissions in the rst subframe and RSMS transmissions in
the second subframe
IET Commun., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 11, pp. 13641373 1365
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subcarriers. The transmission power allocated to the link k
and subcarrier n is given by
P
k,n
= f
k
(c
k,n
)/g
k,n
(3)
For brevity, Table 1 lists the parameters notation and
denition used in this work. The MA problem to minimise
the total transmitted power is given by the following
standard optimisation form
Minimise
c
k,n
,r
k,n
P
T
=

K
k=1

N
n=1
f
k
(c
k,n
)
g
k,n
r
k,n
Subject to
R
k
=

N
n=1
c
k,n
r
k,n
, k = 1, 2, . . . , K

K
k=1
r
k,n
= 1, n = 1, 2, . . . , N
(4)
The solution to the problem (4) can be obtained from the
optimal IP for nding subcarrier allocation indexes [4].
Owing to NP hard computational complexity in IP, the
problem is converted to another form to be solved via
suboptimal LP and other heuristic methods. Assuming that
the loaded bits to the assigned subcarriers are equal, the
problem (4) can be given by
Minimise
r
k,n
P
T
=

K
k=1

N
n=1
f
k
(c
k,n
)
g
k,n
r
k,n
Subject to

N
n=1
r
k,n
= R
k
/c
k
, k = 1, 2, . . . , K

K
k=1
r
k,n
= 1, n = 1, 2, . . . , N
(5)
The parameter c
k
is the optimal bits for each of the links,
which is needed to solve (5). To compute c
k
, average
channel gain is dened in (6) and it is assumed that the
channel gain of each subcarrier is equal to the average
value (7)
g
k
=
1
N

N
n=1
g
k,n
, k = 1, 2, . . . , K (6)
g
k,n
=
g
k
if r
k,n
= 1
0 otherwise
_
(7)
Considering these assumptions and the rst constraint in (5),
the objective function in (5) can be expressed as
Minimise
c
k

K
k=1
f
k
(c
k
)
g
k,n
R
k
c
k
(8)
Now, the problem for obtaining c
k
can be expressed as
follows
Minimise
c
k

K
k=1
f
k
(c
k
)
g
k,n
R
k
c
k
Subject to

N
n=1
R
k
/c
k
= N, k = 1, 2, . . . , K
(9)
Using the method of Lagrange multipliers and considering the
convexity of the function f
k
(c
k
)/c
k
, the optimisation problem
(9) can be represented by
min
c
k
L(c
k
, l) =

K
k=1
f
k
(c
k
)
R
k
c
k
g
k
l

K
k=1
(R
k
/c
k
) N
_ _
(10)
Differentiating L(c
k
, l) with respect to c
k
and setting the result
to zero, and regarding the constraint equation in (9), the
following equations can be obtained. Prime symbol in (11)
Table 1 Problems parameters
Parameter Description
K number of links
N number of subcarriers
B total bandwidth of the system
N
0
PSD of AWGN
k [ {1, 2, . . . , K}, n [ {1, 2, . . . , N} link index and subcarrier index
c
k,n
[ D number of bits of the kth user assigned to the nth subcarrier
D {0, 2, 4, . . . , C
m
} set of non-negative integers C
m
C
m
maximum number of bits/symbol can be transmitted by
subcarriers
r
k,n
=
_
0, c
k,n
= 0,
1, otherwise,

K
k=1
r
k,n
= 1
index variable for subcarrier allocation
R
k
=

N
n=1
c
k,n
r
k,n
link requested data rate
f (c) =
N
0
B
3N
Q
1
P
e
4
_ _ _ _
2
(2
c
1)Q
1
(x) = inverseQfunction
received power for reception of c bits (M-QAM modulation)
g
k,n
channel gain of link ks subcarrier n
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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2012 doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2011.0560
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denotes directive of the function with respect to the c
k
f
k
(c
k
) f

k
(c
k
)c
k
lg
k
= 0, k = 1, 2, . . . , K

K
k=1
R
k
/c
k
N = 0
_

_
(11)
Problem (11) is solved using a numerical technique such as
the vector-form Newtons method. As a result, the optimal
bits c

k
can be obtained. Applying c

k
to the problem (5)
results in the following optimisation problem
Minimise
r
k,n
P
T
=

K
k=1

N
n=1
f
k
(c

k
)
g
k,n
r
k,n
Subject to

N
n=1
r
k,n
= R
k
/c

k
, k = 1, 2, . . . , K

K
k=1
r
k,n
= 1, n = 1, 2, . . . , N
(12)
Subcarriers are allocated to the links via solving the problem
(12) and nding r
k,n
indexes. Hence in the next step, a
dynamic and greedy bit loading algorithm can be performed
on the subcarriers, similar to the single-user OFDM [3]. We
should modify bit loading algorithm because of loading the
bits from an even set of integer numbers. This modied
algorithm can be expressed in Fig. 2.
The initialisation stage computes, for each of the
subcarriers, the additional power needed to transmit the
additional bits. For each of the bit assignment iterations,
the subcarrier that needs the minimum additional power is
assigned two more bits and the new additional power for
that subcarrier is updated. After R
k
/2 iterations, the nal bit
assignment gives the optimal bit allocation for each subcarrier.
Resource allocation in OFDMA-based relay networks
needs to subframe allocation, at rst. Subframe allocation to
the BS and RS should be performed before subcarrier
allocation and bit loading on each link in these networks
[6]. A frame is divided into two subframes. The rst
subframe consists of L
1
slots indexed by 1 to L
1
and the
second subframe consists of L
2
slots indexed by L
1
+1 to
the slot L. We need to have an estimation of the total
transmitted power to allocate the subframes. The size of the
subframes is chosen in such a way that the total power is
minimised. Requested data rate for each subframe is given
by (13) and we have estimated the total transmitted power
as shown in (14)
R
(m)
k
=
L
L
m
R
k
, m [ {1, 2} (13)

P
m
=

k[K
m
R
k

l[K
m
R
l
Nf
k
(c

k
)
g
k
, m [ {1, 2},
k = 1, 2, . . . , K, K
1
+K
2
= K (14)
In (14) an arithmetic mean value is chosen and each power is
weighted by its normalised requested data rate. Power
estimation has been formed so that it allocates more
subcarriers to the link with higher requested data rate. The
parameter m in (13) and (14) is subframe index and

P
m
is
the estimated power of the base and relay transmissions.
The problem to calculate suboptimal size of the subframes
is a minmax problem and the ordered pair of L
1
and L
2
can be expressed by (15) and then (16) can be formed for
subcarrier and power allocation in each of the subframes
(L

1
, L

2
) = arg min max
L
1
,L
2
{

P
1
,

P
2
} (15)
Minimise
r
(m)
k,n
P
T
=

k[K
m

n=1
f
k
(c

k
)
g
k,n
r
(m)
k,n
Subject to

N
n=1
r
(m)
k,n
= R
(m)
k
/c

k
, k = 1, 2, . . . , K, m [ {1, 2}

k[K
m
r
(m)
k,n
= 1 n, m [ {1, 2}
(16)
4 User assignment to the central stations
Fig. 3 shows our considered scenario after dynamic user
assignment. Users connected with the line to a central
station belong to that station. Solid lines in Fig. 3
demonstrate K
1
links in the rst subframe transmissions and
dashed lines demonstrate K
2
links in the second subframe
transmissions. User assignment to the central stations is
performed based on the channel conditions. This method
allocates the user to a central station which has the best
average channel gain to that user. A loop with M iterations
is considered for the algorithm. Any iteration species the
central station that provides the best channel gain for the
considered user. Simulation results demonstrate that about
50 iterations are enough to perform a fair assignment (Fig. 4).
5 Subcarrier allocation in the network
In summary, the following steps are necessary to solve the
optimisation problem (16):
1. user assignment to the central stations,
2. subframe allocation to the BS and RS links,
3. subcarrier allocation to the links,
4. bit loading on the assigned subcarriers,
Fig. 2 Algorithm 1: Greedy bit loading algorithm on the
subcarriers
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5. power allocation to each of the subcarriers and total power
calculation.
Three cases are described for subcarrier and power
allocation, in Sections 5 and 6, respectively. In these sections,
Section 5.1 describes subcarrier and power allocation done
in the previous works, and Sections 5.2 and 5.3 represent our
proposed algorithms.
5.1 Subcarrier allocation without frequency
reusing
Suboptimal algorithms allocate subcarriers to the links to
minimise the total transmitted power of the network [4].
One of these algorithms executes upon ordering the links
based on a penalty function and also the number of optimal
bits for each link. If r
k,n
is dened as cost function, the
penalty function P(k) is dened as the difference between
the smallest cost and the (n
k
+1)th smallest cost. The
parameter n
k
= R
k
/c

k
is the number of subcarriers that
must be allocated to each link [4]. The cost function r
k,n
and penalty function P(k) are given by (17) and (18),
respectively
r
k,n
W f
k
(c

k
)/g
k,n
(17)
P(k) W r
n
k
+1
k
r
1
k
(18)
This algorithm allocates the subcarriers to the links without
frequency reusing. After running the algorithm, Sub
k
different sets for each link k 1, 2, . . . , K are obtained.
The links cannot share the subcarriers; hence these sets are
disjoint. It is obvious that an increase in the number of the
links results in a decrease in the number of allocated
subcarriers. Consequently, the number of loaded bits and
the total transmitted power of the network increase.
Subcarrier allocation algorithm without frequency reusing is
presented in Fig. 5.
5.2 Subcarrier allocation with frequency reusing
and ignored interference
Conceptually, the frequency reusing term refers to the case
where the allocated subcarriers to each cell can be reused in
a regular pattern of areas, called cells. To ensure that the
mutual interference between the users remains below a
harmful level, adjacent cells have to use different
frequencies. In fact, a set of C different frequencies {f
1
,
f
2
, . . . , f
C
} is used for each cluster of C adjacent cells
without sharing; but non-adjacent cells can reuse the same
subcarriers. The number of allocated subcarriers to the users
in a network with frequency reusing is more than a non-
frequency reusing network. This provides a signicant gain
in minimising the total power consumption, especially when
the bandwidth demand or number of users increases.
Frequency reusing and interference management problems
have been previously studied for various scenarios. In [8],
the authors have proposed a new scheme named as power
division reuse partitioning balance between inter-cell
interference and spectral efciency in the system. Cells are
spliced into two regions, the inner and the outer. The
different subcarriers are allocated for the outer regions of
the neighbouring cells. On the other hand, the same
subcarriers are reused in the inner regions. In [9], exible
design of frequency reuse factor in OFDMA cellular
networks has been proposed which utilises non-integer
cluster sizes in the cellular network. The authors in [10]
have focused on the resource allocation in multi-cell
OFDMA-based relay networks and presented a geometric
programming method for power control to alleviate the
severe inter-cell interference problem.
In this paper, the proposed algorithm for subcarrier
allocation is not restricted to any user number or data rate.
However, overloading any system may require an excess
control mechanism. Frequency reusing is performed in the
second subframe and RS links [11, 12]. In Sections 5.1,
because of allocating different subcarriers to each user, the
sum of n
k
for k 1, 2, . . . , K must be N. It should be
noted that the proposed algorithm can remove this
Fig. 4 Algorithm 2: Dynamic algorithm for user assignment to the central stations
Fig. 3 Cellular network after dynamic user assignment to the
central stations
1368 IET Commun., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 11, pp. 13641373
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2012 doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2011.0560
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constraint because of its ability for frequency reusing. In the
rst step, the algorithm calculates n

k
for each user. Initially,
the least number of bits (c
min
2) for subcarriers is
considered, therefore each user can approach to the
maximum value of the subcarriers, which is n

k
R
k
/c
min
for k 1, 2, . . . , K
2
. In this step, there is no metric to order
the users, and users in any iteration are, respectively,
selected form U. Subcarriers that minimise the respective
cost function are allocated to the selected user in any
iteration. The algorithm is modied so that no intra-cell
interference remains in the system. Based on the applied
frequency reusing factor for the algorithm, S

i
is updated
differently in the iterations of the algorithm. S

i
denotes the
subcarrier sets considering ith cell, so that these sets do not
share the same subcarriers with the ith cell. Formation of S

i
is in direct relation to the frequency reusing factor of the
cellular network. For a better comparison of our results with
similar studies in the literatures, the number of users is
selected in order of the users number in [8, 9]. The rst
step of the subcarrier allocation algorithm with frequency
reusing is presented in Fig. 6.
In the second step of the algorithm, n

k
is initialised
based on the rst step of the algorithm outputs. Users are
selected so that the penalty function in any iteration is
maximised. Subcarriers are allocated so that the related cost
function of the selected user is minimised. As the users are
ordered based on the penalty function, the subcarriers
may be distributed unfairly among the users. Therefore the
sets Sub
2
k
, k = 1, 2, . . . , K
2
in the second step are not
suitable for the nal allocation. This step is demonstrated in
Fig. 7.
The last step of the algorithm fairly allocates the subcarriers
to the users, according to the set of the users (U
k
) that is
obtained in the second step. This step is stated in Fig. 8.
Fig. 6 Algorithm 4: First step of the proposed subcarrier allocation algorithm with frequency reusing
Fig. 5 Algorithm 3: Dynamic subcarrier allocation to the links without frequency reusing
IET Commun., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 11, pp. 13641373 1369
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5.3 Subcarrier allocation with frequency reusing
and interference modelling
Subcarriers are allocated to the users based on mentioned
descriptions of the Section 5.2.
6 Power allocation in the network
In this section three cases have been described for power
allocation.
6.1 Power allocation without frequency reusing
6.2 Power allocation with frequency reusing and
ignored interference
After subcarrier allocation to the users in Sections 5.1 and 5.2,
power can be allocated based on the described bit loading
algorithm in Section 3. According to the parameters given
in Table 1, (3) is used for computing the power of the link
k and subcarrier n.
6.3 Power allocation with frequency reusing and
interference modelling
In the real wireless environment, interference exists among the
users which share the same subcarriers. Hence, in this section,
interference in non-adjacent cells should be modelled. In
Section 6.2, power allocation was performed while ignoring
the interference in the system. In Section 6.3, power
allocation to the subcarriers is investigated while interference
is considered and bit error rate is satised as QoS factor for
each subcarrier. System is considered with the total number of
N subcarriers, K
2
users in relay transmissions and P RSs.
The parameters 1 n N, 1 k K
2
and 1 p P
signify subcarrier, user and cell indexes, respectively.
Operator A has been used for element-by-element production.
Various parameters are introduced to approach to the
general power optimisation problem for interference
network. User-relay channel gain matrix for each of
the subcarriers is denoted by G
n
PK
2
= (g
n
pk
) which g
n
pk
is
the channel gain between kth user and pth relay for the
subcarrier n. H denotes binary user-relay matrix for each set
of interference subcarriers. H
n
PK
2
= (h
n
pk
) which h
n
pk
is one
if subcarrier n allocated to the user k has been used in cell
p and is zero otherwise. F is a square matrix which is
constructed via the element-by-element production of G and
H, (F
n
p
i
p
i
= G
n
PK
2
H
n
PK
2
); and only non-zero elements
have been considered in this matrix. Absence of the
Table 2 Simulation parameters
Parameter Value
number of BSs 1
number of RSs 6
number of MSs 14161820
number of subcarriers 128
bandwidth 1 MHz
AWGN p.s.d. (N
0
) 2174 dBm/Hz
shape of the cells hexagonal
side length of the hexagons 400 m
path loss from BS to RS in dB where d is the distance in metres 38.5 +23.5
10
(d)
path loss from BS to MS and from RS to MS in dB 38.4 +35log
10
(d)
standard deviation of BSRS log-normal fading 3.4 dB
standard deviation of BSMS and RSMS log-normal fading 8 dB
frame duration 40 Slots
requested data rates of each link (RSs and MSs) (bits/OFDM symbol)
R
k
= 12, R
k
= 16, R
k
= 20
R
k
= 24, R
k
= 28
tolerable bit error rate 10
24
number of channel realisation for each simulation 1000
Fig. 7 Algorithm 5: Second step of the proposed subcarrier
allocation algorithm with frequency reusing
Fig. 8 Algorithm 6: Third step of the proposed subcarrier
allocation algorithm with frequency reusing
1370 IET Commun., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 11, pp. 13641373
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2012 doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2011.0560
www.ietdl.org
common subcarriers in the cells causes that the dimension of
F be equal to the cells, which have interference for the
subcarrier n( p
i
). J is the non-interference signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) matrix with the dimension equal to F. In this
matrix, the main diagonal elements are equal to 21 and the
remained elements can be computed through the equation
g
n
p

k
= T
sub
P
n
p

k
g
n
p

k
/N
0
( p

=k, 1 p

p
i
). The parameter
P
n
p

k
denotes the non-interference transmitted power from
pth relay to the kth user that can be obtained after
subcarrier allocation and bit loading on the subcarriers. N
0
is the primary power spectral density of the noise without
interference. T
sub
N/B expresses the time for transmitting
data by each of the subcarriers, where N is the total number of
subcarriers and B is the total bandwidth of the system.
Interference power vector x, x
n
p
i
1
=P
n
p
i
1
=[P
n
1
P
n
2
, . . . , P
n
p
i
]
T
is the optimisation variable of problem (19) and the vector G,
G
n
p
i
1
=[g
n
1
g
n
2
, . . . , g
n
p
i
]
T
denotes the non-interference SNR
vector. Considering the explained parameters, general
optimisation problem of the network can be expressed in (19).
The objective function in (19) minimises the total transmitted
power in the network and the constraint satises
SINR
new
SNR to guarantee the QoS factor for each of the
subcarriers
minf
T
x
Subject to
_
G
n
PK
2
H
n
PK
2
.........,,.........
F
n
p
i
p
i
J
n
p
i
p
i
_
x
p
i
1

N
0
T
sub
G
p
i
1
x 0
_

_
(19)
f in (19) is the unit vector with the dimension equal to x. LP
technique has been used to solve the optimisation problems
set in (19).
7 Simulation parameters and results
Simulation parameters are shown in Table 2. The cumulative
distribution functions (CDFs) of the total transmitted power
for three sections 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 are calculated and
demonstrated as P1, P2 and P3, respectively (Figs. 9 and
10). FRU and Int. denote the frequency reusing and
Fig. 9 CDF of total BS and RSs power for R
k
20, 28 and 16 users (1000 channel realisation)
Fig. 10 CDF of total BS and RSs power for R
k
20, 28 and 20 users (1000 channel realisation)
IET Commun., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 11, pp. 13641373 1371
doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2011.0560 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2012
www.ietdl.org
interference in these gures, respectively. Number of users is
14, 16, 18 and 20. Besides, the requested data rates are set to
be 12, 16, 20, 24 and 28 bits per OFDM symbol in the
simulations. CDF of P3 in Figs. 9 and 10 shows the total
transmitted power while considering interference. Real
improvement in power consumption relative to the non-
frequency reusing state is the difference between P1 and P3.
Fig. 11 shows the average total transmitted power for a
xed number of users and different data rates. Similar
results for a xed data rate and different number of users
have been demonstrated in Fig. 12.
Another important and considerable point is the feasibility
of problem (19). The constraint SINR
new
SNR may not be
satised for one or more subcarriers in relation to the special
values of the random channel gains. In these cases, the
problem has no answer and the QoS factor cannot be
guaranteed for all of the subcarriers. According to the
simulation results, the infeasibility increases as the number
of users or data rate increases. Simulations are performed
by a new set of the channel coefcients in the infeasibility
cases. Table 3 represents the per cent results of the
feasibility in (19) for different users and data rates.
8 Discussion
In Figs. 9 and 10, CDF of the total transmitted power is
demonstrated for 16 and 20 users, respectively. Also, these
gures make use of two different data rates. Numerical
results, shown in these gures, demonstrate the power
difference in dB between P2 and P3, and also between P1
and P3. (P32P2) means the necessary transmitted power
for interference cancellation in the network and (P12P3)
means the real improvement in power consumption by
showing the difference between frequency reusing and non-
frequency reusing methods. According to the simulation
results, the difference between P2 and P3 has increased by
user and data rate increment. This proves further effects of
the interference by increasing the number of users and data
rates and also efciency of the proposed algorithm in
saving the power. Fig. 11 demonstrates the average total
transmitted power for a xed number of users and different
data rates. Similar results are shown in Fig. 12 for a xed
data rate and different number of users. The important point
in these gures is that the difference between the average
total transmitted power increases because of the increased
number of users and data rates. Finally, Table 3 describes
the feasibility of our proposed optimisation problem (19)
against the user and data rate. These results are also
signicant parameters showing the interference effect in the
network.
9 Conclusion
In this paper, resource allocation in a cellular multiuser
OFDMA-based relay network has been studied. A dynamic
method for user assignment to the central stations has been
developed. A novel algorithm for dynamic subcarrier
allocation to the users has been proposed in which the
frequency reusing in the cellular network is considered.
This algorithm is well applicable for different frequency
reusing factors, number of users and requested data rates in
the system. The proposed algorithm results in signicant
improvement in power consumption, especially when the
number of users or the requested data rate increases.
Frequency interference of the users in the non-adjacent
cells has also been investigated. Interference aware
power allocation has been proposed and QoS factor
has been satised for each subcarrier. Using this technique,
real consumed power of the network can be extracted
while satisfying tolerable bit error rate for each of the
subcarriers.
10 Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Iran Research Institute for
Information and Communication Technology for supporting
this work done at Spread Spectrum and Wireless
Communication Laboratory of K.N. Toosi University of
Technology.
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bits/OFDM symbol
12 16 20 24 28
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16 93.33 90.33 80.66 66.33 56.66
18 86.33 76 63.66 51.33 38.66
20 84.33 68.33 51.66 37.33 29.33
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IET Commun., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 11, pp. 13641373 1373
doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2011.0560 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2012
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