Low-complexity OFDMA channel allocation with Nash bargaining solution fairness

A fair and simple scheme to allocate subcarrier, rate, and power for multiuser OFDMA systems is considered. The problem is to maximize the overall system rate, under each user's maximal power and minimal rate constraints, while considering the fairness among users. The approach proposes the fairness and low complexity implementation based on Nash bargaining solutions and coalitions. First, a two-user algorithm is developed to bargain subcarrier usage between both users. Based on this algorithm, we develop a multiuser bargaining algorithm where optimal coalition pairs among users are constructed. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms not only provide fair resource allocation among users, but also have comparable overall system rate with the scheme maximizing the total rate without considering fairness. They also have much higher rates than the scheme with max-min fairness. The proposed algorithms have complexity O(NlogN), where N is the number of subcarriers.