2015 29th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops
A New Scheduling Algorithm for Real-Time
Communication in LTE Networks
Dardouri Samia
National Engineering School of Tunis, Tunisia
InnoVCOM Lab/SupCom, University of Carthage,Tunisia
Samia.Dardouri@isetgb.rnu.tn
AbstractA key mechanism in the LTE trafc processing is the
packet scheduler which is in charge of allocating radio resources
to User Equipment (UE) based on scheduling schemes involved
in the LTE base station. The main contribution of this work is
to propose a new scheduling algorithm for Long Term Evolution
(LTE) system. The proposed scheduler satises the quality of
service (QoS) requirements of the real-time trafc. Simulation
results shows that the proposed scheduler can ameliorate the
performance on the used metrics among services. The perfor-
mance evaluation is compared in terms of packet loss ratio (PLR),
average throughput and cell spectral efciency.
Index TermsLTE; QoS; Scheduling algorithms; Allocation
radio resources; Real-time trafc.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for
multimedia services over the mobile devices. To address this,
the wireless telecommunication industry dened a new air
interface for mobile communication that offers a framework
for high mobility broadband services and enhances in the
overall system capacity [1].
LTE system exposes a very stimulating multiuser commu-
nication problem: Many User Equipments (UEs) in the same
cell require high on-demand data rates in a limited bandwidth
with low latency. Multiple access techniques permit UEs to
allocate the available bandwidth by the assignment of each
UE some fraction of the limited radio resources [2], [3].
One of these multiple access techniques is Orthogonal Fre-
quency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) which is adopted
by 3GPP release 8 thanks to its suppleness for accommodating
many UEs with broadly varying applications data rates and
QoS exigency [4]. Although the LTE specs represent both
Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) and Time Division Du-
plexing (TDD) to separate uplink and downlink transmission,
market preferences impose that several deployed systems will
be FDD [5].
Generally, there is a major motivation beyond the schedul-
ing and resource allocation of limited resources to improve
system performance by enhancing the spectral efciency of
the wireless interface and improving the system capacity [5].
So, This would demonstrate the requirement for algorithms of
scheduling and radio resource allocation in LTE Networks.
Scheduling is a key Radio Resource Management (RRM)
mechanism for achieving QoS requirements and enhancing
system performance of LTE networks [6]. In order to be able
978-1-4799-1775-4/15 $31.00 2015 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/WAINA.2015.36
Bouallegue Ridha
InnoVCOM Lab/SupCom,University of Carthage,Tunisia
ridha.bouallegue@supcom.rnu.tn
to meet the QoS demands for real time communication various
packet scheduling algorithms have been used to allocate lim-
ited frequency and time sources for all data transfer devices
including mobile and wireless networks [7], [8].
Many works focused on Performance study of Allocation
Resource in downlink LTE [9, 10, 11, and 12]. Mauricio
Iturralde proposes a novel downlink scheduling algorithm
for multimedia ows in LTE networks using virtual token
mechanism in [11]. On the other side, Moustafa M. Nasralla
in [12] presents a downlink scheduling approach for balancing
QoS.
In this work we evaluate the performance of the proposed
scheduler and schedulers proposed by Mauricio Iturralde and
Moustafa M. Nasralla in [11], [12] respectively. In this work,
we compare the performance of their scheduling algorithms
for VoIP and Video applications in terms of Throughput, PLR
and Cell spectral efciency in different number of Users.
Examples of such scheduling algorithms include Proportional
Fairness (PF) [13], Modied Largest Weight Delay First
(M-LWDF) [14], VT-M-LWDF Scheduler [11], Queue-HOL-
MLWDF Scheduler [12]. This paper gives a new scheduling
algorithm for downlink direction in LTE system. The simu-
lation results were implemented using the open source LTE
system simulator called long term evolution-SIM (LTE-SIM)
[15].
The remainder of the article is arranged as follows. Section
II provides basic characteristics on LTE system model. Section
III exposes the basic principles and proposed scheduling
algorithms in LTE system. Section IV reports the simulation
results for proposed scheduling algorithm in LTE. Finally,
section V draws the conclusions.
II. S YSTEM M ODEL
Fig.1 shows that the downlink air interface are divided
into a number of units. A frame is 10 ms in length and each
frame, in time domain, is divided into 10 subframes. The
duration of a subframe is 1 ms in length and each subframe is
also divided into 2 slots where each slot is 0.5 ms in length.
In frequency domain, each slot is divided into a number of
resource blocks. Each slot contains 6 or 7 OFDM symbols
in normal cyclic prexes and extended cyclic prexes,
respectively. The frequency domain structure of a time slot is
divided into bandes of 180 kHz that contain 12 consecutive
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subcarriers. The basic unit of exchanging user information in
downlink of LTE system is known as resource block (RB)
[16]. Therefore, a RB is the radio resource that is available
for a user in the 3GPP LTE system and is dened by both
frequency and time domains. The number of RBs in a slot
depends on the system bandwidth [6].
In FDD duplexing mode, a frame of 10ms is separated
into 20 slots of 0.5ms each. Each two slots constitute a 1ms
sub-frame [17]. Each sub-frame represents a Transmission
Time Interval (TTI) which is the minimum transmission unit.
Each TTI contains at most one transport block per User
Equipment (UE). The resource block size is the same for all
bandwidths [18].
Fig. 1: LTE frame structure.
The architecture of a downlink data scheduler with
multiple shared channels for multiple UEs is shown in Fig.
2. An eNodeB serves M UEs in a cell at a given time. Every
TTI, the UE computes the Channel Quality Indicator (CQI)
in compliance with the SINR and enquire the eNodeB of the
state channel.
Fig. 2: Packet Scheduling Model.
For each UE a buffer is attributed in the eNodeB. The
packets that arrive at these buffers are given a time stamp and
are queued for transmission. For each packet in the queue, the
HOL is estimated. If the HOL packet delay exceeds a specied
threshold for the ow, then this packet is discarded. The packet
scheduler decides which users will be served according to a
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scheduling algorithm [19]. In order to get a suitable scheduling
algorithm, we have to weigh and balance channel state, QoS
requirement, and queue status.
The users are prioritized by packet scheduler on the basis
of a scheduling algorithm being used. These algorithms while
making scheduling decisions, take into account the instanta-
neous or average channel conditions, Head of Line (HOL)
packet delays, status of receiving buffer or type of service
being used [12], [14].
III. S CHEDULING A LGORITHMS
The whole process can be divided into a sequence of the
scheduler which calculates a metric for each stream that can
be allocated. We assume that the metric attributed to stream
i on j-th sub-channel is noted by wi,j . In particular, at each
TTI, the estimate Ri is given by:
R i (k 1) + 0.2
i (k) = 0.8R ri (k) (1)
Where ri (k) is the rate allocated to i-th ow during the
k-th TTI and Ri (k 1) is the average transmission data rate
estimating at the (k-1)-th TTI.
In the following, the description of the metric of scheduling
algorithms were used in all simulation scenarios, these are: PF,
MLWDF, VT-MLWDF,Queue-HOL-MLWDF Scheduler and
the proposed scheduler.
A. Proportional Fair (PF) Scheduler
The PF scheduling algorithm [13] provides a good tradeoff
between system throughput and fairness by selecting the user.
PF is a very suitable scheduling option for non-real time trafc.
For this algorithm, the metric east denes as the ratio between
the instantaneous ow available for i-th ow and the medium
ow elaborated at the moment (k-1).
ri,j
wi,j = (2)
Ri
Where ri,j is the rate assigned to i-th ow during the k-th
TTI and and Ri denotes the average transmission data rate
estimating.
B. Modied Largest Weighted Delay First (M-LWDF) Sched-
uler
M-LWDF is an algorithm selected to support mixed real
time data users in CDMA-HDR systems [14]. For each ow
real time, by considering the maximum time i the probability
east is dened as the maximum probability i that the time of
the rst package of the queue exceeds the xed maximum time
DHOL,i . In order to offer priority to real time, the metric was
dened in this scheduler by:
ri,j
wi,j = i DHOL,i (3)
Ri
Whereri,j and Ri have the same signication in the previous
equation, and i is given by :
log(i )
i = (4)
i
C. VT-M-LWDF Scheduler of the user i. The presence of the deadline in the denominator
The main goal of the virtual token scheme (VT-M-LWDF) makes the value of the metric increase as the queuing delay
given in [11] is to ameliorate the QoS performance metrics for approaches the maximum delay. In case queuing delay exceeds
real time communication, like video and VoIP, and to conserve the maximum delay, the metric becomes negative, and the
minimum throughput for non real times communication. Then, packet is lost [20], [21].
we use the M-LWDF scheduler with DHOL,i being changed IV. S IMULATION E NVIRONMENT
by Qi . The following equation give the metric used to repre- This article investigates the performance of PF, M-LWDF,
sent the VT-M-LWDF scheduler: VT-M-LWDF, Queue-HOL-MLWDF and proposed scheduler
ri,j
wi,j = i Qi (5) in LTE. In this process a single cell with interference scenario
Ri is considered and a number of users in the interval [5, 30]
Where ri,j and Ri have the same signication in the previous which move randomly at a speed of 3 km/h. There are 40% of
equation and Qi is the token queue length (a counter value at users using Video ows, 40% of users using VoIP ows, and
time t). 20% of users using best effort ows. The principal simulation
parameters used in LTE-Sim [15] are resumed in Table I.
D. Queue-HOL-MLWDF Scheduler
The main goal of the virtual token scheme (Queue-HOL- TABLE I
MLWDF) presented in [12] is to enhance the QoS performance S IMULATION PARAMETERS
metrics. This scheduler adopts the consideration of the queue
size and the packets delay parameters in the VT-M-LWDF
Simulation Parameters Values
and M-LWDF rules respectively, in order to measure the
performance of the new scheduler when serving real times Simulation Duration 100 Sec
communication compared to the others schedulers.
The following equation illustrates the metric used to represent Frame Structure FDD
the Queue-HOL-MLWDF scheduler: Cell Radius 1 km
ri,j
wi,j = i DHOL,i Qi (6) Bandwidth 5 MHz
Ri
Where ri,j , Ri , DHOL,i and Qi have the same signication Video bit-rate 242 kbps
in the previous equation. VoIP bit-rate 8.4 kbps

E. Proposed Scheduler User Speed 3 km

Considering the characteristics of real-time trafc, espe-
cially in regard to the delay requirements, a scheduling process
should consider various factors. First, we must assure that
packets are received within a time limit, preventing them from
being discarded by the expiration of this deadline. Thus, the
scheduler assigns a deadline for each ow that has a packet
queued at the eNodeB.
The deadlines are computed taking into account the following
parameters: the maximum delay for the class of ow i , the
waiting time of the ow in the queue DHOL,i and the queue
size Qi .
The proposed scheduler adopts the consideration of their
parameters in order to evaluated the performance of the
proposed scheduler when serving RT trafc compared to the
others schedulers.
The proposed scheduler is a modication of the M-LWDF,
VT-M-LWDF and Queue-HOL-MLWDF schedulers described
earlier in III-B, III-C and III-E, respectively. The metric was
dened in this scheduler by:
DHOL,i ri,j
wi,j = i Qi (7)
i DHOL,i Ri
Number of UEs 5, 10, 15, 25, 30 UEs
HOL Delay 0.1 s
A. Trafc Model
The eNB is located at the center of the macrocell and it
communicates using an omni-directional antenna in a 5 MHz
bandwidth. Each UE uses at the same time a video ow a
VoIP ow and a best effort ow .
For the video ow a trace-based application that emits packets
based on realistic video trace les with a rate of 128 kbps was
used in [22], [23]. The maximum transmission unit is set to
500 bytes, as in [24].
For VoIP a G.729 voice stream with a rate of 8.4 kbps
was considered. The Voice ow is a bursty application that
is modelled with an ON/OFF Markov chain [25]. The LTE
propagation loss model is constituted by four different models
(shadowing, multipath, penetration loss e path loss) [2]:
Path loss: PL = 128.1 + 37.6 log10 (d) where d is the
distance between the UE and the eNodeB in km.
Multipath: Jakes model.

Where ri,j , Ri , DHOL,i , i and Qi have the same signi- Penetration loss: 10 dB.
Shadowing: log-normal distribution, with mean 0 dB and
cance in the previous equation and i is the maximum delay
standard deviation of 8 dB.

269
B. Numerical Results
The numerical results show the relevant performance met-
rics for the proposed scheduler, VT-M-LWDF, Queue-HOL-
MLWDF and M-LWDF schedulers. Our proposed scheduler
is demoted in the gures as proposed. The performance
evaluation is compared in terms of packet loss ratio (PLR),
average throughput and cell spectral efciency.
For VoIP ows, Figure 3 shows that the PLR of proposed
scheme decreases when the cell is charged by more than 15
users compared to the non-modied MLWDF. In general the
PLR for proposed algorithm is constant; its value is always
0.005 but it reached 0.03 for the other algorithms.
Fig. 5: Packet loss ratio for Video ows.

Fig. 3: Packet loss ratio for VoIP ows.

For VoIP ows, Figure 4 shows that the throughput increases Fig. 6: Average throughput per Video ows.
as long as the number of users is increasing for all scheduling
algorithms. There is an static throughput in all algorithms
The system spectral efciency is depicted in Figure 7.
when increasing the number of users.
It is evident from the gure that the proposed scheduler
utilizes the channel more efciently than VT-M-LWDF and
Queue-HOL-MLWDF. The proposed scheduler performs
much better than VT-M-LWDF scheduling scheme in the
case of improving the spectral efciency.
Furthermore, the cell is not saturated yet for the proposed
scheduler. MLWDF and the proposed schemas performs
much better than the other three scheduling schemes in the
case of improving the spectral efciency.

Fig. 4: Average throughput per VoIP ows.

Therefore, this modication shows a good performance for

video ows in gure 5. The proposed algorithm achieves lower
PLR than other algorithms but it increases (0.2) when the cell
is charged by more than 25 users. The throughput of the Video
ows is given in Fig. 6. It can be noticed that the throughput is
increasing with the rice of the number of users. The proposed
scheme shows a better throughput performance when the cell
is charged by more than 25 users. Fig. 7: Spectral efciency.

270
 To conclude, the proposed scheduling algorithm is more
suitable for video and VoIP ows due to its high throughput
and low PLR. It outperforms MLWDF in terms of throughput
because it takes into account the channel state for resource
allocation and it distribute the extra RBs randomly. In terms of
fairness, the Queue-HOL-MLWDF outperforms VT-M-LWDF
scheduler because it distributes the available RBs equality
between UEs.
Generally, it can be observed that the proposed scheduling
algorithm has improved cell performances in terms of system
throughput compared to VT-M-LWDF scheduler and in terms
of fairness compared to other scheduler.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper a new scheduling algorithm has been imple-
mented along with some well-known algorithms to evaluate
the performance of multimedia services. We dened two
performance metrics such as throughput and PLR. Moreover,
the proposed scheduler aimed, in particular, at improving the
performance metrics for video services and maintaining, in
general, a satisfactory level of the performance metrics for the
other services in the network simultaneously.
Upcoming work will be addressed to the use of other
indicators of QoS in the measures scheduler and a comparison
with other schedulers such as Exponential Rule, Logarithmic
Rule and Exponential Proportional Fair.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by Laboratory In-
novCOM of Higher School of Telecommunication, University
of Carthage Tunisia, and National Engineering School of
Tunis.
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