Flow-level performance and user mobility in wireless data networks

Abstract

Channel conditions in wireless networks exhibit huge variations across space and time, giving rise to vast fluctuations in the transmission rates. Channel-aware scheduling strategies provide an effective mechanism for improving throughput performance by exploiting such rate variations, and these have been extensively examined at the packet level for a static user configuration. In this paper, we discuss the performance implications at the flow level for a dynamic user population, taking into account variations on a slower time scale and wide-range user mobility as well. First of all, we present simple necessary conditions for flow-level stability and prove that these are in fact (near) sufficient for a wide family of utility-based scheduling strategies. It is further shown how the flow-level performance of the proportional fair scheduling strategy may be evaluated by means of a processor-sharing model with a state-dependent service rate. In addition, we examine the impact of variations on a slower time scale, and establish that the so-called fluid and quasi-stationary regimes yield explicit, insensitive performance bounds. Finally, we turn our attention to a network of several base stations (BSs) with handoffs of active sessions governed by wide-range user mobility. It is demonstrated that mobility increases the capacity, not only in the case of globally optimal scheduling but also when each of the BSs adheres to a local fair-sharing discipline.