Scheduling in multi-cell multi-carrier wireless systems

1. A method for transmission in a multi-cell multi-carrier wireless network comprising:

receiving channel state information;

determining assignments for a plurality of subcarriers based at least in part on the received channel state information; and

scheduling transmission based on the subcarrier assignment,

wherein said determining assignments for the plurality of subcarriers comprises:

(a) determining marginal gains for a plurality of receivers;

(b) determining a receiver and an associated base station in a plurality of base stations corresponding to a highest marginal gain; and

(c) assigning the determined receiver to the determined base station.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting information based on the scheduled transmission.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

iteratively repeating steps (a) to (c) until each of the plurality of receivers is assigned to an associated base station; and

allocating the plurality of subcarriers to the plurality of receivers by selecting the receiver with the highest gain among the plurality of receivers assigned to the associated base station for each subcarrier in each base station.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining marginal gains for a plurality of receivers comprises determining

Δ

⁢

⁢

g

ij

=

∑

c

⁢

max

(

0

,

a

ijc

-

max

k

∈

S

i

⁢

a

ikc

)

where Δg ij is the marginal gain, j is the plurality of receivers, i is the plurality of base stations, c is the plurality of subcarriers associated with the plurality of base stations i, S i is the set of receivers assigned to base station j, and a ijc is the gain of each receiver j on subcarrier c in basestation i.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining assignments for the plurality of subcarriers comprises:

determining a maximum additional queue size reduction;

determining an assignment for each of the plurality of subcarriers based on the determined maximum additional queue size reduction;

recording the determined assignments for each of the plurality of subcarriers;

determining a receiver from a plurality of receivers associated with a base station from a plurality of base stations that has the determined maximum additional queue size reduction;

assigning the receiver from the plurality of receivers to the base station from the plurality of base stations; and

allocating the plurality of subcarriers to the plurality of receivers in the plurality of base stations.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said determining a maximum additional queue size reduction comprises:

determining a sum of rates for each of the plurality of subcarriers;

determining a minimum queue size to achieve each additional queue size reduction p;

determining the maximum additional queue size reduction based at least in part on the determined minimum queue size; and

determining a bit allocation for each of the plurality of subcarriers.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said determining a minimum queue size comprises determining the minimum queue size using dynamic programming.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

determining if a last subcarrier of the plurality of subcarriers is the only partially allocated subcarrier; and

drifting an allocation of the last subcarrier to a first subcarrier of the plurality of subcarriers if the last subcarrier of the plurality of subcarriers is not the only partially allocated subcarrier.