Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Joseph Wun-Tat Chan

Kings College London

Joint work with: Francis Y. L. Chin

University of Hong Kong

Deshi Ye
Zhejiang University

Yong Zhang
University of Hong Kong

Hong Zhu
Fundan University

Outline
Introduction Frequency Allocation Problem
Offline problem Online problem

Variations of the Problem Future Directions

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Wireless Communication Networks

Mobile phone Frequency h1 Frequency h2 A cell Frequency f

f h1 and f h2 and f h3

Frequency f Base station

Frequency h3

To avoid interference, two communications in the same cell or adjacent cells do not use the same frequency
Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Frequency Allocation Problem

Problem Formulation
Given the hexagon graph and the calls in each cell Frequencies are represented by {1, 2, 3, } Two calls from the same or adjacent cells cant be assigned the same frequency The goal is to assign frequencies to all calls using the minimum span of frequencies (i.e., the difference between the largest and smallest frequencies)

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Offline Problem
The calls are given in advance Multicoloring of weighted hexagon graphs NP-complete [McDiarmid and Reed 2000] 4/3-approximation algorithm [McDiarmid and Reed
2000, Narayanan and Shende 2001]

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Online Problem
The calls are given one at a time Assign a frequency to a call before the next call is presented The assigned frequency to a call cannot be changed Calls will not terminate

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Fixed Allocation
Color the cells with three colors, R, G, and B Partition the frequencies into 3 disjoint subsets
SR={1, 4, 7, } SG={2, 5, 8, } SB={3, 6, 9, }
For the cells with color R For the cells with color G For the cells with color B
Frequency allocation rule: Use frequencies according to the color of the cells, starting from the lowest frequency
3 calls

No adjacent cells are of same color

{3, 6, 9} 9

The span of frequencies used is at most 3 times that of the optimal allocation

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Greedy Allocation
Frequency allocation rule:
For each call in a cell, assign the lowest frequency which has not been assigned by the cells nor the neighboring cells
{2} {1,4} {3} {} cell X {4,6} {2,5} {1,4,8}

E.g., if a call request appears in cell X, frequency 7 will be assigned to the call

The span of frequencies used is at most 17/7(2.43) times that of the optimal allocation [Chan,
Chin, Ye, Zhang, Zhu 2006]

The ratio is tight [Caragiannis, Kaklamanis, Papaioannou 2000]

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Hybrid Allocation
Color the cells with three colors, R, G, and B Partition the frequencies into 4 disjoint subsets
SS={1, 5, 9, } SR={2, 6, 10, } SG={3, 7, 11, } SB={4, 8, 12, }
Shared by all cells For the cells with color R For the cells with color G For the cells with color B

Frequency allocation rule

For a call request in a cell with color x, assign the lowest frequency in SS Sx that has not been used by the cell nor the neighboring cells
Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Hybrid Allocation
The span of frequencies used is at most 2 times that of the optimal allocation Why? Suppose cell X uses the highest frequency
4k-3
cell X cell Y Cell Y has the highest frequency in SS among the neighbouring cells of cell X

4k-2

4k-1

4k

5 1

6 2

7 3

8 4

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Lower Bound
2 is the best that we can do for any online algorithm Adversary sequence:
One call for each of the cells labelled a One call for each of the cells labelled b One call for each of the cells labelled c One call for each of the cells labelled d
a:1 a:1

b :2 d :4 b :3 c :3 d :5 d :6 c :2 a:1 a:1

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Asymptotic Performance
To break the barrier of 2 Focus on the performance when there are large amount of calls When the span of frequencies used in the optimal allocation is very large ( ), hybrid algorithm can achieve a ratio close to 1.913
With some modification in partitioning the available frequencies The ratio of the number of frequencies in SS and in each of SR, SG, SB 1.191 : 1

The lower bound of the asymptotic competitive ratio is 1.5

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Other Variations
Dynamic frequency allocation
Any call may terminate at any time

Coverage of radio stations represented by a graph other than a hexagon graph Interference constraints
The shortest distance that the same frequency can be reused (without creating interference) is a parameter r A simple assumption is r=2 (cells apart, inclusive) General r?
Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Dynamic Problem
Generalized version of the online problem A call may terminate at any time The goal is to minimize the span of frequencies used over all time Performance:
Fixed Allocation: 3-competitive Greedy Allocation: 3-competitive [Chan, Chin, Ye,
Zhang, Zhu 2006]

No online algorithm is known for better than 3competitive

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Performance of Greedy
lower bound = 3
k calls The base case: k calls 1 4 2 3 The general case: 3k+4 3k+2 3k+1 3k+3 3k+1 3k+2 3k+1 3k+1 1 call k calls The center cell gets the highest frequency 3k+1

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Coverage by Linear Networks

The geographical coverage area is divided into cells aligned in a line [Chan, Chin, Ye, Zhang, Zhu
2006]

Online:
Upper bound=lower bound= 1.5 Asymptotic upper bound= 1.382 Asymptotic lower bound=4/3 1.333

Dynamic:
Upper bound=lower bound=5/3 1.667 Asymptotic upper bound=5/3 1.667 Asymptotic lower bound=14/9 1.556
Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Algorithm for Dynamic Case

Concept:
To reuse (borrow) frequencies from nearby cells which are from distance 2 that does not create interference Apply greedy if no frequency to borrow

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Other Coverage Graphs

k-colorable graphs
Online case: Hybrid algorithm is (k+1)/2competitive
E.g., planar graphs are 4-colorable 5/2-competitive

Unit disk graphs

Its vertices can be put in equal-size circles in a plane in such a way that two vertices are joined by an edge if and only if the corresponding circles interested
Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Reuse distance
Frequency: {1, 2, 3, }
The same frequency cannot be used for two calls within the same cell (distance=0) or adjacent cells (distance=1)

Current setting reuse distance=2 In general, reuse distance=r

Offline
r=3 r4 2-approximation [Kchikech, Togni 2005] 3-approximation [Kchikech, Togni 2005]

Online (and Dynamic)

By a fixed allocation scheme r=3 3-competitive [Jordan, Schwabe 1996] r=4 4-competitive [Jordan, Schwabe 1996]

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Future Directions
Better than 3-competitive for dynamic frequency allocation in hexagon graphs For general reuse distance, any online algorithm better than fixed allocation? Online or dynamic allocation on unit disk graphs Multicoloring on general graphs

Frequency Allocation in Wireless Communication Networks

Q&A