Cross-layer resource allocation for military communications services in multiuser OFDM systems

Abstract

Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) communication systems are expected to encompass the military applicability, as the military increasingly desire the use of high bandwidth com munications and mobile supporting networks with improved interoperability. This research presents of military communication requirements needed for applying COTS into tactical environment. Military communication requirements such as information flows for command and control, dynamic network topology, military quality of service (QoS), and cross-layer resource management are discussed as potential military communications solutions. COTS must be enhanced by those requirements in order to meets the tactical communication needs. From these requirements, we address the cross-layer resource allocation problem for a potential military usage. In particular, we investigate the channel adaptive resource allocation in multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems while considering multiclass service, battery autonomy, and peer to peer (P2P) communications. Multiclass services play a critical role for multimedia applications, as well as providing the military with prioritized communications services. For instance, the military communications require graceful degradation of QoS for the less important users, and high QoS for the more important users in spite of the same class service. In military communications, multiclass services are more diverse than civilian communications in terms of supporting prioritized users. A total transmit power minimization problem is examined for the various data rates and bit-error rate (BER) traffic. Lagrangian relaxation and a subcarrier time-sharing factor are used to find an optimal solution. We propose an iterative algorithm to find optimal power consumption and a low-complexity subcarrier allocation algorithm for practical implementation. The low-complexity subcarrier allocation algorithm provides performance very close to that of the...