Efficient Control Channel Resource Allocation for VoIP in OFDMA-Based Packet Radio Networks

We propose an efficient control channel resource allocation approach to enhance the performance of voice-over-IP (VoIP) in orthogonal frequency division multiple access- (OFDMA-) based next generation mobile communication systems. As the long-term evolution (LTE) of universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN), evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) is the first OFDMA-based packet radio network and thus selected in this paper as an application example. Our proposed physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) resource allocation approach for E-UTRAN is composed of bidirectional power control, inner loop link adaptation (ILLA), and outer loop link adaptation (OLLA) algorithms. Its effectiveness is validated through large-scale radio system level simulations, and simulation results confirm that VoIP capacity with dynamic scheduling can be further enhanced with this PDCCH resource allocation approach. Moreover, the VoIP performance requirements for international mobile telecommunications-advanced (IMT-Advanced) radio interface technologies can be met with dynamic scheduling together with proposed PDCCH resource allocation. Besides E-UTRAN, this approach can be introduced to other OFDMA-based mobile communication systems for VoIP performance enhancement as well.