Quality of Service Support for Multimedia Applications in Third Generation Mobile Networks Using Adaptive Scheduling

Third generation mobile network will support services such as video-telephony, video-conferencing and other multimedia applications. Therefore, this network must provide quality of service (QoS) to these applications consistent with that offered by fixed networks. However, this is a very challenging task due to the instability of the wireless channel and the diverse quality of service requirements dictated by different multimedia applications. In this paper we introduce a resource allocation algorithm for the wireless downlink that takes into account the wireless channel characteristics, the QoS required by the applications as well as a pricing value function. Our solution is based on an adaptive scheduling algorithm originally developed for scheduling real-time processes during transient surges. This algorithm tends to maximize the wireless network operator profit while satisfying the customers' quality requests.