Recent Results on Proportional Fair Scheduling for mmWave-based Industrial Wireless Networks

Abstract: Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication has recently attracted significant attention from both industrial and academic communities. The large bandwidth availability as well as low interference nature of mmWave spectrum is particularly attractive for industrial communication. However, inherent challenges such as coverage and blockage of mmWave communication cause highly fluctuated channel quality. This paper explores wireless medium access control (MAC) schedulers for mmWave-based industrial wireless applications. Our objective is to design a high-performance and enhanced fairness MAC scheduling algorithm that responds rapidly to channel variations. The key contribution of our work is a method to modify the standard proportional fair (SPF) scheduler. It introduces more flexibility and dynamic properties. Compared to the SPF, our enhanced proportional fair (EPF) scheduler not only improves the priority for users in poor channel conditions but also accelerates the reaction time in fluctuated channel conditions. By providing higher fairness for all users and enhancing system robustness, it particularly adapts to the scatter-rich industrial mmWave communication environment. Through extensive performance evaluation based on the widely accepted network simulator (ns-3), we show that the new scheduler achieves better performance in terms of delivering ultra-low latency and reliable services over mmWave-based industrial communication.