Efficient distributed channel allocation for cellular networks

The performance of a distributed dynamic channel allocation algorithm is measured by the call blocking rate, the number of messages exchanged per channel acquisition and the delay incurred in acquiring a channel. In general, there are two approaches in designing distributed channel allocation algorithms: Search and Update. Both of these approaches have advantages and disadvantages. The update approach has shorter acquisition delay and lower call blocking rate, but higher message complexity. On the other hand, the search approach has lower message complexity, but longer acquisition delay and higher call blocking rate. In this paper, we first propose a novel distributed acquisition algorithm, which has similar message complexity as the search approach and similar acquisition delay as the update approach. Then, we present a channel selection algorithm and integrate it into our distributed acquisition algorithm. By a rigorous analysis in terms of delay and message complexity, we show that our channel selection algorithm performs significantly better than the update approach and the search approach. Detailed simulation experiments are carried out in order to evaluate our proposed methodology. The performance of our algorithm is compared with those of the Geometric strategy, the Search approach and the Update approach. Simulation results show that our algorithm outperforms all other approaches in terms of call blocking probability under uniform as well as non-uniform traffic distributions.