Context-Aware Resource Allocation in Cellular Networks

We define and propose a resource allocation architecture for cellular networks. The architecture combines content-aware, time-aware and location-aware resource allocation for next generation broadband wireless systems. The architecture ensures content-aware resource allocation by prioritizing real-time applications users over delay-tolerant applications users when allocating resources. It enables time-aware resource allocation via traffic-dependent pricing that varies during different hours of day (e.g. peak and off-peak traffic hours). Additionally, location-aware resource allocation is integrable in this architecture by including carrier aggregation of various frequency bands. The context-aware resource allocation is an optimal and flexible architecture that can be easily implemented in practical cellular networks. We highlight the advantages of the proposed network architecture with a discussion on the future research directions for context-aware resource allocation architecture. We also provide experimental results to illustrate a general proof of concept for this new architecture.