Scheduling in Wireless Networks using Whittle Index Theory

Abstract: We consider the problem of scheduling packet transmissions in a wireless network of users while minimizing the energy consumed and the transmission delay. A challenge is that transmissions of users that are close to each other mutually interfere, while users that are far apart can transmit simultaneously without much interference. Each user has a queue of packets that are transmitted on a single channel and mutually non interfering users reuse the spectrum. Using the theory of Whittle index for cost minimizing restless bandits, we design four index-based policies and compare their performance with that of the well-known policies: Slotted ALOHA, maximum weight scheduling, quadratic Lyapunov drift, Cella and Cesa Bianchi algorithm, and two Whittle index based policies from a recently published paper. We make the code used to perform our simulations publicly available, so that it can be used for future work by the research community at large.