Scheduling for Multiple Flows Sharing a Time-Varying Channel: The Exponential Rule

We consider the following queueing system which arises as a model of a wireless link shared by multiple users. Multiple flows must be served by a "channel" (server). The channel capacity (service rate) changes in time randomly and asynchronously with respect to different flows. In each time slot, a scheduling discipline (rule) picks a flow for service based on the current state of the channel and the queues. We study a scheduling rule, which we call the exponential rule, and prove that this rule is throughput-optimal, i.e., it makes the queues stable if there exists any rule which can do so. In the proof we use the fluid limit technique, along with a separation of time scales argument. Namely, the proof of the desired property of a "conventional" fluid limit involves a study of a different fluid limit arising on a "finer" time scale. In our companion paper it is demonstrated that the exponential rule can be used to provide Quality of Service guarantees over a shared wireless link.