Multiscale fairness and its application to resource allocation in wireless networks

Fair resource allocation is usually studied in a static context, in which a fixed amount of resources is to be shared. In dynamic resource allocation one usually tries to assign resources instantaneously so that the average share of each user is split fairly. The exact definition of the average share may depend on the application, as different applications may require averaging over different time periods or time scales. Our main contribution is to introduce new refined definitions of fairness that take into account the time over which one averages the performance measures. We examine how the constraints on the averaging durations impact the amount of resources that each user gets. We also address how the spatial component, which arises due to mobility of users, influences resource sharing under different fairness criteria. We demonstrate these new concepts via example applications.