We find the uplink channel allocation that maximizes the total throughput in linear (one-dimensional) cellular systems, under arbitrary fairness constraints defined by resource distribution functions. We exploit a revenue-cost separation principle in this multi-cell interference channel problem, and equivalently transform maximizing the total throughput into minimizing the total interference cost of all cells. The key idea in obtaining the optimal channel allocation is the alignment of

more »

... nce signal strengths. We show that with very low complexity, a complete optimal channel allocation can be constructed by rippling along all the cells the proposed interference strength alignment procedure. From analyzing the consequence of the interference strength alignment, the superiority of the optimal channel allocation over CDMA is justified. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the performance gap between these two schemes.