Abstract
A standard paradigm for the allocation of wireless resources in communication demands symmetry, whereby all users are assumed to be on equal footing and hence get equal shares of communication capabilities. However, there are situations in which "prime users" should be given higher priority, as for example in the transmission of emergency messages. In this paper, we examine a prioritization policy that can be implemented at the physical layer. In particular, we evaluate the performance of a prioritized transmission scheme based on spectrum pooling and on the assignment of higher signal-to-noise ratio channels to higher-priority users. This performance is compared to that of unprioritized (or "symmetric") schemes, and the impact of prioritization on the unprioritized users is discussed.