Embodiments are provided for scheduling resources considering data rate-efficiency and fairness trade-off. A value of Jain's fairness index (JFI) is determined for transmitting a service to a plurality of users, and accordingly a sum of throughputs is maximized for transmitting the service to the users. Alternatively, a sum of throughputs is determined first and accordingly the JFI is maximized. Maximizing the sum of throughputs or JFI includes selecting a suitable value for a tuning parameter in an efficiency and fairness trade-off relation model. In accordance with the values of sum of throughputs and JFI, a plurality of resources are allocated for transmitting the service to the users. For static or quasi-static channels, the relation model is a convex function with a monotonic trade-off property. For ergodic time varying channels, the tuning parameter is selected by solving the relation model using a gradient-based approach.