An efficient interference mitigation approach via quasi‐access in two‐tier macro‐femto heterogeneous networks

Two‐tier heterogeneous networks, where the current cellular networks, that is, macrocells, are overlapped with a large number of randomly distributed femtocells, can potentially bring significant benefits to spectral utilization and system capacity. In a two‐tier network, the cross‐tier interference needs to be handled properly. Unlike the downlink interference, the uplink (UL) interference at femtocell caused by macrocell user equipment (MUE) has not been addressed sufficiently. When an MUE is located near the coverage of femtocell, its transmit power may cause UL interference to the femtocell receiver, especially for the closed subscriber group femtocells that share the entire frequency spectrum with macrocell. We propose a novel quasi‐access strategy, which allows the interfering MUE to connect with the interfered femtocell access point (FAP) while only via UL. It can significantly alleviate the UL interference at the FAP as well as its neighbors, in the meantime, benefit the macro‐tier. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dense femtocell networks power self‐optimization: an exact potential game approach

Femtocell is regarded as a promising technology to enhance indoor coverage and improve network capacity. However, highly dense and self‐organized femtocells in urban environment will result in serious inter‐femtocell interference. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a distributed power self‐optimization scheme for the downlink operation of dense femtocell networks. First, a novel convex pricing mechanism is presented to price the transmit power of femtocells and construct the utility function of femtocells. Then, a noncooperative game framework for power self‐optimization of femtocells in dense femtocell networks is established on the basis of the exact potential game theory, which is demonstrated to converge to a pure and unique Nash equilibrium. Finally, combined with firefly algorithm, an effective power self‐optimization algorithm with guaranteed convergence is proposed to achieve the Nash equilibrium of the proposed game. With practical LTE parameters and a 3GPP dual‐strip femtocell model, simulation results show that the proposed game with convex pricing mechanism increases the femtocell network throughput by 7% and reduces the average transmit power of femtocells by 50% in dense femtocell networks, with respect to the compared schemes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interference Avoidance through Pilot‐Based Spectrum Sensing Algorithm in Overlaid Femtocell Networks

Co‐channel interference between macro–femtocell networks is an unresolved problem, due to the frequency reuse phenomenon. To mitigate such interference, a secondary femtocell must acquire channel‐state knowledge about a co‐channel macrocell user and accordingly condition the maximum transmit power of femtocell user. This paper proposes a pilot‐based spectrum sensing (PSS) algorithm for overlaid femtocell networks to sense the presence of a macrocell user over a channel of interest. The PSS algorithm senses the pilot tones in the received signal through the power level and the correlation metric comparisons between the received signal and the local reference pilots. On ensuring the existence of a co‐channel macrocell user, the maximum transmit power of the corresponding femtocell user is optimized so as to avoid interference. Time and frequency offsets are carefully handled in our proposal. Simulation results show that the PSS algorithm outperforms existing sensing techniques, even at poor received signal quality. It requires less sensing time and provides better detection probability over existing techniques.     

An efficient handoff algorithm based on received signal strength and wireless transmission loss in hierarchical cell networks

Compared with the macrocell systems, the femtocell systems allow users to obtain broadband service with high data rate by using lower costs of transmit power, operation and capital expenditure. Traditional handoff algorithms used in macrocells cannot well satisfy the mobility of users efficiently in hierarchical macro/femto cell networks. In this paper based on the received signal strength (RSS) and wireless transmission loss, a new handoff algorithm in hierarchical cell networks called RWTL-HO is proposed, which considers the discrepancy in transmit power between macrocell and femtocell base stations. The simulation results show that compared with the conventional algorithm, the proposed algorithm improves the utilization of femtocells by doubling the number of handoffs; and in comparison with the handoff algorithm based on combining the RSSs from both macro and femto cell base stations, reduces half the number of redundant handoffs.     

分层异构网络中基于斯坦克尔伯格博弈的资源分配算法

分层异构网络中家庭基站与宏基站之间往往存在干扰,如何分配资源以获得高谱率和高容量、保证用户性能一直是研究的重点。为了解决这个问题,本文提出了一种异构蜂窝网络中基于斯坦克尔伯格博弈的家庭基站与宏基站联合资源分配算法,算法首先基于图论的分簇算法对家庭基站和宏用户进行分簇和信道分配,以减少家庭基站之间的同层干扰和家庭基站层与宏蜂窝网络的跨层干扰;然后建立了联合家庭基站发射功率以及宏用户接入选择的斯坦克尔伯格博弈,推导出达到纳什均衡时的家庭基站发射功率的表达式,并据此为宏用户选择合适的接入策略。仿真结果表明,该算法能够有效地提高宏用户的信干噪比（SINR）,家庭用户的性能也得到改善。      

Cooperative Q‐learning techniques for distributed online power allocation in femtocell networks

In this paper, we address the problem of distributed interference management of femtocells that share the same frequency band with macrocells using distributed multi‐agent Q‐learning. We formulate and solve two problems representing two different Q‐learning algorithms, namely, femto‐based distributed and sub‐carrier‐based distributed power controls using Q‐learning (FBDPC‐Q and SBDPC‐Q). FBDPC‐Q is a multi‐agent algorithm that works on a global basis, for example, deals with the aggregate macrocell and femtocell capacities. Its complexity increases exponentially with the number of sub‐carriers in the system. Also, it does not take into consideration the sub‐carrier macrocell capacity as a constraint. To overcome these problems, SBDPC‐Q is proposed, which is a multi‐agent algorithm that works on a sub‐carrier basis, for example, sub‐carrier macrocell and femtocell capacities. Each of FBDPC‐Q and SBDPC‐Q works in three different learning paradigms: independent (IL), cooperative (CL), and weighted cooperative (WCL). IL is considered the simplest form for applying Q‐learning in multi‐agent scenarios, where all the femtocells learn independently. CL and WCL are the proposed schemes in which femtocells share partial information during the learning process in order to strike a balance between practical relevance and performance. We prove the convergence of the CL paradigm when used in the FBDPC‐Q algorithm. We show via simulations that the CL paradigm outperforms the IL paradigm in terms of the aggregate femtocell capacity, especially in networks with large number of femtocells and large number of power levels. In addition, we propose WCL to address the CL limitations. Finally, we evaluate the robustness and scalability of both FBDPC‐Q and SBDPC‐Q, against several typical dynamics of plausible wireless scenarios (fading, path loss, random activity of femtocells, etc.). We show that the CL paradigm is the most scalable to large number of femtocells and robust to the network dynamics compared with the IL and WCL paradigms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

McPAO: A Distributed Multi-channel Power Allocation and Optimization Algorithm for Femtocells

Efficient radio resource management is a key issue in a multi-channel femtocell system, where femtocell base stations are deployed randomly and will generate interference to each other. In this research, we formulate multi-channel power allocation as a convex optimization problem, in order to maximize the overall system throughput under complex transmit power constraint. We apply the Lagrangian duality techniques to make the problem decomposable and propose a distributed iterative subgradient algorithm, namely Multi-channel Power Allocation and Optimization (McPAO). Specifically, McPAO consists of two phases: (I) a gradient projection algorithm to solve the optimal power allocation for each channel under a fixed Lagrangian dual cost; and (II) a subgradient algorithm to update the Lagrangian dual cost by using the power allocation results from Phase I. This two-phase iteration process continues until the Lagrangian dual cost converges to the optimal value. Numerical results show that our McPAO algorithm can improve the overall system throughput by 18?%, comparing to with fixed power allocation schemes. In addition, we study the impact of errors in gradient direction estimation (Phase I), which are caused by limited or delayed information exchange among femtocells in realistic situations. These errors will be propagated into the subgradient algorithm (Phase II) and, subsequently, affect the overall performance of McPAO. A rigorous analytical approach is developed to prove that McPAO can always achieve a bounded overall throughput performance very close to the global optimum.     

Clustering-based interference management in densely deployed femtocell networks

Deploying femtocells underlaying macrocells is a promising way to improve the capacity and enhance the coverage of a cellular system. However, densely deployed femtocells in urban area also give rise to intra-tier interference and cross-tier issue that should be addressed properly in order to acquire the expected performance gain. In this paper, we propose an interference management scheme based on joint clustering and resource allocation for two-tier Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-based femtocell networks. We formulate an optimization task with the objective of maximizing the sum throughput of the femtocell users (FUs) under the consideration of intra-tier interference mitigation, while controlling the interference to the macrocell user (MU) under its bearable threshold. The formulation problem is addressed by a two-stage procedure: femtocells clustering and resource allocation. First, disjoint femtocell clusters with dynamic sizes and numbers are generated to minimize intra-tier interference. Then each cluster is taken as a resource allocation unit to share all subchannels, followed by a fast algorithm to distribute power among these subchannels. Simulation results show that our proposed schemes can improve the throughput of the FUs with acceptable complexity.     

Distributed Resource Allocation in Two‐Hierarchy Networks

In this paper, a new distributed resource allocation algorithm is proposed to alleviate the cross‐tier interference for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access macrocell and femtocell overlay. Specifically, the resource allocation problem is modeled as a non‐cooperative game. Based on game theory, we propose an iterative algorithm between subchannel and power allocation called distributed resource allocation which requires no coordination among the two‐hierarchy networks. Finally, a macrocell link quality protection process is proposed to guarantee the macrocell UE's quality of service to avoid severe cross‐tier interference from femtocells. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve remarkable performance gains as compared to the pure waterfilling algorithm.     

Analytical evaluation of downlink interference mitigation in multi‐macrocell/femtocell networks with frequency & cell partitioning

In this paper, we propose an interference mitigation method to suppress the downlink interference in multi‐macrocell/femtocell networks, and analytically evaluate the interference mitigation and average rate performances. Specifically, the proposed interference mitigation method consists of three steps: frequency partitioning, cell partitioning, and sub‐band allocation. In the frequency partitioning step, the whole downlink frequency band is divided into nine non‐overlapping sub‐bands. In the cell partitioning step, each macrocell is divided into four macrocell regions and three femtocell regions for macrocells' and femtocells' communications, respectively. In the sub‐band allocation step, each macrocell or femtocell region is allocated a sub‐band to guarantee that any two neighboring macrocell/femtocell regions use different sub‐bands. Conducted simulation results show that the proposed method is effective in mitigating the downlink interference and improving the average downlink per‐channel rate in multi‐macrocell/femtocell networks. In summary, the major contribution of the proposed interference mitigation method is that the downlink interference can be mitigated without cooperation between macrocells and femtocells, while the full frequency utilization of the macrocell is achieved. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A preset threshold based cross-tier handover algorithm for uplink co-channel interference mitigation in two-tier femtocell networks

This paper considers the co-channel interference mitigation problem and proposes a preset threshold based cross-tier handover algorithm for uplink co-channel interference mitigation in two-tier femtocell networks. The proposed cross-tier handover algorithm introduces a preset threshold cross-tier handover policy, which takes into account both the time-to-stay (TTS) of a macrocell user equipment (MUE)/femtocell user equipment (FUE) in a femtocell/the macrocell, and the received signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) at a femtocell access point (FAP)/the macrocell base station (MBS) in making a cross-tier handover decision for an MUE/FUE. A cross-tier handover decision is made by comparing the TTS of an MUE/FUE in a femtocells/the macrocell and the SINR at a FAP/the MBS with a preset TTS threshold and different SINR thresholds. The objective of the preset threshold based cross-tier handover algorithm is to increase the received SINR at the MBS/FAPs and thus improve the network performance. The performance of the proposed cross-tier handover algorithm with the minimum power transmission and the optimal power transmission is analyzed, respectively. Numerical results show that the proposed preset threshold based cross-tier handover algorithm can significantly improve the network performance in terms of the outage probability, user sum rate, and network capacity.     

ESPS scheme for two‐tier interference suppression in a heterogeneous network with cooperative femtocells

The coexistence of a macrocell and a number of femtocells often leads to a two‐tier heterogeneous network, where the co‐tier interference (CotIN) and cross‐tier interference (CrotIN) both degrade users' quality of service. In order to suppress these interferences, we propose a precoding scheme in a heterogeneous network with cooperative femtocells, called CotIN elimination and CrotIN suppression with precoding criterion selection (ESPS) scheme. In this scheme, we first eliminate the CotINs of each user by applying the QR decomposition to channel matrix. Then the CrotINs of macrocell users and femtocell users are suppressed via the macrocell base station (MBS) and femtocell access points (FAPs) with precoding criterion selection, respectively. By using the ESPS scheme, spatial resources can be efficiently exploited. In addition, our ESPS scheme requires little information exchange between MBS and FAPs without iteration and thus significantly reduces the implementation complexity. Furthermore, the robustness is increased through introducing the information of channel uncertainty into the ESPS when channel estimation or quantization error exists. The performance analysis for the ESPS demonstrates that the ESPS is practical in the heterogeneous networks. Finally, simulation results show that the ESPS can decrease users' bit error rates and increase their transmission rates. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

双层分级蜂窝网最优频谱分配与定价

针对异频组网的双层分级蜂窝网,提出了一种基于纳什谈判解法的最优频谱分配与定价策略,该策略能激励家庭基站采用开放用户组模式,最大化频谱效益。通过Stackelberg博弈建模,分析了频谱定价与用户需求的关系。通过纳什谈判解法,获得了最佳的频谱分配与定价策略,按需地为宏基站与家庭基站分配了带宽资源,定量地分析了家庭基站所提高的频谱效益。仿真结果表明,该策略相比非合作博弈方法,可有效提高运营商以及家庭基站拥有者所能获得的频谱效益,部署家庭基站将提高蜂窝网络的总效益。      

Femtocell网络中基于双门限的两层协作频谱感知技术

在Femtocell和Macrocell构成的两层异构网络中,前人提出运用认知无线电的技术来解决网络中存在的干扰问题,但大多数研究主要集中在频谱资源的管理上,没有提出高效的频谱检测方法。本文结合认知无线电中频谱感知技术提出了基于双门限的两层协作频谱感知,检测出空洞的频谱资源分配给Femtocell用户使用,既能提高频谱资源的利用率,又能有效的抑制Femtocell与Macrocell之间的干扰。文中推导出了Femtocell用户基于双门限的两层频谱感知的检测概率和虚警概率,给出了Femtocell网络中感知信息两比特编码的融合准则和基于双门限的两层协作频谱感知的具体实施方法。仿真结果表明,所提算法能够有效提高Femtocell用户的频谱检测概率,通过对感知信息进行两比特编码,再将编码后的信息发送至融合中心进行融合,能够有效的提高整个系统的检测性能,抗噪声能力强。      

Stackelberg game for backhaul resource allocation in the two-tier LTE femtocell networks

As one promising technology for indoor coverage and service offloading from the conventional cellular networks, femtocells have attracted considerable attention in recent years. However, most of previous work are focused on resource allocation during the access period, and the backhaul involved resource allocation is seriously ignored. The authors studied the backhaul resource allocation in the wireless backhaul based two-tier heterogeneous networks （HetNets）, in which cross-tier interference control during access period is jointly considered. Assuming that the macrocell base station （MBS） protects itself from interference by pricing the backhaul spectrum allocated to femtocells, a Stackelberg game is formulated to work on the joint utility maximization of the macrocell and femtocells subject to a maximum interference tolerance at the MBS. The closed-form expressions of the optimal strategies are obtained to characterize the Stackelberg equilibriums for the proposed games, and a backhaul spectrum payment selection algorithm with guaranteed convergence is proposed to implement the backhaul resource allocation for femtocell base stations （FBSs）. Simulations are presented to demonstrate the Stackelberg equilibrium （SE） is obtained by the proposed algorithm and the proposed scheme is effective in backhaul resource allocation and macrocell protection in the spectrum-sharing HetNets.     

Outage probability in Poisson‐cluster‐based LTE two‐tier femtocell networks

This paper analyzes two‐tier orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing (OFDM)‐based cellular structure, when the traditional macrocell structure is extended with femtocells. The benefit of using femtocells is the capacity and coverage extension capability. To fulfill strict quality of service requirements in next‐generation mobile networks such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE‐Advanced, capacity and coverage enhancing becomes rather important. On the other hand, adding small cells such as femtocells next to macrocell modifies the interference pattern of the current region. Therefore, the number of small cells in a given area should be limited. In this paper, we provide an analytic framework to calculate the outage probability for a macrocell user in OFDM‐based femtocell networks when the deployed femto base stations are composing an independent Poisson cluster process such as Thomas cluster process. Cluster‐based femtocell modeling offers accurate network planning for mobile operators. In this cluster‐based realization, we give an interference characterization and consider the outage probability for a randomly deployed user when communication channel is infected with Rayleigh fading. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

OFDMA femtocells: a roadmap on interference avoidance - [topics in radio communications]

OFDMA femtocells have been pointed out by the industry as a good solution not only to overcome the indoor coverage problem but also to deal with the growth of traffic within macrocells. However, the deployment of a new femtocell layer may have an undesired impact on the performance of the macrocell layer. The allocation of spectrum resources and the avoidance of electromagnetic interference are some of the more urgent challenges that operators face before femtocells become widely deployed. In this article a coverage and interference analysis based on a realistic OFDMA macro/femtocell scenario is provided, as well as some guidelines on how the spectrum allocation and interference mitigation problems can be approached in these networks. Special attention is paid to the use of self-configuration and self-optimization techniques for the avoidance of interference.     

Multi-objective Resource Allocation for LTE/LTE-A Femtocell/HeNB Networks Using Ant Colony Optimization

Existing femtocell resource allocation schemes for Long Term Evolution or LTE-Advanced femtocell networks do not jointly achieve efficient resource utilization, fairness guarantee, interference mitigation and reduced complexity in a satisfactory manner. In this paper, a multi-objective resource allocation scheme is proposed to achieve these desired features simultaneously. We first formulate three objective functions to respectively maximize resource utilization efficiency, guarantee a high degree of fairness and minimize interference. A weighted sum approach is then used to combine these objective functions to form a single multi-objective optimization problem. An ant colony optimization algorithm is employed to find the Pareto-optimal solution to this problem. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme performs jointly well in all aspects, namely resource utilization, fairness and interference mitigation. Additionally, it maintains satisfactory performance in the handover process and has a reasonably low complexity compared to the existing schemes.     

Interference management with adaptive fractional frequency reuse for LTE-A femtocells networks

This paper presents a novel interference management strategy, to adaptively choose the best fractional frequency reuse (FFR) scheme for macro and femto networks. The strategy aims to maximize the system throughput taking into account a number of system constraints. Here, the system constrains consist of the outage constraints of two-tier users and macrocell spectral efficiency requirement. The detailed procedures of our proposed strategy are: 1) A reference signal received power (RSRP) based selection algorithm is presented to adaptively select the optional FFR schemes satisfying the outage constraints. 2) Considering the macrocell spectral efficiency, the optimal FFR scheme is selected from the optional FFR schemes at MeNB side, to achieve the maximum system throughput in two-tier femtocell networks. We study the efficacy of the proposed strategy using an long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) system level simulator. Simulation results show that our proposed interference management strategy can select the best FFR scheme to maximize the system throughput, and the FFR schemes derived by using RSRP-based selection algorithm can be the effective solutions to deploy femtocells in macrocells.     

Pseudo-handover based subchannel and power adaptation scheme for interference mitigation in OFDMA two-tier femtocell networks

In the two-tier femtocell network,a central macrocell is underlaid with a large number of shorter range femtocell hotspots,which is preferably in the universal frequency reuse mode.This kind of new network architecture brings about urgent challenges to the schemes of interference management and the radio resource allocation.Motivated by these challenges,three contributions are made in this paper:1) A novel joint subchannel and power allocation problem for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) downlink based femtocells is formulated on the premise ofminimizing radiated interference of every Femto base station.2) The pseudo-handover based scheduling information exchange method is proposed to exchange the co-tier and cross-tier information,and thus avoid the collision interference.3) An iterative scheme of power control and subchannel is proposed to solve the formulated problem in contribution 1),which is an NP-complete problem.Through simulations and comparisons with four other schemes,better performance in reducing interference and improving the spectrum efficiency is achieved by the proposed scheme.