Performance analysis of an advanced heterogeneous mobile network architecture with multiple small cell layers

The integration of small cell technologies into the current mobile network operators is a necessity for providing capacity and coverage improvement in the future mobile networks (5G). This integration paves the way for heterogeneous networking. In this paper, a novel heterogeneous architecture for the efficient integration of small cell technology into the current mobile networks is developed, namely advanced heterogeneous mobile network (AHMN). AHMN architecture consists of a stack of multiple cell layers wherein the upper layer is the macrocell layer while under this layer, a number of lower small cell layers are formed. Focusing on femtocells and metrocells, as the most typical paradigms of small cells, a femtocell layer which serves the indoor traffic activity of femtocell users is considered, while the metrocell serves the outdoor traffic activities as well as the overflow traffic from femtocells. The overall heterogeneous network (HetNet) is completed with the macrocell overlay layer, which serves only the macrocell users and the overflowed traffic from the underlay metrocell layer. In the proposed AHMN architecture, the metrocell layer is deployed as a complementary layer between the macrocell and femtocell layers and facilitates the handover traffic interaction between the edge layers. Meanwhile, the mobility management in this architecture is critical and hence, the interaction between successive network layers, due to the handover (HO) traffic, is analyzed. Furthermore, for each network layer, a guard channel scheme is proposed in order to minimize the HO dropping rate of the mobile users. We show both analytically and by simulation the capability of AHMN in offloading traffic and reducing the blocking/dropping probability compared with the traditional macrocellular network.     

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.     

一种基于femtocell群的缓存切换策略的研究

为了提高局部室内无线通信质量,家庭基站正逐步应用于各类室内无线通信场景。在密集部署femtocell场景中,当用户设备由宏小区层切换至femto层时,密集的femtocell信号会影响用户设备切换的准确性,增加用户设备切换开销和不必要切换概率。针对上述问题,在密集部署femtocell环境下针对切换提出一个femtocell分集理念,在提高切换准确性的同时,降低不必要切换次数,并在此基础上提出了一种缓存切换策略,以提高设备由宏小区层切换至femto层的效率,通过仿真对所提机制的性能进行了验证。     

Power Control Based on Maximum Power Adaptation in Two-Tier Femtocell Networks

In recent years, femtocells are receiving considerable attention in mobile communication as a cost-effective means of improving indoor coverage and capacity. A significant technical challenge in the deployment of a large number of femtocells is the management of interference from the underlay of femtocells onto the overlay of macrocell. In this paper, a reasonable and effective interference suppression scheme based on the adaptive adjustment of femtocell users’ maximum transmission power is proposed. The highlight of the scheme is the joint design of macrocell users’ uplink communication protection and femtocell users’ optimal power allocation. The scheme restricts the cross-tier interference at macrocell base station below a given threshold and ensures the optimization of femtocell users’ power allocation at each adjustment phase. Last, admission control is also considered, aiming to exploit the network resources more effectively. Simulation results show the superiority of the proposed scheme over the scheme based on the Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio adaptation. We also give some reference on utility function selection by setting different coefficients in the utility function, and show the effectiveness of admission control in both fixed and random network topologies.     

Interference Management and Six-Sector Macrocells for Performance Improvement in Femto–Macro Cellular Networks

Femtocells are considered as a solution for indoor high data rate demands. Interference mitigation is a fundamental challenge in two-tier femto–macrocell networks. In this paper, we consider six-sector macrocell layout for reducing the co-tier interference in the macrocell network and cross-tier interferences from macrocell to femtocell network. As interference reduces, the whole of available spectrum can be used in each macrocell which increases the spectrum efficiency. We also consider interference-level algorithm to allocate resource for femtocell in which macrocell uses the whole of spectrum. In the coverage area of each sector, femtocell uses a portion of the spectrum that is not used by the macrocell users. This approach ignores the high co-channel interference from the macrocell network to the femtocell network and vice versa in each sector. Simulation results show that the proposed layout and interference management scheme reduce the downlink interference and increase the efficiency of the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based femtocell and macrocell. Consequently, system throughput and outage probability are improved significantly.     

Proactive caching with content‐based pricing for cooperative femtocells in two‐tier heterogeneous networks

With increase in the number of smart wireless devices, the demand for higher data rates also grows which puts immense pressure to the network. A vast majority of this demand comes from video files, and it is observed that only a few popular video files are requested more frequently during any specified time interval. Recent studies have shown that caching provides a better performance as it minimizes the network load by avoiding the fetching of same files multiple times from the server. In this paper, we propose to combine two ideas; proactive caching of files and content‐based pricing in macro‐femto heterogeneous networks. The femtocell access point (FAP) is allowed to manipulate its users' demand through content‐based pricing and serve the users' requests by proactively downloading suitable content into its cache memory which reduces the load of the femtocell. In addition, an incentive mechanism is also proposed which encourages the FAP to help macrocell users under its coverage zone by allowing access to its cached content and thereby reduces the macrocell load. The proposed content‐based pricing and proactive caching scheme for femtocells is modeled as a Stackelberg game among the macrocell base station and the FAP to jointly maximize both of their utilities. Performance analysis of the scheme is presented for a single femtocell scenario and compared with the conventional flat pricing‐based scheme via numerical examples. The results demonstrate significant reduction in network load using our proposed scheme.     

Group handoff management in low power microcell-femtocell network

This paper presents an analytical model of group based hand-off management based on bird flocking behavior. In the proposed scheme, a number of mobile devices form a group if these devices move together for a long time duration. Although call delivery or call generation are performed individually, hand-off is performed in a group. Dynamic group formation, group division and group merging methods are proposed in this paper. From the simulation results it is demonstrated that approximately 75%, 65% and 90% reduction in power, cost and latency consumption can be obtained respectively using group hand-off management. Thus the proposed scheme is referred as green, economic and fast hand-off strategy. In this paper instead of a macrocell network, a microcell-femtocell network is considered as the transmission power of a microcell or a femtocell base station is much less than a macrocell base station. Simulation results present that the microcell-femtocell network achieves approximately 25–55% and 35–55% reduction in power transmission, and 50–65% and 15–45% reduction in path loss than only a macrocell network and macrocell-femtocell network respectively. Thus microcell-femtocell network is a power-efficient network.     

Statistics of macrocell-synchronous femtocell-asynchronous users? delays for improved femtocell uplink receiver design

In a typical macrocell network, the mobile users are synchronized to the macrocell base station (mBS), where users further away to the mBS transmit their signals earlier. In such a network, the signals of the macrocell users arrive at a femtocell base station (fBS) asynchronously, which may yield interference problems such as inter-carrier-interference in orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) systems. In this letter, statistics of the arrival times of macrocell-synchronous femtocell-asynchronous mobile users' signals to an fBS is derived (conditioned on the fBS-mBS distance), and its implications on the femtocell uplink receiver design are briefly discussed.     

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。      

Teletraffic performance evaluation of microcellular personalcommunication networks (PCN's) with prioritized handoff procedures

Evaluates four handoff priority-oriented channel allocation schemes. These give priority to handoff calls by reserving channels exclusively for handoff calls. The measurement-based handover channel adaptive reassignment scheme (MHAR-A) exclusively uses reserved handover channels for newly originated calls if a certain criterion is satisfied. All four schemes studied differ from the conventional guard channel-based handover priority-oriented channel allocation scheme. To study the schemes, a personal communication network (PCN) based on city street microcells is considered. A teletraffic simulation model accommodating a fast moving vehicle is developed, and the performance parameters are obtained. The performances of all four schemes are compared with the nonpriority scheme and the conventional guard channel-based handover priority-oriented channel allocation scheme. It was found that some of the channel allocation algorithms studied improved the teletraffic capacity over the nonpriority and the conventional guard case. Also, the probability of new call blocking and carried traffic was improved for three of the schemes when compared to the conventional guard scheme. The MHAR-A scheme did not perform up to expectation. Nevertheless, it can be used to finely control the communication service quality equivalent to the control obtained by varying the number of handoff channels in a fraction of one. Increasing the number of reserved handover channels in fraction of one can never be achieved in the conventional guard channel-based handover priority-oriented channel allocation scheme     

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.     

Performance analysis of hierarchical cellular networks with queueing and user retrials

How to efficiently utilize the scarce radio channel resource while maintaining the desired user‐perceived quality level and improved network performance is a major challenge to a wireless network designer. As one solution to meet this challenge in cellular mobile networks, a network architecture with hierarchical layers of cells has been widely considered. In this paper, we study the performance of a hierarchical cellular network that allows the queueing of both overflow slow‐mobility calls (from the lower layer microcells) and macrocell handover fast‐mobility calls that are blocked due to lack of free resources at the macrocell. Further, to accurately represent the wireless user behaviour, the impact of call repeat phenomenon is considered in the analysis of new call blocking probability. Performance analysis of the hierarchical cellular structure with queueing and call repeat phenomenon is performed using both analytical and simulation techniques. Numerical results show that queueing of calls reduces forced call termination probability and increases resource utilization with minimal call queueing delay. It is also shown that ignoring repeat calls leads to optimistic estimates of new call blocking probability especially at high offered traffic. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Price‐based interference management in dense femtocell systems

Femtocell technology has been drawing considerable attention as a cost‐effective means of improving cellular coverage and capacity. However, under co‐channel deployment, femtocell system in dense environment may incur high uplink interference to existing macrocells and experiences strong inter‐cell interference at the same time. To manage the uplink interference to macrocell, as well as the inter‐cell interference, this paper proposes a price‐based uplink interference management scheme for dense femtocell systems. Specifically, on the one hand, to guarantee the macrocell users' quality of service, the macrocell base station prices the interference from femtocell users (FUEs) subject to a maximum tolerable interference power constraint. On the other hand, the inter‐cell interference is also taken into consideration. Moreover, a Stackelberg game model is adopted to jointly study the utility maximization of the macrocell base station and FUEs. Then, in order to reduce the amount of information exchange, we design a distributed power allocation algorithm for FUEs. In addition, admission control is adopted to protect the active FUEs' performance. Numerical results show that the price‐based interference management scheme is effective. Meanwhile, it is shown that the distributed power allocation combined with admission control is capable of robustly protecting the performance of all the active FUEs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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。      

Dynamic guard channel allocation scheme for calls in WONs

Future wireless networks will provide ubiquitous communication services to a large number of mobile users. The design of such networks is based on heterogeneous wireless overlay networks that allow efficient use of the limited available spectrum, and also cover different ranges of coverage areas. A dynamic guard channel allocation scheme for calls in wireless overlay networks is developed. The new scheme considers the mobility, current location of mobile terminals, and bandwidth status in allocating bandwidth for new calls in order to guarantee the quality of service for all calls     

Pricing and power control for energy‐efficient radio resource management in cognitive femtocell networks

Cognitive femtocell has been considered as a promising technique that can improve the capacity and the utilization of spectrum efficiency in wireless networks because of the short transmission distance and low transmit power. In this paper, we study the win–win solution of energy‐efficient radio resource management in cognitive femtocell networks, where the macrocell tries to maximize its revenue by adjusting spectrum utilization price while the femtocells try to maximize their revenues by dynamically adjusting the transmit power. When the spectrum utilization price is given by macrocell, we formulate the power control problem of standalone femtocells as an optimization problem and introduce a low‐complexity iteration algorithm based on gradient‐assisted binary search algorithm to solve it. Besides, non‐cooperative game is used to formulate the power control problem between collocated femtocells in a collocated femtocell set, and then low complexity and widely used gradient‐based iteration algorithm is applied to obtain the Nash‐equilibrium solution. Specially, asymptotic analysis is applied to find the approximate spectrum utilization price in macrocell, which can greatly reduce the computational complexity of the proposed energy‐efficient radio resource management scheme. Finally, extensive simulation results are presented to verify our theoretical analysis and demonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Resource Allocation Based on Channel Sensing and Spatial Spectrum Reuse for Cognitive Femtocells

A cognitive femtocell is a new small cell based on a smart home base station to solve the spectrum-scarcity problem. Recently, dedicated resource allocation for cognitive femtocell to mitigate co-channel interference is extensively researched. However, the cognitive femtocell may suffer from the lack of frequency resource for its users due to high data traffic load of the macrocell. We propose a novel resource allocation and power control mechanism using spatial frequency reuse and spectrum sensing, which enables femto users in the cognitive femtocell to obtain more feasible resource. We analyze and evaluate the performance gain of the proposed scheme. Although data traffic load of the macrocell increases, the capacity of the cognitive femtocell can be maintained appropriately by the proposed resource allocation and power control scheme and it is shown that the performance is improved compared to that of the conventional scheme.

     

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.     

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。