A novel cluster based resource sharing model for femtocell networks

Abstract

Femtocells have been deployed to enhance indoor coverage, improve the system capacity of cellular networks, and increase the spectrum efficiency by means of full subcarrier reuse among macrocell and femtocells. Nevertheless, the introduction of hybrid access mode imposes new challenges for the resource sharing model in the femtocell networks such as: (1) granting access to public users while guaranteeing QoS of subscriber transmissions, (2) trade-off between level of offloaded traffic from macrocell and bandwidth allocated to femto-tier and (3) appropriate power settings that finds a compromise between the overall system performance and the bandwidth allocated to femtocells. In this paper, we propose a novel cluster formation technique together with a resource sharing model based on Particle swarm optimization technique. Our algorithm aims at maximization of the network throughput and determines the serving base station and the amount of resources per user taking into account user locations, demands, femtocell proximity and traffic load in existing clusters. Simulations are conducted to show the performance of the proposed model contrasted with a benchmark model based on known Weighted Water Filling resource allocation algorithm and known cluster formation technique.