Handling interference in self-organizing femtocell networks through frequency-polarization diversity

Abstract

The next generation heterogeneous networks are expected to offer higher data-rate and better QoS to the customers by leveraging smaller cells like femtocells and making use of orthogonal frequency division multiple access. However, uncoordinated dense deployment of femtocells in macrocell network pose unique challenges involving cross-tier interference and resource management which results in significant degradation of the system performance. As part of addressing these challenges for the successful integration of both technologies, this paper proposes the deployment of a self-organizing femtocell network that employs an opportunistic smart frequency reuse technique ---cross polarized complementary frequency allocation (CPCFA). It exploits the frequency and polarization diversity to mitigate interference in two-tier femto-macro networks. In this work, a strategy combining the adoption of reverse frequency allocation and orthogonal polarized transmission is analyzed as a potential solution for maximizing spectral efficiency and minimizing interference in the existing heterogeneous networks. Focus of the current work is on downlink transmission where the traffic is high and the deployment of femtocell is more beneficial. The results of analytic and simulation studies prove that CPCFA increases the scope for an easily implementable, remarkable opportunity in the context of two-tier femto-macro network that can substantially increase the system capacity as well as cell coverage without additional network complexities.