Joint interference coordination approach in femtocell networks for QoS performance optimization

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SummaryFuture heterogeneous networks with dense cell deployment may cause high intercell interference. A number of interference coordination (IC) approaches have been proposed to reduce intercell interference. For dense small‐cell deployment with high intercell interference between cells, traditional forward link IC approaches intended to improve edge user throughput for best effort traffic (ie, file transfer protocol download), may not necessarily improve quality of service performance for delay‐sensitive traffic such as voice over long‐term evolution traffic. This study proposes a dynamic, centralized joint IC approach to improve forward link performance for delay‐sensitive traffic on densely deployed enterprise‐wide long‐term evolution femtocell networks. This approach uses a 2‐level scheme: central and femtocell. At the central level, the algorithm aims to maximize network utility (the utility‐based approach) and minimize network outage (the graphic‐based approach) by partitioning the network into clusters and conducting an exhaustive search for optimized resource allocation solutions among femtocells (femto access points) within each cluster. At the femtocell level, in contrast, the algorithm uses existing static approaches, such as conventional frequency reuse (ReUse3) or soft frequency reuse (SFR) to further improve user equipment quality of service performance. This combined approach uses utility‐ and graphic‐based SFR and ReUse3 (USFR/GSFR and UReUse3/GReUse3, respectively). The cell and edge user throughput of best effort traffic and the packet loss rate of voice over long‐term evolution traffic have been characterized and compared using both the proposed and traditional IC approaches.