Optimal Design of Pilot Power Based on Firefly Algorithm for Heterogeneous Small Cell Networks

Abstract

In heterogeneous small cellular networks, the power level of a pilot signal of each cell determines the coverage and pilot pollution to neighboring cells. Thus, pilot power allocation involves a tradeoff between coverage and interference. In this paper, we propose a joint distributed pilot power optimization model for load balancing in small cell networks, which simultaneously maximizes the capacity of each cell subject to the constraints of coverage and service requirements as well as smooth horizontal handover requirements between small cell networks. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms fixed pilot power schemes in terms of much lower allocated pilot power and better coverage degree.