Inter-cell Interference Power Research Articles

Cooperative Interference Management for Over-the-Air Computation Networks

Recently, over-the-air computation (AirComp) has emerged as an efficient solution for access points (APs) to aggregate distributed data from many edge devices (e.g., sensors) by exploiting the waveform superposition property of multiple access (uplink) channels. While prior work focuses on the single-cell setting where inter-cell interference is absent, this article considers a multi-cell AirComp network limited by such interference and investigates the optimal policies for controlling devices' transmit power to minimize the mean squared errors (MSEs) in aggregated signals received at different APs. First, we consider the scenario of centralized multi-cell power control. To quantify the fundamental AirComp performance tradeoff among different cells, we characterize the Pareto boundary of the multi-cell MSE region by minimizing the sum MSE subject to a set of constraints on individual MSEs. Though the sum-MSE minimization problem is non-convex and its direct solution intractable, we show that this problem can be optimally solved via equivalently solving a sequence of convex second-order cone program (SOCP) feasibility problems together with a bisection search. This results in an efficient algorithm for computing the optimal centralized multi-cell power control, which optimally balances the interference-and-noise-induced errors and the signal misalignment errors unique for AirComp. Next, we consider the other scenario of distributed power control, e.g., when there lacks a centralized controller. In this scenario, we introduce a set of interference temperature (IT) constraints, each of which constrains the maximum total inter-cell interference power between a specific pair of cells. Accordingly, each AP only needs to individually control the power of its associated devices for single-cell MSE minimization, but subject to a set of IT constraints on their interference to neighboring cells. By optimizing the IT levels, the distributed power control is shown to provide an alternative method for characterizing the same multi-cell MSE Pareto boundary as the centralized counterpart. Building on this result, we further propose an efficient algorithm for different APs to cooperate in iteratively updating the IT levels to achieve a Pareto-optimal MSE tuple, by pairwise information exchange. Last, simulation results demonstrate that cooperative power control using the proposed algorithms can substantially reduce the sum MSE of AirComp networks compared with the conventional single-cell approaches.

Optimal Base Station Antenna Downtilt in Downlink Cellular Networks

Very recent studies showed that the area spectral efficiency (ASE) of downlink cellular networks will continuously decrease and finally crash to zero as the base station (BS) density increases toward infinity if the absolute height difference between BS antenna and user equipment antenna is larger than zero. Such a phenomenon is referred to as the ASE crash. We revisit this issue by considering optimizing the BS antenna downtilt in cellular networks. It is common to adjust antenna pattern to tune the direction of the vertical beamforming and thus increasing received signal power and/or reducing inter-cell interference power to improve network performance. This paper focuses on investigating the relationship between the BS antenna downtilt and the downlink network performance in terms of the coverage probability and the ASE. Our results reveal an interesting find that there exists an optimal antenna downtilt to achieve the maximum coverage probability for each BS density. Numerically solvable expressions are derived for such optimal antenna downtilt, which is a function of the BS density. Our numerical results show that after applying the optimal antenna downtilt, the network performance can be significantly improved, and hence the ASE crash can be delayed by nearly one order of magnitude in terms of the BS density. Our results also give guidance on setting the optimum downtilt angle to maximize network performance given a fixed BS density.

Average power allocation based sum-rate optimization in massive MIMO systems

This paper exploits variations in the average channel gains in multi-cell multi-user massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems. An average transmit power-control-based sum-rate optimization scheme is presented for the uplink of the system. The matched filtering (MF) and the zero forcing (ZF) processors are considered with perfect and imperfect channel state information at receiver (CSIR) under frequency flat Rayleigh fading channel. An average power-control-based system model is constructed for analyzing the sum-rate and formulating an optimization problem. A discrete level combinatorial optimization is performed for MF and ZF sum-rate under perfect and imperfect CSIR. The numerical results show a significant improvement in the sum-rate and power consumption. A low complexity algorithm for numerical optimization of the sum-rate is proposed. The performance of algorithm is quantified with different scenarios including different number of users, macro cells, and micro cells with low and high inter-cell interference powers. The evaluation results show that the improvement in sum-rate and energy efficiency increases with inter-cell interference power and the number of MTs.

Renewable Energy-Based Resource Allocation for Full-Duplex Small Cell Networks

In this paper, a renewable energy-based resource allocation method is proposed for full-duplex small cell networks. This method presents an outage-aware power allocation scheme as an optimal transmission policy for a two-way communication system between a base station and user equipment (UE) in one single small cell network, where each node is solar-powered and equipped with a finite capacity battery. A full-duplex (FD) scheduling scheme is presented by utilizing Markov decision process (MDP) action parameters to maximize throughput and minimize outage probability. With two different techniques, scheduling and power transmission, the MDP action sets are formulated to maximize the reward function. Outage probability is investigated by comparing our proposed FD scheme to the conventional half-duplex scheme. Furthermore, the throughput performance of the FD scheme is investigated by varying the scenarios. Finally, the outage probability and throughput performance of the FD scheme are demonstrated, in which the FD scheduling scheme has achieved 87.5 % capacity, and the outage probability is linearly decreased and degraded at 15 dB of SNR. However, with the constraint of a five-meter distance between the UE and interferers, the simulation results show that our proposed optimal transmission policy outperforms the half-duplex system despite dealing with intra-cell interference, inter-cell interference, and limited battery power.

Optimal Downlink and Uplink Fractional Frequency Reuse in Cellular Wireless Networks

Densely deployed cellular wireless networks, which employ small cell technology, are being widely implemented. Mitigating the impact of inter- and intracell signal interferences induced by the operations of these networks is a challenging yet essential task. In this paper, we consider adaptive rate scheduling for a transmitting node, regardless of whether it is a base station (BS) or a mobile user. We aim to maximize the system's throughput through the employment of fractional frequency reuse (FFR) schemes. Each BS employs either an omnidirectional or a directional antenna system. We derive the optimal configuration of the FFR scheme and evaluate the ensuing system's performance behavior under absolute and proportional fairness requirements. To maximize the attained throughput by mobiles, we determine the best method to use to classify cell users into interior and edge mobiles. The bandwidth levels allocated for serving interior and edge mobiles are optimized. We derive approximate closed-form mathematical expressions for calculating the probability distributions of the interference signal levels measured at the destined receivers. We account for the impact of the classification process on intercell interference power levels. Under an absolute fairness requirement, we show that optimally configured FFR schemes lead to much enhanced performance. We show that the optimally configured directional-FFR schemes increase the throughput capacity by a factor of about 60% relative to that obtained by using optimal omnidirectional-FFR schemes. The analyses and simulation results presented in this paper serve to characterize the performance behavior attainable by using such small cell deployed cellular wireless network systems when employing the underlying configurations.

Chance Constrained Robust Downlink Beamforming in Multicell Networks

We introduce a downlink robust optimization approach that minimizes a combination of total transmit power by a multiple antenna base station (BS) within a cell and the resulting aggregate inter-cell interference (ICI) power on the users of the other cells. This optimization is constrained to assure that a set of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) targets are met at user terminals with certain outage probabilities. The outages are due to the uncertainties that naturally emerge in the estimation of channel covariance matrices between a BS and its intra-cell local users as well as the other users of the other cells. We model these uncertainties using random matrices, analyze their statistical behavior, and formulate a tractable probabilistic approach to the design of optimal robust downlink beamforming vectors. The proposed approach reformulates the original intractable non-convex problem in a semidefinite programming (SDP) form with linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints. The resulting SDP formulation is convex and numerically tractable under the standard rank relaxation. We compare the proposed chance-constrained approach against two different robust design schemes as well as the worst-case robustness. The simulation results confirm better power efficiency and higher resilience against channel uncertainties of the proposed approach in realistic scenarios.

Uplink User-Assisted Relaying in Cellular Networks

We use stochastic geometry to analyze the performance of a partial decode-and-forward (PDF) relaying scheme applied in a user-assisted relaying setting, where an active user relays data through another idle user in uplink cellular communication. We present the geometric model of a network deploying user-assisted relaying and propose two geometric cooperation policies for fast and slow fading channels. We analytically derive the cooperation probability for both policies. This cooperation probability is further used in the analytical derivation of the moments of intercell interference power caused by system-wide deployment of this user-assisted PDF relaying. We then model the intercell interference power statistics using the Gamma distribution by matching the first two moments analytically derived. This cooperation and interference analysis provides the theoretical basis for quantitatively evaluating the performance impact of user-assisted relaying in cellular networks. We then numerically evaluate the average transmission rate performance and show that user-assisted relaying can significantly improve per-user transmission rate despite of increased intercell interference. This transmission rate gain is significant for active users near the cell edge and further increases with higher idle user density, supporting user-assisted relaying as a viable solution to crowded population areas.

Inter-Cell Interference Coordination Method Based on Coordinated Inter-Cell Interference Power Control in Uplink

We propose an inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) method that employs inter-cell coordinated transmission power control (TPC) based on inter-cell interference power in addition to conventional received signal power-based TPC in the cellular uplink. We assume orthogonal multiple-access as is used in 3GPP LTE. In the proposed method, an ICIC effect similar to that for conventional fractional frequency reuse (FFR) is obtained. This is achieved by coordinating the allowable inter-cell interference power level at the appropriate frequency blocks within the system bandwidth among neighboring cells in a semi-static manner. Different from conventional FFR, since all users within a cell can access all the frequency blocks, the reduction in multiuser diversity gain is abated. Computer simulation results show that the proposed method enhances both the cell-edge and average user throughput simultaneously compared to conventional universal frequency reuse (UFR) and FFR.

Cooperative Inter-cell Interference Mitigation Scheme with Downlink MU-MIMO Beamforming for Dense Wireless LAN Environment

A cooperative inter-cell interference (ICI) mitigation scheme with transmit beamforming for dense wireless LAN systems is proposed. The proposed scheme applies transmit beamforming used for downlink multiuser MIMO in order to mitigate the effect of ICI and selectively determines whether an access point (AP) performs null beamforming for each station (STA) in overlapping basic service sets (OBSSs) according to the ICI power. Null beamforming is used to suppress ICI if its power exceeds a threshold, otherwise, it is not carried out and the transmit antenna is used to obtain a diversity gain for STAs associated with the AP. Computer simulations confirm that the achievable rate obtained with the proposed scheme is superior to that obtained with either time resource sharing or conventional ICI mitigation in an OBSS environment.

Distributed Inter-Cell Interference Mitigation Via Joint Scheduling and Power Control Under Noise Rise Constraints

Consider the problem of joint uplink scheduling and power allocation. Being inherent in almost any wireless system, this resource allocation problem has received extensive attention. Yet, most common techniques either adopt classical power control, in which mobile stations are received with the same Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio, or use centralized schemes, in which base stations coordinate their allocations. In this work, we suggest a novel scheduling approach in which each base station, besides allocating the time and frequency according to given constraints, also manages its uplink power budget such that the aggregate interference, "Noise Rise", caused by its subscribers at the neighboring cells is bounded. Our suggested scheme is distributed, requiring neither coordination nor message exchange between the base stations. We rigorously define the allocation problem under noise rise constraints. Inspired by the fact that under the noise-rise constraints, interference experienced by base stations is bounded and its variance is expected to be low, we suggested an approximation in which each base station assumes fixed interference. Under this approximation we formalize the joint scheduling and power control under the noise rise constraints as an optimization problem and characterize the optimal solution. For the special case of homogeneous deployment we give the optimal solution and derive an efficient iterative algorithm to achieve it. We then discuss a relaxed problem, where the noise rise is constrained separately for each sub-channel or resource unit. While sub-optimal, this view renders the scheduling and power allocation problems separate, yielding an even simpler and more efficient solution, while the essence of the scheme is kept. Via extensive simulations, we show that the suggested approach increases overall performance dramatically, with the same level of fairness and power consumption.

제한된 궤환 채널 기반 상향링크 MIMO/FDD 시스템에서의 효율적인 간섭 정렬 기법

Assuming perfect channel state information (CSI), the conventional interference alignment (IA) algorithm in the uplink cellular system suppresses inter-cell interference (ICI) by aligning ICI to a randomly selected reference vector. However, IA in practice relies on limited feedback between base stations and users, resulting in residual ICI. In this paper, we propose the optimization of the reference vector that minimizes the upper-bound of residual ICI power. Secondly, the iterative IA that designs the direction of transmit and receive filter is proposed to minimize the residual ICI as well as maximize the desired signals. Moreover, we propose the user scheduling method combined with proposed IA schemes which provides the multiuser diversity gain in multi-cell environments. Finally, the performance gain of the proposed IA algorithms compared with the existing IA are analyzed and demonstrated by simulation results.

Interference Alignment for Uplink Cellular Systems with Limited Feedback

Assuming perfect channel state information, the existing interference alignment (IA) algorithm proposed in [2] suppresses inter-cell interference (ICI) by aligning ICI to a randomly selected reference vector. However, IA in practice relies on limited feedback, resulting in residual ICI. In this letter, we propose the optimization of the reference vector for regulating the residual ICI. Specifically, it is shown that the reference vector that minimizes an upper bound on the residual ICI power is the eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue of the sum of the interference-channel matrices multiplied by their corresponding Hermitian matrices. Moreover, the performance gain of the proposed IA algorithm compared with the existing one in [2] is analyzed and demonstrated by simulation to be significant.

Energy Conservation and Interference Mitigation: From Decoupling Property to Win-Win Strategy

This paper studies the problem of energy conservation of mobile terminals in a multi-cell TDMA network supporting real-time sessions. The corresponding optimization problem involves joint scheduling, rate control, and power control, which is often highly complex to solve. To reduce the solution complexity, we decompose the overall problem into two sub-problems: intra-cell energy optimization and inter-cell interference control. The solution of the two subproblems results in a win-win situation: both the energy consumptions and inter-cell interference are reduced simultaneously. We simulate our decomposition method with the typical parameters in WiMAX system, and the simulation results show that our decomposition method can achieve an energy reduction of more than 70% compared with the simplistic maximum transmit power policy. Furthermore, the inter-cell interference power can be reduced by more than 35% compared with the maximum transmit power policy. We find that the interference power stays largely constant throughout a TDMA frame in our decomposition method. Based on this premise, we derive an interesting decoupling property: if the idle power consumption of terminals is no less than their circuit power consumption, or when both are negligible, then the energy-optimal transmission rates of the users are independent of the inter-cell interference power.

An analytical model for the intercell interference power in the downlink of wireless cellular networks

Abstract In this paper, we propose a methodology for estimating the statistics of the intercell interference power in the downlink of a multicellular network. We first establish an analytical expression for the probability law of the interference power when only Rayleigh multipath fading is considered. Next, focusing on a propagation environment where small-scale Rayleigh fading as well as large-scale effects, including attenuation with distance and lognormal shadowing, are taken into consideration, we elaborate a semi-analytical method to build up the histogram of the interference power distribution. From the results obtained for this combined small- and large-scale fading context, we then develop a statistical model for the interference power distribution. The interest of this model lies in the fact that it can be applied to a large range of values of the shadowing parameter. The proposed methods can also be easily extended to other types of networks.

Moment-matched lognormal modeling of uplink interference with power control and cell selection

We develop an alternate characterization of the statistical distribution of the inter-cell interference power observed in the uplink of CDMA systems. We show that the lognormal distribution better matches the cumulative distribution and complementary cumulative distribution functions of the uplink interference than the conventionally assumed Gaussian distribution and variants based on it. This is in spite of the fact that many users together contribute to uplink interference, with the number of users and their locations both being random. Our observations hold even in the presence of power control and cell selection, which have hitherto been used to justify the Gaussian distribution approximation. The parameters of the lognormal are obtained by matching moments, for which detailed analytical expressions that incorporate wireless propagation, cellular layout, power control, and cell selection parameters are developed. The moment-matched lognormal model, while not perfect, is an order of magnitude better in modeling the interference power distribution.

Joint Scheduling and ARQ for MU-MIMO Downlink in the Presence of Inter-Cell Interference

User scheduling and multiuser multi-antenna (MU-MIMO) transmission are at the core of high-rate data-oriented downlink schemes of the next-generation of cellular systems (e.g., LTE-Advanced). Scheduling selects groups of users according to their channels vector directions and SINR levels. However, when scheduling is applied independently in each cell, the inter-cell interference (ICI) power at each user receiver is not known in advance since it changes at each new scheduling slot depending on the scheduling decisions of all interfering base stations. In order to cope with this uncertainty, we consider the joint operation of scheduling, MU-MIMO beamforming and Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ). We develop a game-theoretic framework for this problem and build on stochastic optimization techniques in order to find optimal scheduling and ARQ schemes. Particularizing our framework to the case of "outage service rates", we obtain a scheme based on adaptive variable-rate coding at the physical layer, combined with ARQ at the Logical Link Control (ARQ-LLC). Then, we present a novel scheme based on incremental redundancy Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) that is able to achieve a throughput performance arbitrarily close to the "genie-aided service rates", with no need for a genie that provides non-causally the ICI power levels. The novel HARQ scheme is both easier to implement and superior in performance with respect to the conventional combination of adaptive variable-rate coding and ARQ-LLC.

An intercell interference power level feedback technique for one-cell reuse TDMA systems with OFDM-based adaptive modulation scheme

To implement a one-cell reuse time division multiple access (TDMA) system using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing-based adaptive modulation scheme (OFDM AMS) and multilevel transmit power control (MTPC), co-channel interference [intercell interference (ICI)] from adjacent cells that varies dynamically on the frequency axis must be fed back very accurately to the transmitting station. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an ICI feedback technology in one-cell reuse TDMA with OFDM AMS/MTPC. First, the interference power of each subchannel is estimated by calculating the vector error which is the difference between the reference symbol on the receiving side and the received symbol. Next, instead of a digital signal method capable of expanding the amount of information, analog quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is adopted in order to feed back the errors with high accuracy. In addition, code division multiplexing (CDM) is adopted in order to improve the robustness to multipaths. Furthermore, to reduce the amount of feedback information, we adopt a method where the estimated interference noise power is formed into blocks by multiple adjacent subcarriers, and only the average of the block is set as the notification target, and interference power information less than some constant value is not notified. The evaluation results of the characteristics of the proposed method by a computer simulation verified that the interference noise power can be estimated very accurately and can accurately notify by using a notification frame with optimized power distribution. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 89(7): 11–23, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.20281

Inter cell interference modeling and analysis in long term evolution (LTE)

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is promising standard for data rate and system capacity (coverage) in wirelesses communication history. Inter cell interference (ICI) is a dominate impairment of LTE systems. In interference, modeling and analysis have focused on the first tier only, but considering ICI arises from the second tier is very crucial in communication system standard and implementations too. In this research work interference modeling is proposed and analyzed for the first two subsequent tires under various channel environments. The work is analytically quantified with respect to standard parameters and system models using Matlab and other supportive tools. Thus, link level simulation results demonstrate, ICI beyond the first tier becomes active in urban environment and the smaller cell size increases ICI power in LTE.