Femto-Macro Cellular Interference Control with Subband Scheduling and Interference Cancelation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel interference control scheme for femto-macro cellular networks using subband scheduling and interference cancelation, aiming to improve macrocell rate distribution with minimal coordination.

Contribution

It proposes a load-spillage power control method with subband partitioning for femtocells, enhancing interference management and network performance.

Findings

Improved macrocell rate distribution in simulations

Reduced interference with minimal coordination

Potential gains with interference cancelation

Abstract

A significant technical challenge in deploying femtocells is controlling the interference from the underlay of femtos onto the overlay of macros. This paper presents a novel interference control method where the macrocell bandwidth is partitioned into subbands, and the short-range femtocell links adaptively allocate their power across the subbands based on a load-spillage power control method. The scheme can improve rate distribution in the macro network while also providing opportunities for short-range communication as well. Moreover, the proposed scheme requires minimal interference coordination communication between the femtos and macros, which is one of the main challenges in femtocell systems. Also, simulations show certain advantages over simpler orthogonalization schemes or power control schemes without subband partitioning. Further modest gains may also be possible with interference cancelation.