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

TL;DR

This paper introduces a distributed uplink scheduling and power control scheme that limits interference through noise rise constraints, improving wireless network performance without requiring coordination.

Contribution

It proposes a novel distributed approach for joint scheduling and power control under noise rise constraints, with an optimal solution and an efficient iterative algorithm.

Findings

Significant performance improvements in simulations.

Maintains fairness and power consumption levels.

Operates without inter-base station coordination.

Abstract

Consider the problem of joint uplink scheduling and power allocation. Being inherent to 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. We rigorously define the allocation problem under noise rise constraints, 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.