Joint User Association and Reuse Pattern Selection in Heterogeneous Networks

TL;DR

This paper proposes a joint user association and reuse pattern selection algorithm for LTE HetNets, improving interference management and network throughput by optimizing frequency partitioning and pattern selection.

Contribution

It introduces a novel joint algorithm for user association and reuse pattern selection, along with a practical criterion for pattern set reduction in HetNets.

Findings

Enhanced cell-edge user throughput

Improved overall network throughput

Effective frequency pattern selection method

Abstract

The successful deployment of LTE heterogeneous networks (HetNets) depends crucially on the inter-cell interference (ICI) management. Among ICI coordination schemes, fractional frequency reuse (FFR) is considered as an efficient technique well-suited to OFDMA-based HetNets. Two coupled questions in this context are: 1) how to associate users to appropriate base-stations considering the long list of available candidate cells, and 2) how to allocate frequency resources among multiple cells. In this paper, we treat the multi-cell frequency allocation as frequency partitioning among multiple reuse patterns, and develop a novel algorithm to solve these two coupled questions in a joint manner. We also provide practical criterion to select the set of essential candidate patterns from all possible patterns. Results show that the proposed joint strategy improves both the cell-edge user and overall network throughput.