Throughput and cost‐efficient interference cancelation strategies for the downlink of spectrum‐sharing Long Term Evolution heterogeneous networks

In a heterogeneous network (HetNet), small cells such as femtocells considered in this work are deployed jointly with macrocells. This new cells' layer, when added to the network, generates interference, which could hamper neighboring macro‐user equipment (MUE) and femto‐user equipment (FUE) transmissions. In fact, this interference results in degradation of the network performance. In this paper, we propose a downlink interference cancelation (DL‐IC) strategy for spectrum‐sharing Long Term Evolution (LTE) HetNet. This DL‐IC strategy aims to reduce the interference impact on users by optimizing their received signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) using new utility functions for both FUEs and MUEs. These utility functions allow relaxation of the cancelation ratios in order to reduce implementation complexity while maximizing SINR, QoS, and throughput. We support by different system‐level simulations that both global network performance and user experience in terms of total throughput and received SNR or link‐level throughput, respectively, are significantly enhanced. Throughput gains achievable by the new DL‐IC strategy can reach as much as 200% against a homogeneous LTE network without IC along with an extra 48% per additional femtocell base station against a basic spectrum‐sharing LTE HetNet without IC. These performance figures are shown to surpass those achieved by interference avoidance techniques using either power or frequency resource allocation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A preset threshold based cross-tier handover algorithm for uplink co-channel interference mitigation in two-tier femtocell networks

This paper considers the co-channel interference mitigation problem and proposes a preset threshold based cross-tier handover algorithm for uplink co-channel interference mitigation in two-tier femtocell networks. The proposed cross-tier handover algorithm introduces a preset threshold cross-tier handover policy, which takes into account both the time-to-stay (TTS) of a macrocell user equipment (MUE)/femtocell user equipment (FUE) in a femtocell/the macrocell, and the received signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) at a femtocell access point (FAP)/the macrocell base station (MBS) in making a cross-tier handover decision for an MUE/FUE. A cross-tier handover decision is made by comparing the TTS of an MUE/FUE in a femtocells/the macrocell and the SINR at a FAP/the MBS with a preset TTS threshold and different SINR thresholds. The objective of the preset threshold based cross-tier handover algorithm is to increase the received SINR at the MBS/FAPs and thus improve the network performance. The performance of the proposed cross-tier handover algorithm with the minimum power transmission and the optimal power transmission is analyzed, respectively. Numerical results show that the proposed preset threshold based cross-tier handover algorithm can significantly improve the network performance in terms of the outage probability, user sum rate, and network capacity.     

Precoding and channel state information sharing in cooperative macro base stations and femto sites

Femto cell technology is a promising solution for indoor coverage of cellular systems. The interference between macro and femto cells can be mitigated via cooperation between the macro base station (BS) and the inside femto sites (FSs). In this paper, the idea of multi‐cell multi‐input and multi‐output is introduced, whereby the macro BS shares the same frequency band with the inside FSs in support of the femto users. Both single‐user and multi‐user precoding at the macro BS are proposed to support the cooperative transmission between the macro BSs and FSs. In single‐user precoding and multi‐user precoding without power allocation, only the angle information of the FS‐user channels is required to be sent from the users to the macro BS. If the magnitude information is also sent by each user, multi‐user precoding with power allocation can be employed to support cooperation between macro BSs and FSs, which is an extension of the classical water‐filling optimization problem. Theoretical derivations and an iterative algorithm are both presented to solve this optimization problem. Analytical and simulation results with respect to the signal received with interferences validate the effectiveness of cooperation between the macros BSs and FSs.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient interference mitigation approach via quasi‐access in two‐tier macro‐femto heterogeneous networks

Two‐tier heterogeneous networks, where the current cellular networks, that is, macrocells, are overlapped with a large number of randomly distributed femtocells, can potentially bring significant benefits to spectral utilization and system capacity. In a two‐tier network, the cross‐tier interference needs to be handled properly. Unlike the downlink interference, the uplink (UL) interference at femtocell caused by macrocell user equipment (MUE) has not been addressed sufficiently. When an MUE is located near the coverage of femtocell, its transmit power may cause UL interference to the femtocell receiver, especially for the closed subscriber group femtocells that share the entire frequency spectrum with macrocell. We propose a novel quasi‐access strategy, which allows the interfering MUE to connect with the interfered femtocell access point (FAP) while only via UL. It can significantly alleviate the UL interference at the FAP as well as its neighbors, in the meantime, benefit the macro‐tier. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Joint interference coordination approach in femtocell networks for QoS performance optimization

Future heterogeneous networks with dense cell deployment may cause high intercell interference. A number of interference coordination (IC) approaches have been proposed to reduce intercell interference. For dense small‐cell deployment with high intercell interference between cells, traditional forward link IC approaches intended to improve edge user throughput for best effort traffic (ie, file transfer protocol download), may not necessarily improve quality of service performance for delay‐sensitive traffic such as voice over long‐term evolution traffic. This study proposes a dynamic, centralized joint IC approach to improve forward link performance for delay‐sensitive traffic on densely deployed enterprise‐wide long‐term evolution femtocell networks. This approach uses a 2‐level scheme: central and femtocell. At the central level, the algorithm aims to maximize network utility (the utility‐based approach) and minimize network outage (the graphic‐based approach) by partitioning the network into clusters and conducting an exhaustive search for optimized resource allocation solutions among femtocells (femto access points) within each cluster. At the femtocell level, in contrast, the algorithm uses existing static approaches, such as conventional frequency reuse (ReUse3) or soft frequency reuse (SFR) to further improve user equipment quality of service performance. This combined approach uses utility‐ and graphic‐based SFR and ReUse3 (USFR/GSFR and UReUse3/GReUse3, respectively). The cell and edge user throughput of best effort traffic and the packet loss rate of voice over long‐term evolution traffic have been characterized and compared using both the proposed and traditional IC approaches.     

家庭基站中基于随机矩阵的能量动态检测频谱分配机制

针对家庭基站和宏基站并存的情况下会导致相互干扰以及协调使用频谱需要信令开销问题,提出了一种基于随机矩阵的频谱分配机制。该机制将动态的检测空闲频谱点的频谱感知技术应用于家庭基站和宏基站共存网络中,家庭基站在一个时间段内接收各个频点上的信号,利用随机矩阵能量动态检测频谱可用性,实时感知网络中的频谱空洞,生成可借用频谱点集合,选择业务请求用户服务质量高的家庭用户借用该集合。该方法以复杂度为代价,避免使用信令交互找到可用频谱,从而减少了网络信令开销。仿真结果表明所提机制能够提高网络容量和公平性以及网络链路效率。     

分层异构网络中基于斯坦克尔伯格博弈的资源分配算法

分层异构网络中家庭基站与宏基站之间往往存在干扰,如何分配资源以获得高谱率和高容量、保证用户性能一直是研究的重点。为了解决这个问题,本文提出了一种异构蜂窝网络中基于斯坦克尔伯格博弈的家庭基站与宏基站联合资源分配算法,算法首先基于图论的分簇算法对家庭基站和宏用户进行分簇和信道分配,以减少家庭基站之间的同层干扰和家庭基站层与宏蜂窝网络的跨层干扰;然后建立了联合家庭基站发射功率以及宏用户接入选择的斯坦克尔伯格博弈,推导出达到纳什均衡时的家庭基站发射功率的表达式,并据此为宏用户选择合适的接入策略。仿真结果表明,该算法能够有效地提高宏用户的信干噪比（SINR）,家庭用户的性能也得到改善。      

Outage probability in Poisson‐cluster‐based LTE two‐tier femtocell networks

This paper analyzes two‐tier orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing (OFDM)‐based cellular structure, when the traditional macrocell structure is extended with femtocells. The benefit of using femtocells is the capacity and coverage extension capability. To fulfill strict quality of service requirements in next‐generation mobile networks such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE‐Advanced, capacity and coverage enhancing becomes rather important. On the other hand, adding small cells such as femtocells next to macrocell modifies the interference pattern of the current region. Therefore, the number of small cells in a given area should be limited. In this paper, we provide an analytic framework to calculate the outage probability for a macrocell user in OFDM‐based femtocell networks when the deployed femto base stations are composing an independent Poisson cluster process such as Thomas cluster process. Cluster‐based femtocell modeling offers accurate network planning for mobile operators. In this cluster‐based realization, we give an interference characterization and consider the outage probability for a randomly deployed user when communication channel is infected with Rayleigh fading. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ESPS scheme for two‐tier interference suppression in a heterogeneous network with cooperative femtocells

The coexistence of a macrocell and a number of femtocells often leads to a two‐tier heterogeneous network, where the co‐tier interference (CotIN) and cross‐tier interference (CrotIN) both degrade users' quality of service. In order to suppress these interferences, we propose a precoding scheme in a heterogeneous network with cooperative femtocells, called CotIN elimination and CrotIN suppression with precoding criterion selection (ESPS) scheme. In this scheme, we first eliminate the CotINs of each user by applying the QR decomposition to channel matrix. Then the CrotINs of macrocell users and femtocell users are suppressed via the macrocell base station (MBS) and femtocell access points (FAPs) with precoding criterion selection, respectively. By using the ESPS scheme, spatial resources can be efficiently exploited. In addition, our ESPS scheme requires little information exchange between MBS and FAPs without iteration and thus significantly reduces the implementation complexity. Furthermore, the robustness is increased through introducing the information of channel uncertainty into the ESPS when channel estimation or quantization error exists. The performance analysis for the ESPS demonstrates that the ESPS is practical in the heterogeneous networks. Finally, simulation results show that the ESPS can decrease users' bit error rates and increase their transmission rates. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Base station selection and resource allocation in macro–femtocell networks under noisy scenario

In this paper, we address the problem of optimizing resources for downlink transmission in a macro–femtocell network under non-dense femtocell deployment. In the literature, some approaches perform bandwidth or power optimization depending on the air interface technology and others optimize both types of resources, but only in femtocell network. However, the following limitations can be noticed: (1) Equal distribution of transmitted power among all subcarriers, even if they are not used, leads to resource underutilization, (2) femtocell data rates are reduced in order to minimize the interference from femto base stations to macro users, and (3) the impact of noise has not been evaluated. Moreover, there is lack of optimal selection of users that can be served by femtocells. To overcome these limitations, we propose a model that finds a tradeoff between bandwidth and power to reduce the bandwidth usage per user and to minimize the impact of noise. By means of Linear Programming, our solution maximizes user satisfaction and provides optimal: serving base station, power and bandwidth for each mobile user taking into account its location and demand. Furthermore, we present a performance analysis under changes of signal to noise ratio. Simulations were conducted and a comparison with a modified version of Weighted Water Filling algorithm is presented.     

Resource Allocation Based on Channel Sensing and Spatial Spectrum Reuse for Cognitive Femtocells

A cognitive femtocell is a new small cell based on a smart home base station to solve the spectrum-scarcity problem. Recently, dedicated resource allocation for cognitive femtocell to mitigate co-channel interference is extensively researched. However, the cognitive femtocell may suffer from the lack of frequency resource for its users due to high data traffic load of the macrocell. We propose a novel resource allocation and power control mechanism using spatial frequency reuse and spectrum sensing, which enables femto users in the cognitive femtocell to obtain more feasible resource. We analyze and evaluate the performance gain of the proposed scheme. Although data traffic load of the macrocell increases, the capacity of the cognitive femtocell can be maintained appropriately by the proposed resource allocation and power control scheme and it is shown that the performance is improved compared to that of the conventional scheme.

     

Outage performance of downlink communications in cognitive-based two-tier networks: cooperative and non-cooperative femtocells

Femtocell deployment, which is a promising approach to the coverage and capacity improvement of indoor communications, suffers from cross-tier interference. Therefore to make the femtocell technology practical this issue needs to be addressed appropriately. One serious type of cross-tier interference occurs in downlink communication, in which a macrocell user is located far from its macro base station. In this setup, the communication of the adjacent femto access points with their users makes the macrocell user experience a low SINR. This paper considers this scenario and shows how cognitive-enabled femto access points can cope with cross-tier interference. More precisely, we compute the outage probability of macro users in a two-tier network when femto access points use the energy detection-based spectrum sensing technique to find the unoccupied frequency subband. To improve the outage probability of macro users, we also study the effectiveness of cooperation among neighbor femto access points. In all cases, the analytical expressions are validated by computer simulations which confirm the accuracy of the used approximations.

     

密集部署Femtocell网络中尽力而为的频谱分配机制(英文)

In orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA) based femtocell networks,the co-tier interference among femto base stations(FBS) becomes important in multiuser and densely deployed environment.In order to mitigate the co-tier interference and enhance the system total throughput,this paper proposed a best effort spectrum allocation scheme based on the extension of graph theory.In the scheme,a controller was proposed to collect the channel state information(CSI)of all femtocell user equipments(FUEs) in a certain range.Then,the controller evaluated the signal-to-interference Ratio(SIR) of each FUE and determined the set of its interference neighbors.By calculating the received power matrix(RPM) among FUEs and building interference graph matrix(IGM),different spectrum resource blocks(RBs) were assigned to the users with interference relation,while users without interference relation shared the same RBs,which could increase the spectrum efficiency.Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the RB usage efficiency compared with the basic graph coloring theory,and more than 80% improvement can be acquired in dense deployment scenario.Besides,the throughput of both cell edge macro user equipments(MUEs) and cell edge FUEs is guaranteed on the premise of low interference.     

基于用户分簇的认知超密集网络资源分配

针对5G时代小基站的密集部署带来的复杂干扰问题,对下行的认知无线电超密集网络下的资源分配进行了研究。为减小网络干扰,提高次用户吞吐量,提出了一种改进的基于用户分簇的资源分配算法。基于基站的覆盖范围,选出用户的强干扰基站,以用户-基站干扰关系建立用户-用户干扰图,按用户受到的平均弱干扰划分优先级对用户分簇,再为簇集群预分配频段,为每个簇分配对应频段中效用最大的信道。该资源分配算法能准确反映用户间的干扰关系,保障资源分配公平性。仿真结果表明,当用户密度与基站密度均较大时,与相同场景的已有算法相比,该改进算法有较好的抗干扰能力,能有效提高次用户的吞吐量。     

用户设备分类的毫米波异构网络性能研究

针对多层异构网络中基站簇造成的干扰问题,本文提出了一种对用户设备(user equipment,UE)进行分类建模的方法。首先,将处在通信热点区域的毫米波双层异构网络中密集部署的微微基站、毫微微基站以及UE构建成独立的非齐次泊松簇过程;然后,根据毫米波的特点建立了扇形天线模型和视距球传播模型并给出了簇内和簇间干扰的分布距离;此外,通过干扰的拉普拉斯变换以及信号与干扰加噪声比推导出基于UE分类和无UE分类的下行链路频谱效率解析表达式。仿真结果表明,所提出的基于UE分类方案的性能优于无UE分类方案的性能,显著提升了频谱效率。      

Cell Selection for Load Balancing in Heterogeneous Networks

The vision of advanced long-term evolution (LTE-A) project is set to ultimate increase of network capacity in heterogeneous networks (HetNets). In HetNets with small cell configuration, a considerable majority of user devices is eventually connected to the macrocell base station (MBS), while small base stations (BSs), such as femtocell access points (FAPs), are still without any user. This results in unbalanced load and reduces the data rate of macrocell user equipment (MUE). In this paper, a method is proposed for load balancing among FAPs, while desired throughput is achieved. The proposed method uses the estimated received signal strength from different BSs and adjusted pilot signals. Under the critical signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) condition, a list of candidate FAPs is prepared. The updated candidate list henceforth does not include the least visited FAPs, which in turn leads to lower unnecessary handoffs. Once the BS with the highest number of free RBs and the highest pilot signal power is selected, FAP allocates the RBs with higher SINRs (qualified RBs) to user. In the case of FAP unavailability, the algorithm compels users to connect to the MBS with adequate qualified RBs. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated under a variety of FAPs density, and the number and velocity of users in terms of throughput and Jain’s fairness index. The results evidence affordable improvements in the throughput and Jain’s index in comparison with other methods.     

用户簇分布的异构网络建模与覆盖分析

针对第五代/后五代 (The Fifth generation/Beyond The Fifth Generation ,5G/B5G)移动网络以用户为中心的小基站密集部署问题,构建了一个用户簇分布的三层异构网络模型。该网络模型由宏基站(Macro Base Station, MBS)、微微基站(Pico Base Station, PBS)和毫微微基站(Femto Base Station, FBS)组成。采用随机几何理论对三层异构网络的基站部署进行建模。充分分析了毫微微基站层基于SSA干扰管理的网络干扰统计特性,考虑了有序FBS和无序FBS两种情况,给出了FBS下行链路的覆盖概率。通过仿真,验证了理论结果的正确性,分析了覆盖半径、方差以及宏基站密度对覆盖概率的影响,得出有序FBS方案和无序FBS方案在覆盖概率方面的好坏性取决于系统参数。      

LTE 毫微微蜂窝基站射频收发器的设计与实现*

针对近年来LTE 毫微微蜂窝基站商用加快和规模扩大,减小LTE 毫微微蜂窝基站的尺寸和降低其成 本就变得越来越重要。在保证基站性能的基础上,如何设计无线电收发器以减少尺寸和成本成为很大的挑战。设 计了一种应用于LTE 毫微微蜂窝基站中的低成本MIMO 射频收发器。分析了发射机和接收机的各项需求指标,提 出了块级的射频参数。据此,射频收发器被系统地分为几个子模块,分别设计了这些不同的子模块,同时区分各个 子模块的特点。所得到的测定结果表明,充分集成的射频收发器的设计不仅具有小尺寸,也符合LTE 毫微微基站的 各项指标。     

一种多用户多中继MIMO通信系统迭代预编码方案

该文针对多中继MIMO通信系统多用户传输时的用户间干扰问题,提出了一种可以有效抑制多用户干扰的发射端与中继端迭代预编码的方案。该方案首先在中继端进行多中继联合的迫零预编码,然后将基站与多用户之间等效为一个点到多点的MIMO信道,采用最大化信漏噪比的预编码方法,在发射端进一步消除用户间的干扰,同时避免了噪声放大的影响,进而通过中继端预编码与发射端预编码的多次迭代,更好地保持了多中继并行传输引入空间分集所带来的性能优势,有效地抑制了用户间干扰,获得了更高的系统和容量。     

Novel SINR‐Based User Selection for an MU‐MIMO System with Limited Feedback

This paper presents a novel user selection method based on the signal‐to‐interference‐plus‐noise ratio (SINR), which is approximated using limited feedback data at the base stations (BSs) of multiple user multiple‐input multiple‐output (MU‐MIMO) systems. In the proposed system, the codebook vector index, the quantization error obtained from the correlation between the measured channel and the codebook vector, and the measured value of the largest singular value are fed back from each user to the BS. The proposed method not only generates precoding vectors that are orthogonal to the precoding vectors of the previously selected users and are highly correlated with the codebook vector of each user but also adopts the quantization error in approximating the SINR, which eventually provides a significantly more accurate SINR than the conventional SINR‐based user selection techniques. Computer simulations show that the proposed method enhances the sum rate of the conventional SINR‐based methods by at least 2.4 (2.62) bps/Hz when the number of transmit antennas and number of receive antennas per user terminal is 4 and 1(2), respectively, with 100 candidate users and an SNR of 30 dB.