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.     

An uplink resource allocation scheme for OFDMA‐based cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio makes it possible for an unlicensed user to access a spectrum unoccupied by licensed users. In cognitive radio networks, extra constraints on interference temperature need to be introduced into radio resource allocation. In this paper, the uplink radio resource allocation is investigated for OFDMA‐based cognitive radio networks. In consideration of the characteristics of cognitive radio and OFDMA, an improved water‐filling power allocation scheme is proposed under the interference temperature constraints for optimal performance. Based on the improved water‐filling power allocation, a simple subcarrier allocation algorithm for uplink is proposed. The subcarrier allocation rules are obtained by theoretical deduction. In the uplink subcarrier allocation algorithm, the subcarriers are allocated to the users with the best channel quality initially and then adjusted to improve the system performance. A cursory water‐filling level estimation method is used to decrease the complexity of the algorithm. Asymptotic performance analysis gives a lower bound of the stability of the water‐filling level estimation. The complexity and performance of the proposed radio resource allocation scheme are investigated by theoretical analysis and numerical results. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A coordinated multi‐point‐based quality of service provision resource allocation scheme with inter‐cell interference mitigation

The paper investigates resource allocation via power control for inter‐cell interference (ICI) mitigation in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access‐based cellular network. The proposed scheme is featured by a novel subcarrier assignment mechanism at a central controller for ICI, which is further incorporated with an intelligent power control scheme. We formulate the system optimization task into a constrained optimization problem for maximizing accepted users' requirements. To improve the computation efficiency, a fast yet effective heuristic approach is introduced for divide and conquer. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed resource allocation scheme can significantly improve the network capacity compared with a common approach by frequency reuse. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed Resource Allocation in Two‐Hierarchy Networks

In this paper, a new distributed resource allocation algorithm is proposed to alleviate the cross‐tier interference for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access macrocell and femtocell overlay. Specifically, the resource allocation problem is modeled as a non‐cooperative game. Based on game theory, we propose an iterative algorithm between subchannel and power allocation called distributed resource allocation which requires no coordination among the two‐hierarchy networks. Finally, a macrocell link quality protection process is proposed to guarantee the macrocell UE's quality of service to avoid severe cross‐tier interference from femtocells. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve remarkable performance gains as compared to the pure waterfilling algorithm.     

Stackelberg game for backhaul resource allocation in the two-tier LTE femtocell networks

As one promising technology for indoor coverage and service offloading from the conventional cellular networks, femtocells have attracted considerable attention in recent years. However, most of previous work are focused on resource allocation during the access period, and the backhaul involved resource allocation is seriously ignored. The authors studied the backhaul resource allocation in the wireless backhaul based two-tier heterogeneous networks （HetNets）, in which cross-tier interference control during access period is jointly considered. Assuming that the macrocell base station （MBS） protects itself from interference by pricing the backhaul spectrum allocated to femtocells, a Stackelberg game is formulated to work on the joint utility maximization of the macrocell and femtocells subject to a maximum interference tolerance at the MBS. The closed-form expressions of the optimal strategies are obtained to characterize the Stackelberg equilibriums for the proposed games, and a backhaul spectrum payment selection algorithm with guaranteed convergence is proposed to implement the backhaul resource allocation for femtocell base stations （FBSs）. Simulations are presented to demonstrate the Stackelberg equilibrium （SE） is obtained by the proposed algorithm and the proposed scheme is effective in backhaul resource allocation and macrocell protection in the spectrum-sharing HetNets.     

LTE-A异构网络下的高效资源分配算法

分析了OFDMA上行系统中,由宏基站(macrocell)和家庭式基站(femtocell)组成的双层网络,并提出了高效的资源分配算法。为避免严重的跨层干扰导致双层网络中的资源分配不协调,提出了一个跨层干扰控制算法。在基于干扰控制算法的结果上,提出包括功率分配和频谱分配的资源分配算法,以满足UE的目标速率,并获得较好的吞吐量性能。通过仿真,结果显示所提的资源分配算法相比较传统的算法,尤其在UE QoS保证和吞吐量性能的体现上,能获得明显的性能增益。     

A multi‐cell adaptive resource allocation scheme based on potential game for ICIC in LTE‐A

Intercell interference coordination in Third Generation Partnership Project long‐term evolution‐advanced system has received much attention both from the academia and the standardization communities. Moreover, the network architecture of long‐term evolution‐advanced system is modified to take into account coordinated transmission. In this article, we study the dynamic resource allocation problem and potential game theory and propose a multicell adaptive distributed resource allocation algorithm based on potential game. The allocation process is divided into two steps; subchannel is allocated first, and then, transmitted power is optimized dynamically according to a novel pricing factor. Besides, existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium of the proposed game model are assured. As a result, intercell interference is well coordinated. Simulation results show that transmitted power is saved efficiently and system fairness is improved to a large extent, accompanied with good performance gain of total and cell‐edge throughputs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Graph‐based resource allocation algorithms for multiuser downlink MIMO‐OFDMA networks

Multiuser multiple‐input multiple‐output orthogonal frequency division multiple access (MIMO‐OFDMA) is considered as the practical method to attain the capacity promised by multiple antennas in the downlink direction. However, the joint calculation of precoding/beamforming and resource allocation required by the optimal algorithms is computationally prohibitive. This paper proposes computationally efficient resource allocation algorithms that can be invoked after the precoding and beamforming operations. To support stringent and diverse quality of service requirements, previous works have shown that the resource allocation algorithm must be able to guarantee a specific data rate to each user. The constraint matrix defined by the resource allocation problem with these data rate constraints provides a special structure that lends to efficient solution of the problem. On the basis of the standard graph theory and the Lagrangian relaxation, we develop an optimal resource allocation algorithm that exploits this structure to reduce the required execution time. Moreover, a lower‐complexity suboptimal algorithm is introduced. Extensive simulations are conducted to evaluate the computational and system‐level performance. It is shown that the proposed resource allocation algorithms attain the optimal solution at a much lower computational overhead compared with general‐purpose optimization algorithms used by previous MIMO‐OFDMA resource allocation approaches. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic resource allocation for Device‐to‐Device communication underlaying cellular networks

Future cellular networks such as IMT‐Advanced are expected to allow underlaying direct Device‐to‐Device (D2D) communication for spectrum efficiency. However, enabling D2D communication in a cellular network presents a challenge in resource allocation because of the potentially severe interference it may cause to the cellular network by reusing the spectrum with the cellular users. In this paper, we analyze the resource allocation problem in a single cell system when both cellular users and D2D users are present in the system. We first consider the scenario where cellular users and D2D users are allocated resource independently and propose an optimal algorithm and a heuristic algorithm, and then extend the methods to the scenario where cellular users and D2D users are allocated resource jointly. The number of permitted D2D pairs is selected as a performance measure because it is a more specific performance measure than spectrum efficiency. The proposed schemes maximize the number of permitted D2D communication pairs in a system meanwhile avoiding the strong interference from D2D links to the cellular links. Finally, the performance of the proposed methods is evaluated through the numerical simulation. The simulation results show that the proposed methods enhance the number of permitted D2D communication pairs significantly and that the performance of the proposed scheme for jointly allocation scenario is better than that of the proposed scheme for independently allocation scenario. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pseudo-handover based subchannel and power adaptation scheme for interference mitigation in OFDMA two-tier femtocell networks

In the two-tier femtocell network,a central macrocell is underlaid with a large number of shorter range femtocell hotspots,which is preferably in the universal frequency reuse mode.This kind of new network architecture brings about urgent challenges to the schemes of interference management and the radio resource allocation.Motivated by these challenges,three contributions are made in this paper:1) A novel joint subchannel and power allocation problem for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) downlink based femtocells is formulated on the premise ofminimizing radiated interference of every Femto base station.2) The pseudo-handover based scheduling information exchange method is proposed to exchange the co-tier and cross-tier information,and thus avoid the collision interference.3) An iterative scheme of power control and subchannel is proposed to solve the formulated problem in contribution 1),which is an NP-complete problem.Through simulations and comparisons with four other schemes,better performance in reducing interference and improving the spectrum efficiency is achieved by the proposed scheme.     

Semi‐distributed dynamic inter‐cell interference coordination scheme for interference avoidance in heterogeneous networks

Inter‐cell interference (ICI) is a major problem in heterogeneous networks, such as two‐tier femtocell (FC) networks, because it leads to poor cell‐edge throughput and system capacity. Dynamic ICI coordination (ICIC) schemes, which do not require prior frequency planning, must be employed for interference avoidance in such networks. In contrast to existing dynamic ICIC schemes that focus on homogeneous network scenarios, we propose a novel semi‐distributed dynamic ICIC scheme to mitigate interference in heterogeneous network scenarios. With the goal of maximizing the utility of individual users, two separate algorithms, namely the FC base station (FBS)‐level algorithm and FC management system (FMS)‐level algorithm, are employed to restrict resource usage by dominant interference‐creating cells. The distributed functionality of the FBS‐level algorithm and low computational complexity of the FMS‐level algorithm are the main advantages of the proposed scheme. Simulation results demonstrate improvement in cell‐edge performance with no impact on system capacity or user fairness, which confirms the effectiveness of the proposed scheme compared to static and semi‐static ICIC schemes.     

Energy‐aware cross‐layer resource allocation in mobile cloud

This paper proposed an energy‐aware cross‐layer mobile cloud resource allocation approach. In this paper, a hybrid cloud architecture is adopted for provisioning mobile service to mobile device users, which include nearby local cloud and remote public cloud. The computation‐intensive tasks can be processed by the remote public cloud, while the delay‐sensitive computation can be processed by the nearby local cloud. On the basis of the system context and mobile user preferences, the energy‐aware cross‐layer mobile cloud resource allocation approach can optimize the consumption of cloud resource and system performance. The cooperation and collaboration among local cloud agent, public cloud supplier, and mobile cloud user are regulated through the economic approach. The energy‐aware cross‐layer mobile cloud resource allocation is performed on the local cloud level and the public cloud level, which comprehensively considers the benefits of all participants. The energy‐aware cross‐layer mobile cloud resource allocation algorithm is proposed, which is evaluated in the experiment environment, and comparison results and analysis are discussed.     

Fairness based resource allocation for uplink OFDMA systems

This article investigates two fairness criteria with regard to adaptive resource allocation for uplink orthogonal frequency division multiple access （OFDMA） systems. Nash bargaining solution （NBS） fairness and proportional fairness （PF） are two suitable candidates for fairness consideration, and both can provide attractive trade-offs between total throughput and each user＇s capacity. Utilizing Karush-Kuhn- Tucker （KKT） condition and iterative method, two effective algorithms are designed, to achieve NBS fairness and proportional fairness, respectively. Simulation results show that the proposed resource allocation algorithms achieve good tradeoff between the overall rate and fairness, with little performance loss from the total capacity.     

Utility‐optimal cross‐layer resource allocation in distributed wireless cooperative networks

In this paper, we propose a distributed cross‐layer resource allocation algorithm for wireless cooperative networks based on a network utility maximization framework. The algorithm provides solutions to relay selections, flow pass probabilities, transmit rate, and power levels jointly with optimal congestion control and power control through balancing link and physical layers such that the network‐wide utility is optimized. Via dual decomposition and subgradient method, we solve the utility‐optimal resource allocation problem by subproblems in different layers of the protocol stack. Furthermore, by introducing a concept of pseudochannel gain, we model both the primal direct logical link and its corresponding cooperative transmission link as a single virtual direct logical link to simplify our network utility framework. Eventually, the algorithm determines its primal resource allocation levels by employing reverse‐engineering of the pseudochannel gain model. Numerical experiments show that the convergence of the proposed algorithm can be obtained and the performance of the optimized network can be improved significantly. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An end‐to‐end channel allocation scheme for a wireless mesh network

Co‐channel interference seriously influences the throughput of a wireless mesh network. This study proposes an end‐to‐end channel allocation scheme (EECAS) that extends the radio‐frequency‐slot method to minimize co‐channel interference. The EECAS first separates the transmission and reception of packets into two channels. This scheme can then classify the state of each radio‐frequency‐slot as transmitting, receiving, interfered, free, or parity. A node that initiates a communication session with a quality of service requirement can propagate a channel allocation request along the communication path to the destination. By checking the channel state, the EECAS can determine feasible radio‐frequency‐slot allocations for the end‐to‐end path. The simulation results in this study demonstrate that the proposed approach performs well in intra‐mesh and inter‐mesh communications, and it outperforms previous channel allocation schemes in end‐to‐end throughput. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

两层异构网络中Femtocell研究进展与展望

对femtocell研究进展进行了细致分析和探讨,着重讨论两层异构网络中频率资源分配、干扰管理和接入控制3个主要议题,同时也分析回程链路、用户移动性和公平性等其他相关问题。最后论述femtocell应用前景和归纳未来研究方向。     

Robust resource allocation for NOMA-assisted heterogeneous networks

As a promising technology to improve spectrum efficiency and transmission coverage, Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) has attracted the attention of many scholars in recent years. Additionally, with the introduction of the Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) technology, the NOMA-assisted HetNet cannot only improve the system capacity but also allow more users to utilize the same frequency band resource, which makes the NOMA-assisted HetNet a hot topic. However, traditional resource allocation schemes assume that base stations can exactly estimate direct link gains and cross-tier link gains, which is impractical for practical HetNets due to the impact of channel delays and random perturbation. To further improve energy utilization and system robustness, in this paper, we investigate a robust resource allocation problem to maximize the total Energy Efficiency (EE) of Small-Cell Users (SCUs) in NOMA-assisted HetNets under imperfect channel state information. By considering bounded channel uncertainties, the robust resource optimization problem is formulated as a mixed-integer and nonlinear programming problem under the constraints of the cross-tier interference power of macrocell users, the maximum transmit power of small base station, the Resource Block (RB) assignment, and the quality of service requirement of each SCU. The original problem is converted into an equivalent convex optimization problem by using Dinkelbach's method and the successive convex approximation method. A robust Dinkelbach-based iteration algorithm is designed by jointly optimizing the transmit power and the RB allocation. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm has better EE and robustness than the existing algorithms.     

R‐11‐based power control approach for overlaid femtocell networks

Short range, low power, plug‐and‐play femtocell has carved a niche for itself because of its potential for higher rate indoor voice and data service, coverage enhancement over cell edges, high network capacity, and negligible greenhouse gas emission. The frequency reuse phenomenon in two‐tier cellular network subjects the cell‐edge macrouser to severe downlink interference from co‐channel deployed femtocells in the same province. Downlink power control approach is a recommended remedy to overcome such type of interferences. This paper proposes release‐11‐based maximum downlink power control (R‐11‐based MDPC) approach to protect macrouser's service from co‐channel interference. The feedback strategy incorporated in this paper is formulated by R‐11 of 3rd Generation Partnership Program for Long Term Evolution standard. Implementation of new R‐11‐based feedback strategy between femto‐base station and macro‐base station with MDPC approach ensures instantaneous power control with minimal feedback delay, higher signal‐to‐interference‐plus‐noise ratio (SINR), simple receiver module design, and better service availability. Simulation results of R‐11‐based MDPC approach clearly indicate reduced feedback delay, better power control with minimal interference, improved SINR, and negligible outage probability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chunk‐based and fairness‐based resource allocation in multicast distributed MISO‐OFDMA systems

The resource allocation problem for the downlink of orthogonal frequency‐division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless multicast systems is investigated. It is assumed that the base station consists of multiple antennas in a distributed antenna system (DAS), whereas each user is equipped with a single antenna. The multicasting technology is able to support several groups of users with flexible quality of service (QoS) requirements. The general mathematical formulation is provided, but achieving the optimal solution has a high computational cost. In our approach, the allocation unit is not the subcarrier, as in conventional OFDMA systems, but a set of contiguous subcarriers, which is called ‘chunk’. For practical implementation, a suboptimal but efficient algorithm is proposed in order to maximize the sum of the maximum attainable data rates of multicast groups of users, subject to total available power and proportional maximum attainable data rate constraints among multicast groups of users. Simulation and complexity analyses are provided to support the benefits of chunk‐based resource allocation to multicast OFDMA DASs, supporting that the proposed algorithm can be applied to latest‐generation wireless systems that provide QoS guarantees. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal resource allocation for energy efficiency in coordinated multicell OFDMA networks

Because energy efficiency (EE) is inevitable in future wireless cellular networks, in this paper, we focus on improving the number of bits delivered to users for each unit energy consumption in the downlink of orthogonal frequency‐division multiple access cellular networks with base stations (BSs) coordination. Specifically, each BS shares the channel qualities of users with others and jointly choose the set of co‐channel users and the transmit power allocated to maximize the EE of the system subject to the transmit power ceiling of each BS and minimum required data rate. We formulate the problem as a nonlinear fractional optimization problem, using nonlinear fractional programming, the original hard‐to‐solve problem is transferred to a new one that has the same optimal solution and is easier to solve, this enables two iterative algorithms that achieve nearly the same maximum EE. Numerical results are provided to show the convergence and superiority of the two proposed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.