Power and Radio Resource Management in Femtocell Networks for Interference Mitigation

Abstract

The growth of mobile traffic volume has been exploded because of the rapid improvement of mobile devices and their applications. Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) can be an attractive solution in order to adopt the exponential growth of wireless data. Femtocell networks are accommodated within the concept of HetNets. The implementation of femtocell networks has been considered as an innovative approach that can improve the network’s capacity. However, dense implementation and installation of femtocells would introduce interference, which reduces the network’s performance. Interference occurs when two adjacent femtocells are operated with the same radio resources. In this work, a scheme, which comprises two stages, is proposed. The first step is to distribute radio resources among femtocells, where each femtocell can identify the source of the interference. A constructed table is generated in order to measure the level of interference for each femtocell. Accordingly, the level of interference for each sub-channel can be recognized by all femtocells. The second stage includes a mechanism that helps femtocell base stations adjust their transmission power autonomously to alleviate the interference. It enforces a cost function, which should be realized by each femtocell. The cost function is calculated based on the production of undesirable interference impact, which is introduced by each femtocell. Hence, the transmission power is adjusted autonomously, where undesirable interference can be monitored and alleviated. The proposed scheme is evaluated through a MATLAB simulation and compared with other approaches. The simulation results show an improvement in the network’s capacity. Furthermore, the unfavorable impact of the interference can be managed and alleviated.