User-Centric Interference Nulling in Downlink Multi-Antenna Heterogeneous Networks

In heterogeneous networks (HetNets), strong interference due to spectrum reuse affects each user's signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), and hence is one limiting factor of network performance. In this paper, we propose a user-centric interference nulling (IN) scheme in a downlink large-scale HetNet to improve coverage/outage probability by improving each user's SIR. This IN scheme utilizes at most maximum IN degree of freedom (DoF) at each macro-BS to avoid interference to uniformly selected macro (pico) users with signal-to-individual-interference ratio (SIIR) below a macro (pico) IN threshold, where the maximum IN DoF and the two IN thresholds are three design parameters. Using tools from stochastic geometry, we first obtain a tractable expression of the coverage (equivalently outage) probability. Then, we analyze the asymptotic coverage/outage probability in the low and high SIR threshold regimes. The analytical results indicate that the maximum IN DoF can affect the order gain of the outage probability in the low SIR threshold regime, but cannot affect the order gain of the coverage probability in the high SIR threshold regime. Moreover, we characterize the optimal maximum IN DoF which optimizes the asymptotic coverage/outage probability. The optimization results reveal that the IN scheme can linearly improve the outage probability in the low SIR threshold regime, but cannot improve the coverage probability in the high SIR threshold regime. Finally, numerical results show that the proposed scheme can achieve good gains in coverage/outage probability over a maximum ratio beamforming scheme and a user-centric almost blank subframes (ABS) scheme.Comment: Transactions on Wireless Communications (under revision). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1504.0528

Analysis and Optimization of Inter-tier Interference Coordination in Downlink Multi-Antenna HetNets with Offloading

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) with offloading is considered as an effective way to meet the high data rate demand of future wireless service. However, the offloaded users suffer from strong inter-tier interference, which reduces the benefits of offloading and is one of the main limiting factors of the system performance. In this paper, we investigate an interference nulling (IN) scheme in improving the system performance by carefully managing the inter-tier interference to the offloaded users in downlink two-tier HetNets with multi-antenna base stations. Utilizing tools from stochastic geometry, we first derive a tractable expression for the rate coverage probability of the IN scheme. Then, by studying its order, we obtain the optimal design parameter, i.e., the degrees of freedom that can be used for IN, to maximize the rate coverage probability. Finally, we analyze the rate coverage probabilities of the simple offloading scheme without interference management and the multi-antenna version of the almost blank subframes (ABS) scheme in 3GPP LTE, and compare the performance of the IN scheme with these two schemes. Both analytical and numerical results show that the IN scheme can achieve good performance gains over both of these two schemes, especially in the large antenna regime

User Association in 5G Networks: A Survey and an Outlook

26 pages; accepted to appear in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

Interference Management Based on RT/nRT Traffic Classification for FFR-Aided Small Cell/Macrocell Heterogeneous Networks

Cellular networks are constantly lagging in terms of the bandwidth needed to support the growing high data rate demands. The system needs to efficiently allocate its frequency spectrum such that the spectrum utilization can be maximized while ensuring the quality of service (QoS) level. Owing to the coexistence of different types of traffic (e.g., real-time (RT) and non-real-time (nRT)) and different types of networks (e.g., small cell and macrocell), ensuring the QoS level for different types of users becomes a challenging issue in wireless networks. Fractional frequency reuse (FFR) is an effective approach for increasing spectrum utilization and reducing interference effects in orthogonal frequency division multiple access networks. In this paper, we propose a new FFR scheme in which bandwidth allocation is based on RT/nRT traffic classification. We consider the coexistence of small cells and macrocells. After applying FFR technique in macrocells, the remaining frequency bands are efficiently allocated among the small cells overlaid by a macrocell. In our proposed scheme, total frequency-band allocations for different macrocells are decided on the basis of the traffic intensity. The transmitted power levels for different frequency bands are controlled based on the level of interference from a nearby frequency band. Frequency bands with a lower level of interference are assigned to the RT traffic to ensure a higher QoS level for the RT traffic. RT traffic calls in macrocell networks are also given a higher priority compared with nRT traffic calls to ensure the low call-blocking rate. Performance analyses show significant improvement under the proposed scheme compared with conventional FFR schemes