Downlink Frequency Reuse and Hopping for OFDMA femtocells

Abstract

To prevent the Femto-to-Macro and Femto-to-Femto inter-cell interference, it is essential for the Femto Base Stations to perform interference management in its downlink. This paper exploits the distinct characteristics of OFDMA Femtocells and reveals the simple but effective mechanics for Femto BSs to mitigate the inter-cell interference when Macro BSs are performing fractional frequency reuse. The idea consists of frequency pattern counter-reusing and band-wide frequency hopping. Base on this idea, we then proposed a heuristic Frequency Reuse and Hopping scheme and the later simulation results proved that it can satisfactorily improve the system performance. By following the routines of low-cost low-complexity in design, the proposed scheme is grounded on realistic assumptions and easy to implement.