Femtocell gateway scheduling for capacity and fairness improvement in neighboring femtocell networks

Abstract

In this paper we analyze various user assignment and scheduling policies for neigbouring femtocell networks. The trade-off between capacity maximization and fairness is investigated and a combined user assignment and proportional fair (PF) scheduling procedure for a femtocell gateway is proposed. The flexibility of the proposed architecture in terms of capacity and fairness is studied via various simulation scenarios. It is shown that by changing parameters in the proposed method one can play-out between fairness and capacity in a femtocell network. In order to decrease the number of the handovers between femtocells, we propose that a femtocell user should be scheduled with the same femtocell base station for a duration of superframe, i.e, cell re-selection should be done in every superframe. The performance of the combined user assignment and PF scheduling scheme is investigated under different superframe considerations and it is shown that a wide range of performance results (in terms of capacity, fairness, handover frequency) could be achieved.

AN OPTIMIZATION MODEL FOR ALLOCATION OF NETWORK USERS IN MACRO-FEMTO NETWORKS - An Approach based on Energy Efficiency and Quality of Service

“…In addition, associating users to appropriate frequency bands for achieving high capacity and fairness, intelligent assignment of users to different cells is also required. These unique problems in femtocell networks require intelligent scheduling algorithms that can present a good compromise between maximization of the fairness and the sum-rate (Ertürk et al, 2010).…”

“…In such context, planning for the allocation of users by operators in their cells, macro or femto, carries critical importance for minimizing interference, maximizing the system capacity, achieving fairness in femtocell networks and maximizing network utilization (Ertürk et al, 2010).…”

Green-Markov models - new optimization strategies: a case study for user allocation in co-channel macro/femto networks

“…Moreover, there may be load imbalances in neighboring femtocells, where a certain femtocell may have significantly larger number of users compared to other femtocells in the vicinity. These unique problems in femtocell networks require intelligent scheduling algorithms that can present a good compromise between maximization of the fairness and the sum-rate [3].…”

“…In such context, planning for the allocation of users by operators in their cells, macro or femto, carries critical importance for minimizing interference, maximizing the system capacity, achieving fairness in femtocell networks and maximizing network utilization [3]. This technology creates a bridge between mobile user and the operator's macro-network using the (personal or enterprise) wired networks, that is a high speed Internet connection.…”