A QoS-Based Hybrid Centralized/Distributed Resource Allocation Algorithm in Downlink Femtocell Networks

Abstract

Femtocells have emerged as an effective solution to enhance indoor coverage and improve system performance in cellular networks. However, the inter-cell interference (ICI) caused by the unplanned nature of femtocells considerably leads to the degradation in throughput of users with guaranteed performance (GP). Meanwhile, the existing resource allocation algorithms bring about high complexity and large overhead. By tracking channel variation as well as arrival and departure of users, we propose a hybrid centralized/distributed resource allocation algorithm to maximize the number of GP users, with lower complexity and smaller overhead. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the system performance compared to the existing algorithms such as Q-FCRA.