Inter-cell interference management in OFDMA TDD downlink using sounding/silencing protocol

Abstract

Modern cellular communication systems are based on frequency reuse 1. Although reuse 1 promises high peak data rates and significantly simplified network planning, the cell edge or cell overlap areas suffer from excessive inter-cell interference. In this work we address interference management for downlink part of these systems. Part of the radio resources is primarily reserved for protected access of vulnerable users. The protected access is based on a novel sounding/silencing protocol that takes advantage of instantaneous signal to interference plus noise ratio prediction and has power to silence strong interferers with low priority. The accompanied signaling scheme is developed for time division duplex systems. Our results in an indoor scenario with partly overlapping closed subscriber groups show that even with realistic control signal reception model the proportion of zero throughput users can be reduced by more than 50%.