An improved spectrum management scheme for OFDMA femtocell networks

Abstract

The femtocell network is regarded as an effective approach to provide better services for indoor users with higher capacity. However, the spectrum allocation problem of the femtocell network is challenging for the wireless operator, since the added femtocell tier either requires additional spectrum resource or brings interference to the existing cellular network. In this paper, we consider the methods of spectrum allocation and spectrum sharing to improve the capacity performance of femtocell networks. We first propose a spectrum allocation strategy that utilizes the structure of the cellular network to reduce interference. Then, we propose a spectrum sharing scheme that deals with the problem of insufficient channels for femtocells. Adjacent femtocells could coordinate with each other for resource allocation by taking the instantaneous traffic demand into consideration. Finally, the proposed spectrum management methods are compared with several conventional methods and the improvements of the proposed schemes are verified by simulation results.