Cooperative power control in OFDMA small cell networks

Abstract

Abstract This paper aims at improving the system throughput of orthogonal frequency division multiple access small cell networks. Different with traditional schemes that neglect the cooperation among small cells, a scheme named as resource block exclusion-based power control (RBEBPC) is proposed by sharing the interference correlated information. RBEBPC consists of two steps that are iteratively conducted. First, based on current power allocation results, partial system resource blocks are excluded by playing the formulated cooperative coalition formation games. Second, the transmission power of each small cell is determined by solving a modified throughput maximization problem after the resource block exclusion. As the generated interference is constrained in the second step, part of the small cells transmit without full power. Thereby, the overall system interference keeps non-increasing after RBEBPC is adopted. Simulation results indicate that about 15 % system throughput gain and 13 % power saving gain are obtained compared to traditional iterative water filling scheme.