Downlink femto-macro ICIC with blind long-term power setting

Abstract

Inter-cell interference is a major issue in current wireless cellular systems, in particular with the development of femto-cells. Indeed, macro-femto inter-cell interference coordination is not an easy task and should be performed with a minimum communication between macro- and femto-base stations. We propose a blind inter-cell interference coordination approach, in which each femto base station configures its transmission power autonomously. This power setting aims at maintaining a constant macro-cell performance impact of the femto base station, whatever its location in the macro-cell, i.e., it equalises the macro-degradation. In a 3GPP-LTE context, this approach exhibits a good femto-macro performance trade-off compared to fixed femto base station transmission power.