Intercell Interference Management in OFDMA Networks: A Decentralized Approach Based onReinforcement Learning

Abstract

This paper presents a decentralized framework for dynamic spectrum assignment in multicell orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) networks. The proposed framework allows each cell to autonomously decide the frequency resources it should use through a procedure that incorporates concepts from self-organization and machine learning in multiagent systems (MASs). Simulation results have been obtained for several scenarios, including both macrocells (MCs) and femtocells (FCs), revealing important improvements in terms of spectral efficiency and intercell interference mitigation over reference approaches, and close performance with the one obtained by a centralized strategy. Results also suggest that the framework would be practical for future FC cellular deployments where a high degree of independence of the network nodes is expected to reduce operational costs.