Estudo de técnicas de escalonamento e coordenação de interferência intercelular no downlink LTE-A para redes heterogêneas

Abstract

The popularization of mobile communications systems has made it even more important to evaluate technical aspects of mobile networks, such as energy and spectral efficiency, fairness parameters and throughput, due to the growing demand for capacity and attention to Quality of Service indicators. Densification of cellular networks is one of the main strategies to increase network capacity, preferably providing a more efficient use of spectrum and consumed energy. Despite such advantages, networks with higher densification, or heterogeneous networks, suffer from problems related to inter-cell interference, which limits system performance. This paper evaluates the Inter-Cell Interference Coordination techniques, eICIC and FeICIC, applied to the downlink of LTE-A networks in order to mitigate the effects of inter-cell interference. As inter-cell interference severely affects users located at the edge of the cell, we study a modified utility function for the Proportional Fair scheduling algorithm, aiming to achieve a fair distribution of network resources while providing high total throughput values for the system. Thus, the results obtained via simulation are used to compare the eICIC and FeICIC techniques with respect to a scenario without the use of inter-cell interference coordination techniques, and to compare the Proportional Fair algorithm with its modified version, called Generalized Proportional Fair.