Dynamic Frequency Resource Allocation in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Abstract— Deployment of low power pico basestations within cellular networks can potentially increase both capacity and coverage. However, such deployments require efficient frequency allocation schemes for managing interference from the pico and macro basestations that are located within each other’s transmission range. Partitioning the available frequencies between the various basestations avoids the problem of interference, but can lead to inefficient spectrum usage. we introduce a distributed frequency allocation scheme that shares frequencies between macro and pico basestations, and guarantees a minimum average throughput to users. The scheme seeks to minimize the total number of frequencies needed to honor the minimum throughput requirements. We evaluate our scheme using detailed simulations and show that it performs on par with the centralized optimum allocation. Moreover, our proposed scheme outperforms a static frequency reuse scheme and the centralized optimal par titioning between the macro and pico basestations. In the downlink scenario with many users served by a single basestation (BS), it becomes difficult to satisfy the demands of all users, especially as user density and expected demands increase over time. In contrast, due to P’s lower transmit power, Alice experiences only little interference from P. < final year projects >