IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 13, NO.
3, MARCH 2014
Confederation Based RRM with Proportional
Fairness for Soft Frequency Reuse LTE Networks
Wahyu Pramudito, Student Member, IEEE, and Emad Alsusa, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—A new radio resource management (RRM) tech-
nique for improving the downlink performance in soft-frequency-
reuse based long term evolution (LTE) networks is presented. In
this RRM the resource is dynamically allocated in distributed and
centralized manners such that spectral efficiency is maximized
across the whole network. To achieve this a unique interference
mapping strategy is implemented to assist in deciding whether
a distributed or centralized mode is applicable per basestation.
When a distributed approach is granted to a basestation it can
use the entire spectrum while when a centralized approach is
imposed on a basestation it will only be allocated a subset of the
spectrum. The proposed then utilizes the confederation concept
in the sense that once the allocation approach is determined
the individual basestations can take control of their allocated
resource. When combined with proportional fairness scheduling,
this RRM can also benefit from multiuser diversity. It will be
shown through mathematical analysis and computer simulations
that this technique offers significant improvements in terms of
sum rate and quality of service by increasing the guaranteed
data rate per user.
Index Terms—Heterogeneous cellular network, radio resource
management, interference mapping, LTE, OFDMA, soft fre-
quency reuse.
I. I NTRODUCTION
OFT frequency re-use (SFR) pattern maximizes spec-
S trum utilization in Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks
by allowing all macrocell basestations (MBSs) to perform
transmission over the entire available spectrum [1]. However,
considering that LTE also employs micro-, pico- and fem-
tocells basestations (BSs), as small cell BSs (SBSs) within
each macrocell [2], when all subcarriers are occupied, SFR
leads to more interference at the SBS’s user equipments
(UEs). Furthermore, the presence of femtocells, as low cost
alternative to picocells, results in additional interference as
they are installed and controlled by the end-user [3], [4].
Therefore, in order to implement the SFR approach effectively
in LTE heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets), all BSs
must have adaptive interference avoidance capability [5].
In 4G HetNets, which employ orthogonal frequency division
multiple access (OFDMA), downlink interference is practi-
cally reduced using radio resource management (RRM). This
includes frequency spectrum allocation and power control [6],
[7], where in the case of interfering BSs, spectrum allocation
Manuscript received August 18, 2013; revised November 8, 2013; accepted
December 11, 2013. The associate editor coordinating the review of this paper
and approving it for publication was L. Song.
The authors are with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engi-
neering, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom (e-mail:
{wahyu.pramudito, e.alsusa}@manchester.ac.uk).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TW.2014.011614.131512
1536-1276/14$31.00 
c 2014 IEEE
1703
minimises interference by allocating different subsets of sub-
carriers to those BSs. This however reduces the ability of the
interfering BSs to fully exploit multiuser diversity and con-
sequently reduces the achievable throughput. Thus, in order
to capture this, it is important to evaluate the combined per-
formance of RRM and scheduling together. The most popular
scheduling algorithms in OFDMA systems include maximum
sum rate (MSR), maximum fairness (MF), proportional rate
constraints (PRC), proportional fairness (PF) and the cumula-
tive distribution function (CDF) based scheduling policy [8],
[9], where it retains a similar characteristic with PF scheduler
[10] that maximises multiuser diversity and maximises users
fairness. Due to this reason, PF based scheduler is commonly
applied in the cellular environment [11]. Although fairness
of a system can be assessed with proportion of resources
assigned to a user with some normalisation factor [10], this
paper interest in assessing the fairness in terms of quality of
service (QoS) improvement.
In general, OFDMA RRMs can be classified into three cate-
gories, which are, distributed, centralized and self-organizing
network (SON) [7], [12], [13]. Distributed RRM works by
allowing each SBS to allocate its UEs’ subcarriers based on
measurements of the interference received [14]–[16], while
the centralized RRM uses a central node to compute the
subcarriers allocation for all UEs [7]. On the other hand, SON
RRM utilizes a number of functions to manage the resource.
Often, SON RRM uses both the distributed and centralized
approach to reduce interference. Among these approaches,
the centralized only RRM method is associated with higher
levels of complexity due to requiring channel state information
(CSI) for the entire spectrum to achieve the most appropriate
allocation [7].
The best distributed RRM is the self-organizing approach
[16], [17], which utilizes half of the available spectrum and
adjusts the allocated subcarriers based on the interference
received from the surrounding environment. A SON RRM
based centralized technique is presented in [18]–[20], which
relies on the colored graph (CG) algorithm. In this algorithm, a
connecting node is visualised by the central processor if a SBS
senses that at least one of its users is interfered. Basic CG SON
RRM that presented in [18] relies on each BS to measure the
received power from surrounding BSs where the information
of which neighbouring BSs are potentially interfering with
its users is sent to the central node, which can be a Femto
Management System (FMS). On the other hand, a dynamic
CG is presented in [20] that utilizes users measurement and
maximizes the resource allocation.
Motivated by the need to achieve higher spectral efficiency
1704 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 13, NO. 3, MARCH 2014
Fig. 1. HetNet architecture example.
and better QoS, this paper presents a confederation-style SON
RRM combined with a routing algorithm. The confederation
aspect helps in minimizing overhead signaling while the
routing algorithm is used to maximize spectral efficiency. The
proposed uses a novel downlink interference mapping method
in the form of a matrix of conflicts (MoC) to track how the
BSs links affect certain UEs and locate possible interference
instances per user. When the MoC indicates no potential
interference, the BS will perform the PF scheduling for its UEs
using the entire available spectrum. Otherwise, a centralized
RRM-routing is invoked to prevent the interference instances.
Generally speaking, the centralized approach is applied only
when the MoC within a group of BSs undergoes certain
changes. The proposed technique uses the SON functionality
to facilitate successful and efficient application of this ap-
proach, which is why it is categorized as SON-RRM. It will
be shown that the proposed method offers significant sum rate
and QoS improvements in terms of guaranteed rate for all UEs
as shown by [8], [10].
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II
describes the system model and assumptions used throughout
this paper. The proposed RRM and scheduling implementation
will be discussed and examined in Section III. Sections IV and
V will present the performance analysis and system evaluation.
Finally, conclusions will be made in Section VI.
II. P RELIMINARIES AND S YSTEM M ODEL
This paper considers a downlink scenario of SFR based
HetNet [21]. The downlink transmission uses N subcarri-
ers OFDMA with adaptive modulation using BPSK, QPSK,
16QAM, 64QAM and 256QAM [22]. N subcarriers are di-
vided into I separate groups with index i and each group has
Ni subcarriers where inner users will be allocated with I − 1
subcarriers groups for inner users and 1 subcarriers group for
the outer users. Since this frequency pattern do not provide
empty resources for SBSs’ users, it is assumed that the SBS
is eligible to utilize the entire spectrum.
The micro- and pico- cells BSs are connected with the
macrocell through an OMS (operator management system)
while a set of femtocell access points or Home Node BSs
(HNBs) are connected to a Femto Management System (FMS),
which is controlled by an OMS through the IP backhaul.
This is shown in Fig. 1. While FMS provides operation and
management (OAM) functionality for the femtocell networks,
OMS provides OAM functionality for the macro-, micro- and
pico- cells as well as to the FMS [23]. The OAM may include
RRM assistant, users authentication, authorization, accounting
and optimizing scheduling of data in the network. Therefore,
both OMS and FMS provide central controller functionality
for HetNets.
We consider the SON functionality is employed by all
BSs. Using this capability, each BS is able to establish the
neighbouring BSs link automatically. Therefore, the MBS
knows exactly the identity of the SBSs in the same cell and the
SBSs have the neighboring BS list registered on their memory.
Also, all UEs are capable of measuring power signals from
different BSs as well as identifying their identity (ID) using
the measurement report (MR) capability embedded in LTE
which is controlled by the Radio Resource Control (RRC)
function in LTE protocol stack Layer 3 [24]. This function
schedules the timing of feedback communication containing
MRs from one or more users such that collision can be
avoided. There are two types of MR, which are periodic and
event triggered. In the periodic case, MR is reported every
3 s or 30 s [25]. On the other hand, in the case of event
triggered MR, a BS sends a Radio Resource Control (RRC)
connection reconfiguration message to a UE. Upon receiving
this message, the UE searches for the neighboring BSs,
identifies the Physical Cell Identities (PCI) and measures their
Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and/or Reference
Signal Received Quality (RSRQ). The MR contains the PCI
information and their average received power [24]. The MR
is submitted by a UE before being served by a BS and/or
when the signal power falls below a certain threshold due to
its mobility.
Normally, the MR is only used to make a decision on
handover requirement to a neighboring femtocell with higher
received signal. In the proposed SON RRM algorithm, this
information will also be used for approximating the downlink
interference. Therefore, the average interference measurement
across the entire available spectrum is the essential information
of the proposed scheme rather than the interference informa-
tion per subcarrier. This is done in order to make sure that the
proposed scheme has a very low signaling requirement.
We further assume that standard channel gain or channel
state information (CSI) feedback between UEs and their
serving BSs [26]. LTE can use either, time-division duplexing
(TDD) or frequency-division duplexing (FDD). In the case of
TDD, the channel gain information in allocated resources can
be acquired directly from the uplink transmission. On the other
hand, in the case of FDD the CSI can only be acquired by the
full feedback channel. Since this information is required for
channel dependent scheduling, and not specific to the proposed
scheme, there is no additional information exchange between
UEs and its serving BSs.
In the considered heterogeneous network,  there are (M-
L) SBSs and L MBSs denoted in set T = T1 . . . TM ,
where T1 until TM−L represent SBSs and TM−L+1 until TM
represent the MBSs, and their corresponding users set, U =
PRAMUDITO and ALSUSA: CONFEDERATION BASED RRM WITH PROPORTIONAL FAIRNESS FOR SOFT FREQUENCY REUSE LTE NETWORKS 1705

TABLE I
L IST OF S YMBOLS AND A BBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations Symbols
BS Basestation ζm Local MoC of BS Tm
DVRP Distance Vector ζ Global MoC
Routing Protocol
FMS Femto Management T Set of BSs
System
HNB Home Node U Set of UEs
Basestation
MoC Matrix of Conflict I Number of subcarriers
group
MR Measurement L Number of MBSs
report
OAM Operation and M Number of BSs
Management
OMS Operator Hi Set of BSs that require
Management conflicts to be resolved at a
System particular time and the ith
subcarriers group
PCI Physical layer Cell Qi Set of users of Hi Fig. 2. Interference mapping based RRM.
Identities
RRC Radio Resource Vm Set of neighbouring BSs of
Control BS Tm
RSRP Reference Signal Θ Entire forbidden subcarriers
information is shared amongst these BSs in order to compute
Received Power their allocated subcarriers set. After receiving this information
RSRQ Reference Signal Φ Partial forbidden subcarriers from the FMS, each BS then schedules the resource using the
Received Power PF algorithm. The PF scheduler uses the feedback channel
SBS Small BS P Priority subcarriers
PF Proportional A Temporary allocated and MR information to predict the interference received by
Fairness subcarriers each UE to estimate the gain variation across the allocated
UE User equipment Λ Allowable subcarriers subcarriers.
Thus, generally speaking, the proposed revolves around
 constructing the MoC and accordingly deciding whether a
u1 . . . uZ ], where Z is the total number of users. These distributed or centralized approach is needed for each BS. The
sets are held by the FMS. It is further assumed
 that BS m, Tm, process is described in details in three major stages below.
holds its own neighboring BSs set Vm = V1 . . . VCm ,
where Vm ∈ T acts as a pointer for the T set held by the
FMS and Cm < M is the number of Tm ’s neighboring BSs A. Constructing The MoCs
with index cm . Finally, for clarity reasons, the symbols and 1) Local and global MoCs construction
abbreviations used throughout this paper are summarized in When a UE wants to connect to a BS, this BS requests its
Table I. MR reading. Lets assume there are Zm UEs within BS Tm , the
MR readings from all of Tm ’s UEs are organized into the two
matrices: αm,t ∈ RZm ×1 , which is the instantaneous pathloss
III. C ONFEDERATION SON RRM WITH PF S CHEDULING between Tm and its UEs, and EVm ,t ∈ RZm ×Cm ×I , which is
A flow chart for the proposed technique is shown in Fig. 2. the received power from Tm ’s neighbor BSs, Vm , to its UEs
This algorithm uses the FMS as the central controller because at subcarriers group. Using αm,t , the average received signal
femtocells are installed by the end-user. The first major step from Tm to its UEs at time slot t is given by
in the proposed method is to establish the MoC. Two types of Pm,i
MoCs must be constructed within a HetNet, which are termed Em,t (z, i) = , ∀z = 1, . . . , Zm (1)
αm,t (z)
local and global MoCs. A local MoC is the interference map
within each BS while the global MoC is the combination of the for i = 1,. . ., I where i is the subcarriers group index and
local MoCs from all BSs. The BSs monitor their local MoCs Pm,i is the average downlink transmitted power of Tm at the
periodically and submit their updates to the FMS whenever ith subcarrier index. If Em,t (z, i)/EVm ,t (z, c, i) < γth where
they change or requested by the FMS. When a BS submits its γth is the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) threshold, Tm will
map, using a routing algorithm to check with the global MoC, detect that uz is interfered by Tm,cm at index i. Based on
the FMS will decide whether this BS can use a part of or the this information, the local MoC of Tm , ζm ∈ RZm ×Cm ×I , is
entire spectrum. constructed as follows

The routing strategy used by the FMS to decide the E (z,i)
we EV m,t < γth
spectrum subset for the conflicting BSs works in a similar ζm (z, c, i) = m ,t (z,c,i) (2)
0 otherwise
manner as the distance vector routing protocol (DVRP) in
which each node consecutively constructs its routing table for z =1,. . ., Zm , i = 1,. . ., I, where Zm is all the UEs of
based on a certain queuing criterion and then shares this with Tm , Vm (c) is one of Tm ’s neighboring BS, we is any positive
its neighbors [27]. Similarly, the FMS consecutively assigns integer number bigger than 0. The integer value of we does not
temporary subcarriers to the UEs of a BS and the common affect the performance of the proposed scheme because this
1706 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 13, NO. 3, MARCH 2014


Z
II) |[ζ (z, m, i) − ζ  (z, m, i)]
z=1
∧ {ζ (z, m, i)  ws }| > 0 (7)

Fig. 3. Local MoC information message to the FMS.
value is only used to differentiate between the interfering and
non-interfering BSs. This implies that we value can be equal
with 1 for simplicity. Every time Tm updates its local MoC,
FMS will check the result with the previous measurement.

Assuming the previous measurement of ζm is given by ζm , acts as a pointer for the T set in the FMS memory. If MBSs
th
Tm will report ζm at the i subcarrier group index to the
FMS if

Zm 
Cm
 
ζm (z, c, i) − ζ  (z, c, i) > 0.
m the total UEs of conflicting BSs at the ith subcarriers group
z=1 c=1
This MoC is sent to the FMS through the backhaul using the
message structure shown by Fig. 3. This information begins
and finishes by sending a header and a tail messages to
distinguish the MoC information exchange from other data
transmissions. Furthermore, the header message also contains
the information of subcarrier group index, i. Then, the the
MoC is contained by sending the IP address of the interfering
BSs and the MoC associated with it consecutively.
Upon receiving local MoC updates from Tm the FMS waits
for the other BSs within the Vm set to send their own matrix
of conflicts for a certain period, which could be in terms of
milliseconds, before updating the global MoC, ζ ∈ RZ ×M ×I ,
given by
⎧
⎪
⎨ws , if Ta is the BS of uz
ζ(z, a, i) = we , if Ta interferes uz (4)
⎪
⎩
0, otherwise
where ws is any positive integer number bigger than 0 and ws
= we .
2) Local MoC request criterion by the FMS
After ζ is updated, the FMS calculates the total affected
users by Tm at the ith subcarrier index, Sm,i , which is given
by

Z 
Z
Sm,i = {ζ(z, m, i) ∼ ws } + {ζ(z, m, i) ∼ we } (5)
z=1 z=1
where x = {a ∼ b} means x = 1 if a is equal to b, otherwise
x = 0. Then, it checks all BSs that require frequency update,
which are the conflicting BS. If the previous measurement of ζ
and Sm,i are given by ζ  and Sm.i

, any Tm ∈T is categorized
th
as conflicting BS at the i subcarriers group index if, at least,
one of the following conditions is fulfilled:

M maximum resource allocation can be achieved. In addition,
 Ai is the matrix indicating temporary subcarriers allocation
I) {ζ (z, a, i) ∼ we } ∩ {Sa,i > Sa.i } > 0,
a=1
a = m, ∀z ⊆ Z | ζ (z, m, i) = ws

M
III) |[ζ (z, a, i) − ζ  (z, a, i)]| > 0,
a=1
∀z ⊆ Z, a = m | ζ (z, m, i) = ws (8)
where ∩ denotes the AND logic operation.
After all BSs have been assessed, the FMS constructs the set
of BSs that require conflicts to be resolved at a particular time
th
 the i subcarriers group index, which is given by Hi =
and
H1,i . . . HMi ,i with index Hm,i where Mi ≤M is the
total conflicting BSs at the ith subcarriers group index and Hi
are among the BSs that require allocation update, Hi will also
include the MBS. Lets assume the UEs of Hi are given by

Qi = q1,i . . . qZi ,i with index qz,i , where Zi ≤ Z is
(3)
index. Then, the FMS passes the ζ information into the Hi ’s
matrix of conflicts, ζ i .
B. Routing Algorithm Based Centralized SON RRM
If uz , which is served by Tm , is interfered by BS Tc , then
this interference is denoted as Tc → Tm and the general case
of Tm and Tc interference with each others’ UEs is denoted
as Tc  Tm . In this paper, Tc ←→ Tm denotes that Tc
and Tm are related through an interference connection. As
all conflicting BSs can be assumed to be virtually connected
nodes, we propose a new set of frequency allocation which
utilizes a routing protocol such as the DVRP. The routing
protocol combined with the SON RRM in this paper works
according to the following steps:
• Measuring queuing criterion.
• Initial consecutive frequency allocation.
• Spectrum maximization.
As mentioned previously, the FMS consecutively assigns sub-
carriers to UEs of a BS and the common information is shared
amongst the connected BSs. In this algorithm, the common
information is encoded in the form of binary matrices called
entire forbidden subcarriers, Θi ∈ RZi ×Ni , partial forbidden
subcarriers, Φi ∈ RZi ×Ni , priority subcarriers, P i ∈ RZi ×Ni
and temporary allocated subcarriers, Ai ∈ RZi ×Ni , where Ni
is the total available subcarriers per OFDM symbol at the
ith subcarrier index. Θi is used to indicate which subcarriers
cannot be assigned to a particular UE due to orthogonality
requirements with two or more UEs in the same BS or in
other BSs while Φi represents the forbidden subcarriers due
to orthogonality requirement with UEs in other BSs. On
the other hand, P i is required so that the subcarriers can
be allocated to each UE much more efficiently such that
for these UEs. Initially, these matrices have all zeros value.
(6) After this centralized approach is performed, these matrices
PRAMUDITO and ALSUSA: CONFEDERATION BASED RRM WITH PROPORTIONAL FAIRNESS FOR SOFT FREQUENCY REUSE LTE NETWORKS 1707

Based on the H  i sets, consecutively allocate z = 1, . . . , Zi

users with Ji (z) subcarriers in a pseudorandom manner into
Ai (z, n) at any n = 1, . . . , Ni and i = 1,. . ., I |Θi (z, n) = 0,
with priority to allocate at any n = 1, . . . , Ni |P i (z, n) = 1.
Fig. 4. Information feedback from the FMS.

Algorithm 1 Forbidden and Priority Subcarriers Update


will be populated with binary numbers as follows: function passForbPrio Θi , Φi , P i , Ai , H  i , ζ , m, z
i

1 nth subcarrier is forbidden to uz = 1 until Mi do
1 for a
Θi , Φi (z, n) =  i (a) = H i (m) & Tp ←→ Tb then
0 otherwise 2 if H
 (9) 3 v(n) = [{ζ i (z, m) = we } ∪ {ζ i (p, m) = we }]
1 uz is prioritized to n th subcarrier ∩Ai (z, n)
P i (z, n) = (10)
0 otherwise 4 P i (p, n) = P i (p, n) ∪ (Ai (p, n) ∩ {ζ i (p, m) = 0})
 5 Θi (p, n) = Θi (p, n) ∪ v(n)
1 nth subcarrier is allocated to uz
Ai (z, n) = . (11) 6 Φi (p, n)=Φi (p, n) ∪ v(n)
0 otherwise
7 ∀n = 1, . . . , Ni , i = 1, 2, p = 1, . . . , Zi , and p = z
After performing this algorithm, the FMS sends the infor- 8 else
mation of allowable subcarriers, Λi = Φi , and temporary 9 Θi (p, n) = Θi (p, n)∪(Ai (z, n) ∩ {ζ i (p, m) ∼ ws }),
allocated subcarriers, Ai , back to the conflicting BSs, HB,i . 10 ∀n = 1, . . . , Ni , i = 1, 2, p = 1, . . . , Zi , and p = z
Let assume Λi and Ai information for Tm are given by Λm,i 11 end if
and Am,i , respectively. This information is sent using the 12 end for
message structure shown by Fig. 4. 13 return P i , Θi , Φi
Am,i message at nth subcarrier is coded into DZm bits
to inform which users are allocated at a specific users. DZm
After the initial allocation for each user, update Θi , P i
is given by DZm = log2 Zm . If there is no user allocated
and Φi , using Algorithm 1. Note that ∩ and ∪ denote bitwise
at a particular subcarrier, then the DZm bits will be zeros.
AND and OR logic operations, respectively.
On the other hand, Λm,i message is coded into Zm Ni bits
3) Spectral maximization
to represent a binary vector of available subcarriers for Zm
After the initial frequency allocation it is likely that some
users.
subcarriers would not be assigned to any UE. In order to min-
1) Calculate queuing criterion
imize the iterations required using consecutive scheduling, the
Using ζ i , the total affected number of users by Hm,i BS,
spectral maximization step is divided into two stages. First, the
Sm,i , is defined as
empty subcarriers will be allocated to theMinner user of a BS,

Zi which is defined by any p user where a=1 i
{ζ i (p, a) ∼ we }
Sm,i = {ζ i (q, m) > 0} . (12) = 0. The subcarriers will be allocated into Ai (p, n) with
q=1 subcarriers at any n = 1, . . . , Ni | Θi (p, n) = 0. After
Using Sm,i , the initial number of subcarriers per user of BS allocation, update Θi , P i and Φi using Algorithm 1. Second,
Hm,i is given by Nm,i = Ni /Sm,i  where x is the nearest repeat step 2 until the subcarrier allocation indicator, κi , equals
integer value lower than x. This value is then copied into a Ni Zi , where κi is given by
set of the
 initial number of subcarriers
 for all conflicting BSs, 
Zi 
Ni
Ni = N1,i . . . NMi ,i where Ni ∈ R1×Mi . Ni is then κi = {Ai (z, n) ∪ Θi (z, n)} . (15)
used as a basis for the set of the initial
 number of subcarriers z=1 n=1
per user, Ji = J1,i . . . JZi ,i with the index Jz,i given
by
C. Distributed SON RRM with PF Scheduling
Jz,i = min ξ z,i (m) (13)
m:ξq,i (m)>0 1) PF Subcarrier Allocation
for z = 1, . . ., Zi where ξ z,i ∈R 1×Mi
is given by After receiving Λi from FMS, BS Tm combines this matrix
for i =1, . . . , I into a single matrix given by Λm ∈ RZm ×N
ξ z,i (b) = {ζ i (z, b) > 0} Ni (m) , m = 1, . . . , Mi . and schedules the resource to its UEs using PF scheduling
(14) within the window size of tc frames [8], [11]. Lets assume
After all required parameters have been calculated, the FMS that the instantaneous small scale fading channel between Tm
sorts the set of updating transmitters, Hi , from the lowest to and its UEs is given by β m,t ∈ CZm ×N , the received signal
the highest value, based on Ni . If the Hi set includes MBSs, power of the Tm ’s UEs at all subcarriers based on (1) and
, their initial number of subcarrier becomes the smallest value β m,t is given by
within Ni set. This is because the MBS has more UEs than the
SBS, the MBS becomes the first priority. The sorted version  2
of Hi is given by H  i. Eβm ,t (z, n) = Em,t (z, i) β m,t (z, n) , ∀n = 1, . . . N,
2) Initial consecutive subcarrier allocation z = 1, . . . , Zm . (16)
1708 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 13, NO. 3, MARCH 2014

Using Eβm,t and EVm ,t , the instantaneous prediction of the at any t, z and n ∀n = 1, . . . N and z = 1, . . . , Zm is given
signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) is given by by
Eβm ,t (z, n)  γ P Ω (z,n)
ψ m,t (z, n) = Cm (17)
256 m m,t
ψ m,t (z,n) , δ m,t (z, n) = 8
No + c=1 EVm ,t (z, c, i)bcuz Γm,t (z, n) = (23)
Pm Ωm,t (z, n) , δ m,t (z, n) < 8
∀n = 1, . . . N and z = 1, . . . , Zm , where No is the additive
white Gaussian noise (AWGN), bcuz is a binary multiplier
which equals to 1 only if Em,t (z)/EVm ,t (z, c, i) > γth other- IV. SIR T HRESHOLD A NALYSIS AND E VALUATION
wise it is 0. Based on ψ m,t matrix, the maximum Shannon ca- As shown by equation (2), the MoC is determined by
pacity per subcarrier for each individual UE, Υm,t ∈ RZm ×N , the SIR threshold value, γth . Since the MoC determines the
is given by initial number of subcarriers per user, which can affect the
  downlink transmission performance, the appropriate value of
Υm,t (z, n) = log2 1 + ψ m,t (z, n)Λm (z, n) ,
γth needs to be determined first. To begin with, the spectrum
∀n = 1, . . . N, z = 1, . . . , Zm . (18) utilization and guaranteed rate models will be presented. The
Since we assume the network uses adaptive modulation with spectrum utilization model describes the behaviour of the
a maximum of 256QAM modulation per subcarrier, BS Tm proposed technique in relation to the overall sum rate while
needs to hold the maximum achievable capacity per subcarrier the guaranteed rate model demonstrates the QoS provision of
for each individual user, δ m,t ∈ RZm ×N . Lets assume that this technique.
the minimum SINR for BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM and For better clarity, lets consider a homogeneous cellular
256QAM modulation to achieve a required bit error rate (BER) network containing only femtocells to represent the SBSs.
are given by γ2 , γ4 , γ16 , γ64 and γ256 , respectively, δ m,t at Assuming, for now, AWGN channels and that adaptive power
any z and n is given by control and PF scheduling are not employed in the BS and
⎧ AWGN channels, it can be easily shown that, using the pro-
⎪
⎪ 8 ψ m,t (z, n)Λm (z, n) > γ28 posed algorithm, the received SINR at the allocated subcarriers
⎪
⎨k γ k ≤ ψ (z, n)Λ (z, n) < γ k+2
2 m 2 of UE uz served by Tm , ψuz , is given by
δ m,t (z, n) = m,t
.
⎪
⎪ 1 0 < ψ (z, n)Λ (z, n) < γ 2
⎪
⎩
m,t m
Pm /αm
0 otherwise ψuz = M (24)
(19) No + c=1 (Pc bc /αc )
for k = 2, 4 and 6. for c = m, αm and αc are the path loss between Tm and Tc
If Rm,t ∈ RZm ×1 is the matrix holding the average with uz , respectively, Pm and Pc are the transmitted power
data rate of the Tm ’s UEs within the tc window, the PF of Tm and Tc and bc is a binary multiplier which equals 1
scheduled subcarriers allocation, Ωm,t RZm ×N , at time slot t if the ratio of the received signal power from Tm and Tc is
and subcarrier n is given by higher than γth . If Pc = Pm , the distance between Tm and
Υm,t (z, n) uz is given by dm with the maximum distance of dMAX , the
zp = arg max (20) distance between Tc and uz is given by dc , and an indoor
z:Cm,t (z,n)>0 Rm,t (z)
 environment with the path loss exponent η is assumed, then
1 z = zp & Υm,t (z, n) > 0 the
Ωm,t (z, n) = . (21)  4π path
2
loss between Tm and uz , αm , is given by αm =
η
0 otherwise (d ) where 1 < dm < dMAX , and αc is given by
λ  4π 2
m
η
αc = λ (dc ) . Therefore,
The average capacity at time t + 1, Rm,t+1 (z), is updated
using the following equation  1/η
1
bc = 1 0 < r < (25)
1 
N γth
Rm,t+1 (z) = Ωm,t (z, n)δ m,t (z, n) + (22) 0 otherwise
tc n=1
  where r = ddmc is the relative distance between uz and Tm and
1
1− Rm,t (z), ∀z = 1, . . . , Zm . uz and Tc .
tc
If we assume that the SBSs are uniformly distributed across
2) Power Control Strategy an l × l area and a UE, uz , is uniformly distributed around a
After allocating Ωm,t for each frame, the final step of the circle of Tm radius, with a maximum radius of dMAX  l,
proposed algorithm is applying power control. Since all BSs it can be seen from Appendix A, that the probability density
have the objective to increase their UEs data rate, in this paper function (PDF) of r is given by
power control is applied to any UE and subcarrier only when ⎧
4l
the data rate cannot be increased. This is done to avoid any ⎪
⎪ 3dM AX arcsin(1)+
⎪
⎪
⎪ 4l
⎨ 10dM AX − 2 dM AX 0 < r < l
additional conflict between the BSs. Since our system model l dM AX
⎪
assumes a maximum modulation order of 256QAM, increasing
fR (r) = . (26)
power when the modulation order has achieved 256QAM does ⎪
⎪ 4d2
⎪ 3lM2 pAX
⎪ 3 arcsin(1)+
not improve the throughput. For this reason, our proposed ⎪
⎪
⎩ 4d4M4 AX 2d3
− 3M4AX r ≥ dM AX
power control is only applied at any time t and subcarrier 10l rmc5 l rmc l
n given that δ m,t (z, n) = 8. Therefore, the transmitted power
PRAMUDITO and ALSUSA: CONFEDERATION BASED RRM WITH PROPORTIONAL FAIRNESS FOR SOFT FREQUENCY REUSE LTE NETWORKS 1709

90 1400
3 BSs Analytical 4 BSs
6 BSs 6 BSs
80 Simulation
10 BSs 11 BSs
1200
15 BSs
70

Guaranteed capacity (kbps)

Resource utilization ratio (%)

60 1000

50
800
40

30 600

20
400
10

0 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 SIR threshold (dB)
SIR threshold (dB)

Fig. 6. Impact of γth values to guaranteed capacity performance.

Fig. 5. Impact of γth values to the lower bound resource utilization ratio.

 1/η 
1
A. Lower Bound Resource Utilization (M − 1) FR γth . If we consider that the maximum
If we assume that all femtocells have similar numbers of interference from a BS is Imax , given by Imax = αm Pm /γth
UEs, Zm , there are M number of SBSs within an l × l area, and the minimum significant interference from a BS, Imin , is
the number of affected users of Tm , Sm , is given by given by Imin = αm Pm / (100γth), then Buz will be
  1/η 
   1/η  αm Pm

M
1 Buz = (M − 1) FR −
Sm = Z m 1 + Pr r > , c = m (27) γth
γth  1/η 
c=1 αm Pm
FR (31)
and has the upper bound of 100γth
   1/η 
1 The minimum SINR occurs when all Buz BSs interferes uz
Sm < Zm 1 + (M − 1) 1 − FR (28)
γth with the same amount of interference power. Therefore, ψmin
= αm Pm / (Imax Buz ) and minimum data rate is given by
where FR (r) is the cumulative distribution function of r ratio
within an l × l area. Hence, the number of subcarriers per 
N Wf log2 (1 + ψmin )
    (32)
υmin = 1/η
user of Tm is lower bounded by 1
Zm 1 + (M − 1) 1 − FR γth
N
Nm >      (29)
1/η
Zm 1 + (M − 1) 1 − FR 1 If we assume a homogeneous network containing femtocells
γth
in a 60 × 60 meter square area with AWGN channel, η = 3,
and the resource utilization ratio of BS Tm , which is given by 256 total subcarriers at 2.3 GHz with bandwidth per subcarrier
ρm = Nm Zm /N , is lower bounded by of 10.94 kHz, 200 μs of OFDM period and 100 mW of SBS
equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP), the guaranteed
1
ρm >     (30) rate of the proposed technique is shown by Fig. 6. This figure
1/η
1 + (M − 1) 1 − FR 1 shows that the simulation and theoretical results match, which
γth
proves the validity of the analysis presented in this section.
Using equation (30), the lower bound of the resource This figure also shows that as γth increases, the guaranteed
utilization ratio for l = 60 m and η = 3 is illustrated by Fig. 5. capacity improves. This indicates that increasing γth results in
As can be seen from this figure, increasing γth value and increasing the QoS of the cellular network. However, as been
number of SBS reduce spectrum utilization of the cellular shown by Fig. 5, increasing γth reduces the spectrum usage.
network as a result of increased sensitivity and more UEs This indicates that a very high γth value cannot be applied
affected by each BS. This means, γth value must be carefully for high QoS system that at the same time achieves good sum
determined in order to achieve improvements in both the sum rate. Fig. 5 also shows that the gradient starts to change at
rate and QoS. around γth > 20 dB, which happens because the sensitivity to
interfering BSs decreases as γth increases beyond this point.
In general what determines the minimum threshold is the
B. Guaranteed Rate required bit error rate by the users. However, in terms of
If we assume an AWGN channel and Shannon capacity, the the maximum threshold there is a compromise between the
data rate of Tm ’s UE is lower bounded by υuz >Nm Wf minimum guaranteed rate and total data rate. The higher
log2 (1 + ψuz ) where Wf is the bandwidth per subcarriers, the threshold (above the minimum) the better the minimum
ψuz is given by (24). If (αc Pc )  No , ψ
uz can be simplified guaranteed rate but the lower the available resource and reduce
M
into ψuz = αm Pm /Im where Im = c=1 (αc Pc ) bc for the total data rate, and vice versa. As can be seen from
c = m is the total interference power received by uz . Figs. 6 and 5, middle value of SIR threshold provides a good
Using FR (r), the total interfering SBSs is given by Buz = balance of good guaranteed capacity and available resources.
1710 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 13, NO. 3, MARCH 2014

TABLE II
H ET N ET S IMULATION PARAMETERS of the proposed technique in various network densities. Since
only the number of indoor users that will be varied, this
Parameter Value Parameter Value scenario will only be observed for the indoor users only. On
TO 2 ×10−4 s Noise density (σ) -174 dBm/Hz the other hand, scenario 2: considers the performance against
F 3 Receiver height 2m
Carrier (fc ) 2.3 GHz N 1024
various distances from the MBS with a fixed number of indoor
Modulation BPSK,QPSK, Fading channel Ricean, k = 20 users. By doing this, the impact of the overall heterogeneous
16-, 64-, between UEs and dB & Rayleigh network signal can be observed. In this paper, scenario 1
256-QAM MBS & HNB
Ww & Wr 15 dB & Wf 10.94 kHz
considers a distance of 1 km while scenario 2 assumes a fixed
26.2 dB 20 indoor UEs inside the building.
In order to measure the data rate, Rz , achieved by uz
at time t, this paper considers adaptive MQAM modulation
at the nth subcarrier such that the bit error rate (BER),
Pbz (n), is lower than 10−6 . The discrete capacity at the
nth subcarrier used by uz , Cz,t (n), is given by Cz,t (n) =
kz,t (n) - q (Psz ,t (n)) where kz,t (n) and Psz ,t (n) are the
number of bits and symbol error rate at the nth subcarrier
for uz downlink transmission, respectively, [28]. Psz ,t (n)
is given by Psz ,t (n) = kz,t (n)Pbz ,t (n) and q (Psz ,t (n))
is the equivocation of the symbol at a given Psz ,t (n), 
Psz ,t (n)
which is given by q (Psz ,t (n)) = −Psz ,t (n) log2 2kz,t (n)
−1
− (1 − Psz ,t (n)) log2 (1 − Psz ,t (n)) [28]. Using Cz , Rz =
N
n=0 (Cz (n)Ωm,t (z, n))/TO , where TO is the downlink
Fig. 7. Simulation illustration. transmission period per OFDM symbol.
The propagation from MBS to UE uz , which is given by
Therefore, γth = 20 dB will be chosen through the rest of the P Luz ,M , uses Stanford university interim (SUI) path loss
paper. model for Terrain type C [29]. So, P Luz ,M [dB] = Q+
10ϕlog10 (duz ,M /100) + Xf +Xh +s + Wr where duz ,M is
V. SFR BASED H ET N ETS P ERFORMANCE E VALUATION distance between MBS and uz , Wr is roof attenuation, Q
is given by Q = P L (100), ϕ is given by ϕ = 3.6 - 0.005 
After determining an appropriate value for γth , the impact
of the proposed technique on the sum rate and QoS will hM + h20 + χ0.59, X f is given by X f = 6 log 10
fc
2000 ,
M

be evaluated. The simulation will be focused on small cells 2.0
Xh is given by Xh = 20 log10 hu and s is given by
network inside a 60 m by 60 m building close to an MBS s = χ(8.2 + χ1.6) where χ is a Gaussian random variable
equipped with two transmit antennas space-time-block-code with zero mean. On the other hand, an indoor shadowing
(STBC) with antenna gain of 12 dBi and employs SFR. The path loss model with path loss exponent, η, of 3 and log
MBS transmits 2 W and 20 W of EIRP for its inner and normal shadowing, Xσ , of 8 dB is used to represent the signal
outer users, respectively, while the SBS transmits 100 mW propagation from HNB to UE uz given by P Luz ,m . Hence,
of EIRP. The MBS has a height of 30 m. In this simulation, P Luz ,m [dB] = P L (d0 ) + 10ηlog10 (duz −m /d0 ) +Xσ + Ww
a macrocell’s UE will be categorized as an inner user if the where duz ,m is the distances between uz and HNB, Tm , Ww
received signal for inner user signal transmission is higher is the wall loss attenuation between Tm and any outdoor UEs,
than 20 dB above the noise power. Otherwise, this UE will P L (d0 ) is given by P L (d0 ) = 20 log10 (4πd0 /λ), λ is the
be categorized as outer user. The inner users will be allocated signal wavelength and d0 = 1 m is the reference distance.
with (F − 1)/F × N subcarriers and the outer users will be
allocated with N /F subcarriers at the same period where F For reference sake, the results are compared with PF
is the SFR factor and N is the total number of subcarriers. scheduling without RRM, distributed RRM using self orga-
As illustrated by Fig. 7, this observation will consider five nization RRM [17], and CG based SON RRM techniques
HNBs to represent SBSs inside a building with two transmit with N /4 subcarriers of partial usage for basic method and
antennas system and the capability to listen for MBS’s signal. N/8 initial subcarriers for dynamic scheme. Two CG SON
In addition, there are UEs inside the building as indoor users RRMs are considered in this paper, which are basic CG [18]
and UEs outside the building as outdoor users. HNBs and UEs and dynamic CG [20]. All RRMs are combined with PF
are placed uniformly distributed within this building. Besides scheduling. In the case of the proposed algorithm, the RR
the considered UEs, there are 60 UEs registered as inner users scheduling is also shown for comparison only. Without inter-
and 20 UEs registered as outer users of the macrocell with ference avoidance scheme, each SBS determines the relative
SINR uniformly distributed between 17 dB until 43 dB and 5 position after measuring the signal power from the MBS using
dB to 30 dB, respectively. There are two scenarios simulated a sniffing or listening capability [23]. If an SBS senses that
in this paper: Scenario 1: considers the performance against it exists within the range of the inner MBS’s UEs, this SBS
various numbers of indoor users at a fixed distance from the will only use the same subcarriers with the inner MBS’s users.
MBS. This scenario is simulated in order to test the behaviour Otherwise, it utilizes the entire N subcarriers.
PRAMUDITO and ALSUSA: CONFEDERATION BASED RRM WITH PROPORTIONAL FAIRNESS FOR SOFT FREQUENCY REUSE LTE NETWORKS 1711

60 7
RR RR MoC based SON RRM
PF Self organization RRM
55 PF
Full spectrum utilization
6
Basic CG SON RRM

Sum rate (Mbps)

MoC based SON RRM Dynamic CG SON RRM
Sum rate (Mbps)

50
Self organization RRM 5
Full spectrum utilization
45 Basic CG SON RRM
Dynamic CG SON RRM
4
40

3
35 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
Building distance from MBS (m)

30
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
Number of users Fig. 10. Scenario 2 outdoor users sum rate.

Fig. 8. Scenario 1 indoor users sum rate. 3

RR MoC based SON RRM
Self organization RRM
PF
2.5 Full spectrum utilization

Guaranteed bit rate (Mbps)

Basic CG SON RRM
50 Dynamic CG SON RRM
2
Sum rate (Mbps)

45
1.5
40
1
35 MoC based SON RRM
RR Self organization RRM
Full spectrum utilization 0.5
PF
30 Basic CG SON RRM
Dynamic CG SON RRM 0
25 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 Number of users
Building distance from MBS (m
)

Fig. 11. Scenario 1 indoor guaranteed data rate.

Fig. 9. Scenario 2 indoor users sum rate.

A. Sum Rate
As can be seen from Fig. 8, PF scheduler that utilises the
user diversity improve the sum rate of the MoC based RRM
compared to the RR allocation scheme from the FMS. In
general, the proposed RRM provides the highest sum rate at
various number of users. In addition, this figure also shows
that the basic CG SON RRM gives the worst performance
because this RRM uses interference reading in the BSs, which
may not be an accurate representation of the actual downlink
interference, and has limited number of available resource for
BSs. The performance of dynamic CG SON RRMs reduces
in the increasing number of users. This occurs due to the fact
that increasing number of users raises the probability of a
BS to be connected with the neighbouring BSs. Based on the
maximization rule, this reduces the available spectrum usage
by all BSs and overall sum rate.
When combined with schedulers, the proposed scheme
achieves a maximum of 9.7% sum rate improvement, which
occurs at low number of users. In the large number of users,
the self organization RRM attains similar performance with
the proposed SON RRM. This is achieved because the self
organization RRM collects the interference information at
the entire set of subcarriers. Hence, the result of schedul-
ing is maximised. Bear in mind that this type of feedback
is different from the current standard MR and requires a
special modification in order to implement this successfully.
Furthermore, since multipath fading varies rapidly above 2λ
distance, a frequent updates are required even when the UEs
move distance of less than 0.26 m. This increases the signaling
between UEs and BSs This is not the case of the proposed
RRM, since the MoC is determined by the average received
signal that varies slowly over distance.
Fig. 9 shows that the proposed technique significantly
improves the sum rate of the indoor users for various distances
from the MBS. It is shown that the proposed RRM provides a
minimum of 8.7% and 25% improvement compared to the
self organization and the dynamic CG based SON RRMs,
respectively. Unlike the simple RR scheduling performance
shown in previous chapter, full spectrum utilization with PF
scheduler achieves better performance than the basic CG
SON RRM although full spectrum utilization increases the
interference. This happens because of the limitation of the
available resource achieved by the basic CG SON RRM.
Besides improving the indoor users performance, Fig. 10
displays that the outdoor users also gain data rate advantage
from the implementation of the proposed RRM compared to
the full spectrum utilization. With PF scheduler, most interfer-
ence avoidance technique achieves almost similar performance
compared to full spectrum utilization where dynamic CG SON
RRM provides the best performance. This happens because
most of the outdoor users are served by the MBS. Using the PF
scheduler, the performance of the outdoor users is significantly
affected by the other macrocell users. Since the proposed RRM
requires the MBS to leave a very small percentage (<5%)
of empty subcarriers for the SBSs’ UEs that experience its
interference to avoid cross-tier interference, this limits the
sum rate improvement compared to other RRMs. Nevertheless,
considering the performance improvement achieved for the
indoor users shown by Figs. 8 and 9 and the fact that 80% of
data rate comes from indoor environment, the proposed SON
RRM provides significant sum rate improvement for HetNets
with PF scheduler.
B. Guaranteed Data Rate
Figs. 11 and 12 show that the proposed technique provides
significant guaranteed rate improvement for indoor users. The
1712 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 13, NO. 3, MARCH 2014

1600 MoC based SON RRM RR

Self organization
Guaranteed bit rate (Mbps)

PF
1400 Full spectrum utilization
Basic CG SON RRM
1200 Dynamic CG SON RRM
1000

800

600

400

400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
Building distance from MBS (m
)

Fig. 12. Scenario 2 indoor guaranteed data rate.

300
MoC based SON RRM
RR Fig. 14. MoC based SON RRM time protocol.
Guaranteed bit rate (kbps)

PF
250
200
150
100
400 500 600 700 800 900
Building distance from MBS (m
Fig. 13. Scenario 2 outdoor guaranteed rate.
proposed technique is capable to provide at least 32% QoS
improvement compared to the other schemes as seen from
Fig. 12. Similar to Fig. 8, the proposed is highly adaptive in
various indoor cellular density scenarios as shown by Fig. 11.
Moreover, Fig. 12 demonstrates that the proposed RRM takes
advantage of the MBS’s interference reduction for improving
QoS much more efficiently compared to other RRMs.
As consequence of significant data rate improvement for
outdoor users achieved by the PF scheduler, this scheduler
achieves worse QoS compared to RR especially at the distance
closer than 1 km from the MBS. This happens due to the
nature of PF scheduling that balance the overall sum rate
and fairness of the system. With PF scheduler, only dynamic
CG based SON RRM achieve better performance than the
proposed SON RRM. This happens because of limitation of
the available subcarriers for the MBS users. Furthermore,
the dynamic CG is assumed to have N /8 initial subcarriers
per femtocell and the maximization method of the dynamic
CG method in the scenario where users and femtocells are
uniformly distributed around the building. This distributes the
resource utilization across the femtocells and improves the
fairness compared to basic CG as shown by Fig. 12 as well
as reduces the interference to the outdoor users compared to
the basic CG and self organization method.
VI. P RACTICALITY C ONSIDERATION
The practicality of the proposed technique can be analysed
by assessing the amount of data for information exchange
between the BSs and the FMS and the latency requirement.
A. Information exchange between BSs and the FMS
The total information exchange between BSs and the FMS
is given by
Dm = DTm + Dfm (33)
Self organization
Full spectrum utilization
Basic CG SON RRM
Dynamic CG SON RRM
where DTm is the total number of bits required by Tm to
forward the MoC to the FMS based on Fig. 3 and Dfm is
the total number of bits required by the FMS to feedback the
allocated matrix information based on Fig. 4.
1000 1100
)
1200 1300 1400 1500 If we assume BS Tm has Zm users and Cm neighbouring
BSs, DTm based on Fig. 3 is given by
DTm = (DIP + Zm DMoC ) Cm + Dhe + Dt (34)
where DMoC is the number of bits to code the local MoC by
each BS, DIP is the number of IP address bits and Dhe and
Dt are the header and tail bits, respectively, used to distinguish
the MoC information exchange from other data transmission.
Due to its simplicity, the MoC can be coded into a binary
number. Hence, DMoC = 1. On the other hand, Dfm is given
by
Dfm = Dhe + Dt + DZm Ni + Zm Ni (35)
For example, in the case of a system with Zm = 4 and Cm
= 6, the available subcarriers, Ni , is 300, Dhe = DF = 64
bits and the IPv6 standard in which DIP = 128 bits, DTm
= 920 bits and Dfm = 1.928 kilobits. Therefore, the total bit
exchange between this BS and the FMS is 2.848 kilobits. This
information only needs to be updated occasionally only when
the average received power changes by a certain amount as
determined by the selected threshold. Considering most indoor
users are static in terms of large scale fading channel, this data
exchange may only be required every 1 minute maximum.
Hence, this means the additional signaling overhead only
requires 47 bits/second or less.
B. Latency Impact
The timing protocols required for the proposed MoC SON
RRM is shown in Fig. 14. The latency that needs to be
considered includes measurement report collection, tmr , and
waiting periods to get the solution from the FMS which is
given by
tmoc = 4tip + tw + tcomp (36)
where tip is period taken by a data to be transported between
a BS to the FMS, tw is the waiting period taken by the FMS
after receiving an interrupt from BS as described in Fig. 2 and
tcomp is the computational period taken by the FMS to solve
the resource allocation.
PRAMUDITO and ALSUSA: CONFEDERATION BASED RRM WITH PROPORTIONAL FAIRNESS FOR SOFT FREQUENCY REUSE LTE NETWORKS 1713

TABLE III between one BS and the surrounding UEs. While the dis-
A NALYTICAL VALUE OF THE C ONVERGENCE P OINT tributed approach allow the PF scheduler to utilize the full
spectrum, the centralized approach utilizes the interference
γth Convergence Point
M =5 M =10 M =15 M =20 map and a routing strategy to identify available subcarriers
20 dB 2 4 5 7 for the PF scheduler to maximize spectrum utilization. It was
25 dB 3 5 8 11 shown that the proposed algorithm is able to improve the
guaranteed data rate as well as the sum rate for all LTE HetNet
users in various scenarios including different number of users
If it is assumed that tip = 4 ms, tw = 8 ms and tcomp = and distances from the MBS. The results demonstrated that
2 ms, so tmoc = 26 ms. However, the latency required to get the proposed is a good candidate to maximize the downlink
the measurement report is slightly harder to predict compared performance in LTE HetNets.
to tmoc since there are two types of MRs, which are periodic
and event triggered [25]. In both cases, each UE continuously A PPENDIX A
measures the RSSP and RSSI every 150 ms [25]. If periodic R ELATIVE D ISTANCE A NALYSIS
reporting is chosen, UE sends the measurement report every If we assume that the SBSs are uniformly distributed across
300 ms or 3 s [25]. On the other hand, in the case of event an l × l area, the probability density function (PDF) of the
triggered, UE sends the information if the RSSP and RSSI SBS’s position across the x or y direction, is given by
changes based on certain threshold, set using RRC protocol.  1
For this reason, the latency required to get this information l 0<x≤l
fF (x) = (38)
takes between 0 and 150 ms. Therefore, it can be concluded 0 otherwise
that the latency of the proposed RRM takes between 26 ms Furthermore, if we assume (X1 , Y1 ) and (X2 , Y2 ) are the
and 176 ms. positions of the first and second random SBSs with the PDF
of (38), X and Y are given by X = X1 − X2 and
C. Computation Effort Y = Y1 − Y2 respectivelyand the distance between the two
2 2
Since the proposed technique involves an iterative process SBSs, G, is given by G = (X) + (Y ) . X and Y
for utilizing subcarriers that are not assigned in the first can also be written as X = X1 + X2− and Y = Y1 + Y2−
iteration, complexity increases as a function of the number where X2− is given by −X2 and Y2− is given by −Y2 . If we
of iterations. To assess this lets consider the following. Let assume that a UE, uz , is uniformly distributed around a circle
Tm ’s UEs be allocated with Nm subcarriers in each BS, which of Tm radius, with a maximum radius of dMAX  l , then
is given by (29). If we assume M SBSs, which randomly dc is equivalent to G and the PDF of dm is given by
 1
exist within an l × l area, the priority subcarriers matrix, Pi , dM AX 0 < dmuz ≤ dMAX
will ensure the same subcarriers will be allocated to more fDM (dm ) = (39)
0 otherwise
than one UE with different BSs. In the best scenario, within
and the relative distance between a UE and its neighboring
each iteration, all M SBSs’ UEs are allocated with the same
BS, r, is given by r = dGm .
subset of subcarriers. For this reason, the performance of the
The PDF of X2− is given by f2− (x) = 1/l for −l ≤
proposed technique converges to the Oth iteration, which can
x < 0 and f2− (x) = 0 otherwise. The PDF of X1 is given
be approximated by
  by f1 (x) = fF(x). Therefore, the PDF of X, is given
∞
N by fx (x) = −∞ f2− (τ )f1 (x − τ )dτ. If we assume that
O ≈ o+ (37)
N ml
1
 ∞ is a step function, expanding fx gives fx (x) =
u (x)
where Nml is the l 2 −∞ [u(τ + l) − u(τ )] [u(x − τ ) − u(x − τ − l)] dτ and
 lowest limitof Nm , which
 is approximated
 so ⎧ 1
1/η
by Nml ≈N / 1 + (M − 1) 1 − FR 1
γth , and ⎨ l2 (l + x) −l ≤ x < 0
1
fx (x) = 2 (l − x) 0≤x≤l (40)
o is a constant required due to the fact that the proposed ⎩ l
0 otherwise
technique requires one repetition for inner user maximization.
2 2
Hence, o = 1 if N/Nml  = 1, otherwise o = 0. Since (X) = (|X|) , the PDF of |X| is given by [30]
If we assume a 60 m × 60 m area with 6 and 11  2
SBSs, four users per SBS, the analytical approximation of the f|X| (x) = l2 (l − x) 0 ≤ x ≤ l (41)
0 otherwise
convergence point is shown in Table III. As can be seen from
this analysis that the proposed scheme does not need very and the joint probability of |x| and |y|, is given by
long iteration to solve the resource allocation of the proposed  4
f|x|,|y| (x, y) = l4 (l − x)(l − y) 0 < x, y < l (42)
scheme. 0 otherwise

VII. C ONCLUSION Using (42), the PDF of G, fG (g), is then given by

∞ 
This paper presented a confederation style RRM in which   ! 
 g 
distributed and centralized approaches are applied to improve fG (g) = !  f|x|,|y| x, g 2 − x2 dx
the data rate and QoS in SFR based LTE HetNets. It was  g 2 − x2 
−∞
shown how the proposed interference map tracks interference (43)
1714 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 13, NO. 3, MARCH 2014

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PRAMUDITO and ALSUSA: CONFEDERATION BASED RRM WITH PROPORTIONAL FAIRNESS FOR SOFT FREQUENCY REUSE LTE NETWORKS 1715

[25] M. Anas, F. Calabrese, P.-E. Ostling, K. Pedersen, and P. Mogensen, Emad Alsusa (M’06-SM’07) received the Ph.D.
“Performance analysis of handover measurements and layer 3 filtering degree in electrical and electronic engineering from
for Utran LTE,” in Proc. 2007 IEEE Int. Symp. Pers., Indoor Mobile Bath University, Bath, UK, in 2000.
Radio Commun., pp. 1–5. He then joined the School of Engineering and
[26] K. Kordybach, S. Hamalainen, C. Sartori, and I. Viering, LTE for UMTS. Electronics, Edinburgh University, as a MobileVCE
John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., 2011. Postdoctoral Research Fellow, working on industri-
[27] J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves and S. Murthy, “A path-finding algorithm for ally led projects on link enhancement techniques
loop-free routing,” IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 148–160, for future high data rate wireless communication
1997. systems. In 2003, he joined the University of Manch-
[28] B. Sklar, Digital Communications: Fundamentals and Applications, ester as an academic member of the School of
2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2008. Electrical and Electronic Engineering, where he lec-
[29] S.-S. Jeng, J.-M. Chen, C.-W. Tsung, and Y.-F. Lu, “Coverage probabil- tures on communication engineering subjects. His research interests include
ity analysis of IEEE 802.16 system with smart antenna system over signal processing and analysis of wireless communication networks, with
Stanford University interim fading channels,” IET Commun., vol. 4, particular focus on modulation and multiple access, channel estimation,
no. 1, pp. 91–101, May 2010. coding, interference mitigation, multiuser detection, MIMO techniques, and
[30] N. L. Johnson, S. Kotz, and N. Balakrishnan, Continuous Univariate spectrum sensing techniques for cognitive radio applications.
Distributions. Wiley, 2012. Dr. Alsusa has served as a Technical Program Committee member on
numerous IEEE flagship conferences and chaired the Manchester EEE post-
Wahyu Pramudito (S’12) received the B.Eng. in graduate conference in 2010.
computing and communication systems engineering
and the Ph.D degree in electrical and electronic
engineering from the University of Manchester, UK,
in 2009 and 2013, respectively.
He is currently working as a research associate
with the Microwave and Communications Systems
(MACS) group within the School of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester.
His research interests are in the area of commu-
nication theory and its applications, in particular,
in interference management techniques for heterogeneous cellular networks,
green communication networks, multi-antenna systems, and cooperative com-
munication systems.