An enhanced intercell interference coordination scheme using fuzzy logic controller in LTE-advanced heterogeneous networks

In heterogeneous network, the coverage area of a picocell is small due to transmission power difference between a macro eNodeB (eNB) and a pico eNB. As a result, the traffic load is distributed unequally which leads to macrocells overloading. In order to address the coverage problem, cell range expansion (CRE) technique has been recently proposed. However, the interference can occur on both data and control channels for users located in range expanded area as they experience the low signal to interference plus noise ratio. To mitigate the interference problem, an enhanced intercell interference coordination (eICIC) scheme is proposed in this paper. In this scheme, a dynamic CRE approach is combined with a dynamic almost blank subframe (ABS) using fuzzy logic controller. Simulation results show that the system performance can be improved using the proposed eICIC scheme.