A novel fractional frequency reuse structure based on interference avoidance scheme in multi-cell LTE networks

Inter-cell interference (ICI) mitigation is always a challenge issue in LTE system. In this paper, a novel fractional frequency reuse (FFR) architecture based on interference avoidance scheme coupled with power control is proposed to solve the problem of interference management in multi-cell LTE environment. The scheme divides whole sub-carriers into three groups orthogonally. One is allocated to cell edge users, while another two are assigned to cell center users with different transmitter power. Then a parameter named interference avoidance factor (IAF) is defined to avoid ICI and adjust the number of allocated sub-carriers to match the number of users. The parameter also takes weight factor and fairness factor into consideration. Simulation results show the proposed scheme can improve the performance of cell edge users obviously.