An algebraic framework for mobile association in wireless heterogeneous networks

Heterogeneous network via the deployment of a diverse set of base stations (BSs) has become a hot research topic to improve spectral efficiency and network capacity. In this paper, we consider a cellular network with multiple low-power relay nodes (RN) deployed in each cell to help the downlink transmission between the BS and the user equipments (UE). With conventional mobile association schemes, traffic load may concentrate on the BSs due to their high transmit power, leading to a highly unbalanced traffic load distribution and inefficient utilization of the RNs. We first derive a generalized algebraic framework for mobile association optimization of UEs, considering the load balance of BSs and RNs. In addition, we propose a greedy mobile association algorithm to accept UEs according to the effective consuming resource table. Simulation studies demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.