An Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation Algorithm with QoS Constraints for Heterogeneous Networks

In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient resource allocation scheme for multi-channel multi- cell networks. Our objective is to maximize the network energy efficiency subject to the minimum rate constraints for each user. We take into account both the static and transmit power consumption at base stations. We employ interference pricing and dual decomposition methods. The interference pricing scheme penalizes the base stations based on their marginal costs of interference to other users. This is leveraged to mitigate inter-sector interference and determine the optimal power levels, realizing the objective. Using dual decomposition techniques, we enforce the minimum rate constraints to be satisfied. To achieve faster convergence, we employ the Levenberg-Marquardt method in the power control phase. The proposed framework employs the fractional frequency reuse (FFR) scheme. We sequentially determine the cell-center boundaries, schedule the users in the frequency domain, and solve the power control problem. Simulation results demonstrate that the network energy efficiency can be significantly improved while reducing the user outages compared to the non-cooperative power allocation scheme.