Intercell Interference Coordination for LTE Systems

Intercell interference coordination (ICIC) techniques not only help improve cellular data coverage but allow more efficient use of a valuable wireless spectrum as well. This paper investigates soft frequency reuse (SFR), which is a form of ICIC, for long-term evolution (LTE) systems. By analyzing the throughput of the SFR scheme, we find that classifying cell-edge users and cell-center users is critical. Thus, we develop low-complexity decentralized SFR scheduling algorithms that include optimal user classification and balance throughput and fairness among multiusers. We also propose suboptimal methods to reduce computational complexity. Computer simulation demonstrates that gains of the proposed SFR algorithm can improve the fifth percentile user throughput by 26% while maintaining the same cell average throughput, compared with a non-ICIC system.