In a two tier cellular network - comprised of a central macrocell underlaid with shorter range femtocell hotspots - cross-tier interference limits overall capacity with universal frequency reuse. To quantify near-far effects with universal frequency reuse, this paper derives a fundamental relation providing the largest feasible cellular Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), given any set of feasible femtocell SINRs. We provide a link budget analysis which enables simple and accurate performance insights in a two-tier network. A distributed utility- based SINR adaptation at femtocells is proposed in order to alleviate cross-tier interference at the macrocell from cochannel femtocells. The Foschini-Miljanic (FM) algorithm is a special case of the adaptation. Each femtocell maximizes their individual utility consisting of a SINR based reward less an incurred cost (interference to the macrocell). Numerical results show greater than 30% improvement in mean femtocell SINRs relative to FM. In the event that cross-tier interference prevents a cellular user from obtaining its SINR target, an algorithm is proposed that reduces transmission powers of the strongest femtocell interferers. The algorithm ensures that a cellular user achieves its SINR target even with 100 femtocells/cell-site (with typical cellular parameters) and requires a worst case SINR reduction of only 16% at femtocells. These results motivate design of power control schemes requiring minimal network overhead in two-tier networks with shared spectrum.

Power control in two-tier femtocell networks

Transmit power in wireless cellular networks is a key degree of freedom in the management of interference, energy, and connectivity. Power control in both the uplink and downlink of a cellular network has been extensively studied, especially over the last 15 years, and some of the results have enabled the continuous evolution and significant impact of the digital cellular technology.

This survey provides a comprehensive discussion of the models, algorithms, analysis, and methodologies in this vast and growing literature. It starts with a taxonomy of the wide range of power control problem formulations, and progresses from the basic formulation to more sophisticated ones. When transmit power is the only set of optimization variables, algorithms for fixed SIR are presented first, before turning to their robust versions and joint SIR and power optimization. This is followed by opportunistic and non-cooperative power control. Then joint control of power together with beamforming pattern, base station assignment, spectrum allocation, and transmit schedule is surveyed\break one-by-one.

Throughout the survey, we highlight the use of mathematical language and tools in the study of power control, including optimization theory, control theory, game theory, and linear algebra. Practical implementations of some of the algorithms in operational networks are discussed in the concluding section. As illustrated by the open problems presented at the end of most chapters, in the area of power control in cellular networks, there are still many under-explored directions and unresolved issues that remain theoretically challenging and practically important..

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Power Control in Wireless Cellular Networks

The current rate of deployment of wireless networks - whether cellular, LAN, Bluetooth, or sensor - is remarkable. Wireless systems are vulnerable to many kinds of attack, and the security features of fixed-line systems are not always applicable in the wireless arena. With ever-increasing amounts of data being carried on wireless networks, security has become a major concern and an area of great commercial importance. This book presents the key features of wireless networks and discusses various techniques for ensuring secure communication. In particular, techniques for dealing with hacking and other forms of attack will be dealt with, as will cooperation in multi-hop and ad hoc networks. It is suitable for senior undergraduates and graduate students of electrical engineering and computer science. Given the breadth of coverage, it will also appeal to researchers and practitioners in the wireless industry.

Security and Cooperation in Wireless Networks: Thwarting Malicious and Selfish Behavior in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing

System-centric modeling and analysis are of key significance in planning and optimizing cellular networks. In this paper, we provide a mathematical analysis of performance modeling for LTE networks. The system model characterizes the coupling relation between the cell load factors, taking into account non-uniform traffic demand and interference between the cells with arbitrary network topology. Solving the model enables a network-wide performance evaluation in resource consumption. We develop and prove both sufficient and necessary conditions for the feasibility of the load-coupling system, and provide results related to computational aspects for numerically approaching the solution. The theoretical findings are accompanied with experimental results to instructively illustrate the application in optimizing LTE network configuration.

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Analysis of Cell Load Coupling for LTE Network Planning and Optimization

Radio planning and coverage optimization are critical issues for service providers and vendors that are deploying third generation mobile networks and need to control coverage as well as the huge costs involved. Due to the peculiarities of the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) scheme used in 3G cellular systems like UMTS and CDMA2000, network planning cannot be based only on signal predictions, and the approach relying on classical set covering formulations adopted for second generation systems is not appropriate.

In this paper we investigate mathematical programming models for supporting the decisions on where to install new base stations and how to select their configuration (antenna height and tilt, sector orientations, maximum emission power, pilot signal, etc.) so as to find a trade-off between maximizing coverage and minimizing costs. The overall model takes into account signal-quality constraints in both uplink and downlink directions, as well as the power control mechanism and the pilot signal.

Since even small and simplified instances of this NP-hard problem are beyond the reach of state-of-the-art techniques for mixed integer programming, we propose a Tabu Search algorithm which provides good solutions within a reasonable computing time. Computational results obtained for realistic instances, generated according to classical propagation models, with different traffic scenarios (voice and data) are reported and discussed.

Radio planning and coverage optimization of 3G cellular networks

Accurate power control is an essential requirement in the design of cellular code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. In this paper, we contribute three main themes to the power control problem. First, we derive an efficient algorithm for computing minimal power levels for large-scale networks within seconds. Nice and intuitive conditions for the existence of feasible power solutions follow from this approach. Second, we define the capacity region of a network by the set of effective spreading gains, or data rates, respectively, which can be supplied by the network. This is achieved by bounding the spectral radius of a certain matrix containing system parameters and mutual transmission gain information. It is shown that the capacity region is a convex set. Finally, we reveal an interesting duality between the uplink and downlink capacity region. In a clear-cut analytical way, it substantiates the fact that the uplink is the more restricting factor in cellular radio networks. The same methods carry over to certain models of soft handover. In the case that the channel gains are subject to log-normal shadowing, we introduce the concept of level-/spl alpha/ capacity regions. Despite the complicated structure, it can still be shown that this set is sandwiched by two convex sets coming arbitrarily close as variance decreases.

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L.A. Imhof

Papers

Power control, capacity, and duality of uplink and downlink in cellular CDMA systems