Beyond eICIC-Two-Dimensional Resource Pattern Optimization for Macro-Femto Interference Avoidance

Typical interference avoidance methods in HetNets are arranging orthogonal resources between macrocell and small cells such as in frequency domain in inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) or time domain in enhanced ICIC (eICIC). However, wireless channels experience time-frequency fading appealing for a two dimensional resource allocation scheme. By optimizing the resource pattern based on variable channel conditions, plus the introduction of group lasso term, our scheme exploits channel variations in both frequency and time domains and as well avoid interference. By grouping the resources in our optimization model, our scheme is flexible and robust against heavy bursty traffic. It is also a lightweight (in terms of coordination overhead) and completely distributed approach, making it suitable for practical implementation. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposed method compared with sole frequency domain and time domain approaches.