Resource allocation with interference coordination for relay-aided cellular orthogonal frequency division multiple access systems

Deployment of relay nodes (RNs) in cellular orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems provides an effective solution to increase high data rate coverage and improve cell throughput. However, a challenging issue is that additional interferences caused by RNs may substantially compromise the performance gain if no measure is taken. In this study, the authors address the problem of interference coordination in relay-aided cellular OFDMA systems, aiming at exploiting the benefits of RNs while minimising the negative effects of interferences introduced. The authors first analyse the possible interference scenarios in multi-cell systems. Based on the insights into their analysis, the authors propose resource allocation with interference coordination (RAIC) scheme for cellular OFDMA systems. RAIC selectively perform one of three resource allocation algorithms according to the offered traffic load in the system, to mitigate interferences and thus enhance system throughput. The authors conduct intensive simulation experiments based on the model with realistic broadband channel propagation conditions. Numerical results demonstrate that their proposed RAIC can effectively improve system throughput compared with the resource allocation schemes without appropriate interference coordination.