Performance evaluation of a coordinated time-domain eICIC framework based on ABSF in heterogeneous LTE-Advanced networks

Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) is a proposed framework by the 3GPP to handle Inter-Cell Interference (ICI) in heterogeneous network (HetNet) environments. Almost-blank subframe (ABSF) is one of the time-domain techniques proposed in the eICIC framework as a candidate for deployment in LTE release 10 (LTE-Advanced). In this paper, a comprehensive ABSF framework is proposed to mitigate the interference in HetNet environments comprised of macro-cells and femto-cells. The ABSF framework proposes a tracking procedure to mark and unmark the macro-cell victim users. Also, new control message to coordinate between macro-cells and femto-cells is proposed, a novel approach to trigger the ABSF mode at aggressor Home eNBs (HeNBs), and enhancements to the macro-cell scheduling process. Finally, a novel approach for the estimation of victim users´ signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) level during ABSF is proposed based on the well-known discrete Kalman filter. The performance evaluation results show that the proposed ABSF framework significantly improves the throughput of the macro-cell victim users with a slight degradation in the throughput of the femto-cells.