An auction approach to resource allocation with interference coordination in LTE-A systems

We propose a resource allocation scheme based on the auction algorithm that aims at minimizing inter-cell interference (ICI) in multi-carrier LTE-A systems. The prices paid for resources by cell-edge users are infrequently exchanged between adjacent cells to help deciding who needs a specific resource the most. Furthermore, the Relative Narrowband Transmit Power (RNTP) indicator that is exchanged between cells in the LTE-A system is exploited to minimize the information exchange rate. When RNTP is used, only resources that suffer interference higher than a certain threshold are considered in the price exchange mechanism. Performance evaluation results show that the proposed scheme significantly improves the cell-edge throughput. The use of RNTP not only minimizes the exchange overhead, especially in a multi-carrier scenario, but it also improves the system performance as the cell neighbors would not avoid using a resource unless they are the culprit interferers to the original cell that uses it.