Power control in HetNets and cognitive networks

In order to meet the demand for increased capacity in wireless networks, incorporating femtocells within the coverage of macrocells constitutes one of the strategies that currently receives most attention from both industry and academia. Femtocells may either be part of a HetNet as standardised within 3GPP, or constitute the secondary system in cognitive networks. Power control is a useful mechanism to allow efficient communications within both femto- and macrocells, but should be designed differently in the two cases. The performance of two different power control algorithms suitable for 3GPP femtocells and cognitive femtocells, respectively, is considered in this publication.