Analysis and design of spectrum sharing in cognitive femtocell networks

The deployment of femtocells enhances cellular coverage but requires careful design of spectrum sharing between macrocells and femtocells. In this paper, we consider a self-organizing framework of several femtocells coexisting with a macrocell and study the performance of the network in terms of data rates and interference. We introduce a femto interference-free zone and discuss its influences on the performance of femtocell networks. Additionally, we compare non-cognitive and cognitive femtocells and show the benefits of enabling cognitive capability. Furthermore, we provide design guidelines for cognitive femtocell networks based on our analysis. Simulation results are given to validate our analysis and demonstrate the design tradeoffs.