Interference management based on cell clustering in ultra-highly dense small cell networks

In ultra-highly dense small cell networks scenarios of the evolving fifth generation (5G) cellular wireless systems, the inter-cell interference (ICI) management can become more challenging due to the ever decreasing distance between cells [1]. So this paper proposes an interference management scheme based on cell clustering, with collaboration complexity, feedback overhead, and exponential attenuation of interference with distance taking into consideration. The scheme starts by grouping these small cells overlaid under the macro cell into clusters, then, the intra-cluster and intercluster interference were mitigated based on collaboration in the same cluster and interference avoidance in frequency or time domain respectively. This paper also presents a new continuous interference graph weights based on Signal-to-Interference-and-Noise Ratio (SINR) and Signal-to-Othercell-Interference Ratio (SOIR). The new weights not only reflect the interference relationships between users, but also adaptively adjust the strategy of resource contention between interfering users. Moreover, the additional selection criterion for first cell is proposed based on the harmonic mean of distance. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme has better applicability and effectiveness compared with the traditional clustering scheme.