A Generic Interference Model for Uplink OFDMA Networks With Fractional Frequency Reuse

Fractional frequency reuse (FFR) has emerged as a viable solution to coordinate and mitigate cochannel interference (CCI) in orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA)-based wireless cellular networks. The incurred CCI in cellular networks with FFR is highly uncertain and varies as a function of various design parameters that include the user scheduling schemes, the transmit power distribution among multiple allocated subcarriers, the partitioning of the cellular region into cell-edge and cell-center zones, the allocation of spectrum within each zone, and the channel reuse factors. To this end, this paper derives a generic analytical model for uplink CCI in multicarrier OFDMA networks with FFR. The derived expressions capture several network design parameters and are applicable to any composite fading-channel models. The accuracy of the derivations is verified via Monte Carlo simulations. Moreover, their usefulness is demonstrated by obtaining closed-form expressions for the Rayleigh fading-channel model and by evaluating important network performance metrics such as ergodic capacity. Numerical results provide useful system design guidelines and highlight the tradeoffs associated with the deployment of FFR schemes in OFDMA-based networks.