Traffic-based adaptive resource management for eICIC and CRE in heterogeneous networks

Joint enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) and cell range expansion (CRE) for co-channel deployed macro-cells and pico-cells is a prospective strategy to increase both system capacity and coverage. However, fixed muting ratio and CRE bias value are not always appropriate due to the varying network load. In this paper, two adaptive resource management schemes are proposed in which the muting ratio and CRE bias value can be adjusted dynamically according to the channel capacity and traffic requirements. The centralized scheme is performed at the macro-eNBs (evolved Node B) while the distributed scheme is performed at pico-eNBs. It is demonstrated by the system level simulation that significant performance gains can be achieved under the proposed schemes in both the sector total throughput and the cell-edge user equipment throughput. In addition, control overhead is reduced by the distributed scheme and its performance is close to the centralized scheme when the network load is imbalanced.