Interference management in LTE femtocell systems using Fractional Frequency Reuse

TLDR

LTE femtocells extend indoor coverage, but they create interference with macrocells that must be addressed. The paper proposes an interference‑management scheme for LTE femtocell systems using Fractional Frequency Reuse. The scheme uses FFR by having the macrocell allocate frequency bands and the femtocell select sub‑bands unused in the macrocell sub‑area to avoid interference. Simulations demonstrate that the scheme improves total and edge throughputs and lowers overall outage probability, particularly for cell‑edge users.

Abstract

Recently, Long Term Evolution (LTE) has developed a femtocell for indoor coverage extension. However, interference problem between the femtocell and the macrocell should be solved in advance. In this paper, we propose an interference management scheme in the LTE femtocell systems using Fractional Frequency Reuse (FFR). Under the macrocell allocating frequency band by the FFR, the femtocell chooses sub-bands which are not used in the macrocell sub-area to avoid interference. Simulation results show that proposed scheme enhances total/edge throughputs and reduces the outage probability in overall network, especially for the cell edge users.