Dynamic power control for balanced data traffic with coverage in femtocell networks

Abstract

Femtocell networks can supplement the conventional cellular system with massive data communication in an indoor environment. In this paper, we consider the indoor coverage and load balance problem of femto base stations in order to provide better quality of service. By exploiting the Voronoi diagram, we can achieve maximal indoor coverage with minimized maximum required transmit power, which results in reduced interference. Our algorithm can adopt any radio propagation model to achieve more accurate coverage for an indoor environment with various obstacles. Time varying data traffic may cause unbalanced data load of base stations producing traffic overload. Our dynamic power control algorithm redistributes the data load by automatically adjusting transmit power levels according to data traffic estimation while preserving coverage. Simulations show that the proposed scheme achieves better coverage, reduced interference, and good load balance compared to previous algorithms.