A Beamforming Codebook Restriction for Cross-Tier Interference Coordination in Two-Tier Femtocell Networks

Abstract

This paper examines a novel multichannel multi-antenna-based cross-tier interference coordination strategy for two-tier femtocell networks. To reduce the cross-tier interference and improve the aggregate throughput of two-tier femtocell networks without exchanging feedback information by backhauling, we propose a beamforming codebook restriction strategy. The beamforming codebook restriction strategy enables the femtocell users to select the best channel that is robust to cross-tier interference before the transmission by reducing the size of the macrocell beamforming codebook. Although restricting the beamforming codebook increases the quantization error for macrocell users, the opportunistic channel selection strategy and the proportional fair scheduler compensate for the increased quantization error by exploiting the channel selection diversity gain and the multiuser diversity gain. Both analytical and numerical results demonstrate that the proposed strategies collaboratively improve the aggregate throughput of two-tier femtocell networks.