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This paper proposes a reduced-complexity multichannel assignment scheme for short-range cellular systems. It treats the scenario when a number of small-cell (e.g., femtocell) access points (APs) can be shared to serve active scheduled users. The APs employ isotropic antenna arrays and operate using an open-access control strategy. To improve the reuse ratio of physical resources, the APs are assumed to occupy a single physical channel, wherein coordination among them is infeasible. On the other hand, to improve the spatial coverage, a scheduled user can be served by a single transmit channel from an AP at a time. For the case of overloaded APs and when the feedback links are capacity limited, the scheme attempts to identify the suitable transmit channels from the deployed APs in an adaptive manner such that certain performance and/or processing load limits are satisfied. The effects of some system and design parameters on the outcomes of the scheme are thoroughly discussed. Novel results for the statistics of the resulting interference power are presented, from which results for some performance measures and processing loads are obtained. Numerical and simulations results are provided to clarify the achieved gains, as compared with related models under different operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the effect of various operation parameters on the downlink user performance in overlaid small-cell networks. The case study considers closed-access small cells (e.g., femtocells), wherein only active authorized user equipment (UE) can be served, each of which is allocated a single downlink channel at a time. On the other hand, the macrocell base station can unconditionally serve macrocell UEs that exist inside its coverage space. The available channels can be shared simultaneously in the macrocell network and the femtocell network. Moreover, a channel can be reused only at the macrocell base station. The analysis provides quantitative approaches to model UE identities, their likelihoods of being active, and their likelihoods of producing interference, considering UE classifications, locations, and access capabilities. Moreover, it develops models for various interference sources observed from effective interference femtocells, considering femtocells capacities and operation conditions. The associated formulations to describe a desired UE performance and the impact of the number of available channels and the adopted channel assignment approach are thoroughly investigated. The results are generally presented for any channel models of interference sources and the desired source of the served UE. Moreover, specific channel models are then adopted, for which generalized closed-form analytical results for the desired UE outage probability performance are obtained. Numerical and simulation results are presented to further clarify the main outcomes of the developed analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) are envisioned to enable next-generation cellular networks by providing higher spectral and energy efficiency. A HetNet is typically composed of multiple radio access technologies where several low-power low-cost operators or user-deployed small-cell base stations (SBSs) complement the macrocell network. In this paper, we consider a two-tier HetNet where the SBSs are arranged around the edge of the reference macrocell such that the resultant configuration is referred to as cell-on-edge (COE). Each mobile user in a small cell is considered capable of adapting its uplink transmit power according to a location-based slow power control mechanism. The COE configuration is observed to increase the uplink area spectral efficiency (ASE) and energy efficiency while reducing the cochannel interference power. A moment-generating-function (MGF)-based approach has been exploited to derive the analytical bounds on the uplink ASE of the COE configuration. The derived expressions are generalized for any composite fading distribution, and closed-form expressions are presented for the generalized- \cal K fading channels. Simulation results are included to support the analysis and to show the efficacy of the COE configuration. A comparative performance analysis is also provided to demonstrate the improvements in the performance of cell-edge users of the COE configuration compared with that of macro-only networks (MoNets) and other unplanned deployment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the problem of energy efficiency in cellular heterogeneous networks (HetNets) is investigated using radio resource and power management combined with the base station (BS) ON/OFF switching. The objective is to minimize the total power consumption of the network while satisfying the quality of service requirements of each connected user. We consider the case of coexisting macrocell BS, small cell BSs, and private femtocell access points (FAPs). Three different network scenarios are investigated, depending on the status of the FAPs, i.e., HetNets without FAPs, HetNets with closed FAPs, and HetNets with semiclosed FAPs. A unified framework is proposed to simultaneously allocate spectrum resources to users in an energy efficient manner and switch OFF redundant small cell BSs. The high complexity dual decomposition technique is employed to achieve optimal solutions for the problem. A low complexity iterative algorithm is also proposed and its performances are compared to those of the optimal technique. The particularly interesting case of semiclosed FAPs, in which the FAPs accept to serve external users, achieves the highest energy efficiency due to increased degrees of freedom. In this paper, a cooperation scheme between FAPs and mobile operator is also investigated. The incentives for FAPs, e.g., renewable energy sharing and roaming prices, enabling cooperation are discussed to be considered as a useful guideline for interoperator agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]