Pricing Game for Time Mute in Femto–Macro Coexistent Networks

In heterogenous networks, intercell interference coordination (ICIC) is a big challenge. This paper presents an analytical framework to evaluate power control and time mute schemes in closed access femto and macro coexistent networks. We use stochastic geometry to model the downlink scenario and derive the coverage probability of indoor macro users and femto users. The optimal operating parameters for altruistic power control and time mute schemes are achieved. Considering the selfishness of the owners of femtos, we formulate the two-tier interference coordination as pricing games and obtain the closed-form of Nash equilibria. Simulation results demonstrate the influence of different parameters on the performance of ICIC schemes and show that when target SINR ≥ 3 dB, the time mute scheme outperforms the power control scheme in handling the indoor macro user coverage problem.