Channel-aware inter-cell interference coordination for the uplink of 3G LTE networks

In this paper we propose a heuristic inter-cell coordination scheme for scheduling users in an opportunistic multi-cell network. The scheme is mainly designed to be implemented in the uplink of networks that utilize the Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) technology. The objective of the scheme is to coordinate the uplink transmission in neighboring cells such that inter-cell interference is mitigated and the aggregate utility of the mobile users is maximized. In addition to the heuristic approach we formulate the inter-cell scheduling coordination as an integer programming problem. While the optimal solution cannot be realized in practice due to the computational complexity, it provides good insights of how well different algorithms perform. Numerical results show that the proposed coordination method delivers near-optimal performance in the exemplified cases.