Self-optimized radio resource management techniques for LTE-A local area deployments

One of the most promising solutions to improve the performance of wireless networks is the extensive deployment of small size cells, such as femtocells. The expected uncoordinated femtocells deployment makes the Inter-Cell Interference (ICI) management a very critical issue, since it is the most limiting factor in such a scenario, in particular for users in bad conditions. This paper presents a Flexible Spectrum Usage (FSU) algorithm for Local Area (LA) scenarios that aims at limiting the downlink ICI, so that to achieve high system performance while guaranteeing good performance also to users in worst conditions, thanks also to the use of a power control mechanism. This algorithm behaves in a self-optimized and self-configuring manner, allowing the base stations to react autonomously to changes in the surrounding environment and without the necessity of a preplanned spectrum assignment to the various cells.