Interference coordination in SDN-based heterogeneous mobile networks

Abstract

Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) adopted into Long Term Evolution Advanced networks, have become major candidate for next generation mobile networks. In HetNets, resource and interference management techniques become crucial to ensure high spectral as well as power efficiencies for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) since they use frequency reuse of one and include cells that serve overlapping coverage regions. In this paper, we investigate a new architecture with emphasis on management applications of Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks (RANs) following Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm. After giving brief explanations about advanced interference management techniques (i.e., enhanced inter-cell interference cancellation (eICIC) and Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) transmission/reception) that are realized to top of the SDN/RAN controller, we present Monte-Carlo simulation results with the awareness of global view of the network infrastructure. Jain's fairness index and Shannon capacity are considered as key performance indicators. The simulation results indicate both fairness index and capacity value are improved with the use of eICIC technique and CoMP mechanism provides better service quality for cell-edge user equipments. SDN paradigm ensures realization of flexible architectures that can provide modular and pluggable platform for MNOs and we further provide joint evaluation of RAN controller's applications including radio resource management techniques.