Performance evaluation of inter-cell interference coordination with multiple interference pattern based on proportional fair criteria

To support the continuous growth of mobile traffic, small cell deployments, which increase the base station (BS) density holds great promise. In small cell deployments, the combined usage of user association and inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) is inevitable. This paper investigates the joint optimization of user association and various ICIC schemes based on the computer simulation. Our evaluation includes the partial frequency reuse and soft frequency reuse as ICIC schemes. We also evaluate the influence of power reduction, user density, and user distribution. Based on the simulation results, it is beneficial to employ "soft" frequency reuse (without completely stopping the transmission) and apply our ICIC optimization scheme to obtain good performance from the viewpoint of proportional fairness.