Joint ABS and user grouping allocation for HetNet with picocell deployment in downlink

In order to resolve the co-channel inter-cell interference problem in heterogeneous networks (HetNet), the feature of almost blank subframes (ABS) in the time domain of the enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) is utilized. In this paper, an ABS configuration design is developed on downlink in HetNet and the associated resource allocation problem for maximizing the system performance with fairness among user equipments (UEs) is considered. Compared to conventional problems, the resource assignment problems include the configuration of ABS pattern and the resource allocation for macro UEs and pico UEs, which aims to maximize the downlink throughput and balance the traffic offloading in intra-frequency HetNet deployments. First, this paper introduces an ABS pattern design by using the channel condition, which is developed in terms of the time domain resource. Subframes are categorized as protected or normal subframes for reducing interference impact to pico UEs. Based on the configuration of the ABS pattern, we develop a grouping strategy to determine which pico UEs use either protected or normal subframes. Besides, the assignment of resource blocks with respect to the resource in the frequency domain is developed along with the fairness among UEs. The proposed joint allocation scheme takes the system throughput and the fairness into account, and has better performance than the existing schemes. Simulation results also reveal that the performance of the proposed joint allocation scheme approximates the optimal solution with the full search scheme.