Issue No. 11 - Nov. (2013 vol. 12)
ISSN: 1536-1233
pp: 2233-2246
Francesco Pantisano , University of Oulu, Oulu and University of Bologna, Bologna
Mehdi Bennis , University of Oulu, Oulu
Walid Saad , University of Oulu, Oulu and University of Miami, Coral Gables
Merouane Debbah , Supelec, Gif-sur-Yvette
Matti Latva-aho , University of Oulu, Oulu
ABSTRACT
The use of small cells serviced by low-power base stations such as femtocells is envisioned to improve the spectrum efficiency and the coverage of next-generation mobile wireless networks. However, one of the major challenges in femtocell deployments is managing interference. In this paper, we propose a novel cooperative solution that enables femtocells to improve their achievable data rates, by suppressing intratier interference using the concept of interference alignment (IA). We model this cooperative behavior among the femtocells as a coalitional game in partition form and we propose a distributed algorithm for the coalition formation. The proposed algorithm allows the femtocell base stations to independently decide on whether to cooperate or not, while maximizing a utility function capturing both the gains and costs from cooperation. Using the proposed algorithm, the femtocells can self-organize into a stable network partition composed of disjoint femtocell coalitions and which constitutes the recursive core of the game. Inside every coalition, cooperative femtocells use advanced IA techniques to improve their downlink transmission rate. Simulation results show that the proposed coalition formation algorithm yields significant gains, in terms of average payoff per femtocell, reaching up to 30 percent relative to the noncooperative case for a network of $(N=300)$ femtocells.
INDEX TERMS
Interference, Games, Femtocell networks, Mobile computing, Wireless networks, Transmitters, Downlink,recursive core, Emerging technologies, wireless communication, mobile communication systems, femtocell networks, interference alignment, game theory, coalitional games, partition form
CITATION
Francesco Pantisano, Mehdi Bennis, Walid Saad, Merouane Debbah, Matti Latva-aho, "Interference Alignment for Cooperative Femtocell Networks: A Game-Theoretic Approach", IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 12, no. , pp. 2233-2246, Nov. 2013, doi:10.1109/TMC.2012.196