Interference minimization algorithms for fifth generation and beyond systems

5G and beyond (5G+) systems promise to provide better real-time services, efficient spectrum utilization, energy efficiency, and enhanced coverage. An ultra-dense small cells (SCs) network is an exceptional approach to serve these requirements; however, comes with the undesirable price of system interference. Therefore, achieving a target data rate with minimal total system interference is a key research problem facing this generation. This paper utilizes the concept of associating SCs with network flying platforms (NFPs) such as unmanned balloons, drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Each of these act as hubs between the core network and SCs. The association problem of SCs with NFPs is investigated while taking into consideration the following constraints: the number of NFP links, the NFP's maximum bandwidth, whether a target data rate is maintained, etc. The goal of this work is to study the association problem of SCs with NFPs in order to achieve a minimized total interference. Two variants are discussed in this research. These are NP-hard problems that can be solved numerically using Integer Linear Programming to obtain the optimal solution. The first variant minimizes total interference while satisfying each SC data rate target and the second variant is to minimize the total interference while maintaining the system total sum rate target. We propose the bipartite matching and local search based algorithms to obtain sub-optimal solutions with reduced complexity. Integer linear programming based solution is examined to compare the performance of the proposed solutions. Simulation results show lower interference levels which approaching the derived bound with minimum total interference.