A Game Theoretic Distributed Algorithm for FeICIC Optimization in LTE-A HetNets

To obtain good network performance in Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) heterogeneous networks (HetNets), enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) and further eICIC (FeICIC) have been proposed by LTE standardization bodies to address the entangled inter-cell interference and the user association problems. We propose the distributed algorithms based on the exact potential game framework for both eICIC and FeICIC optimizations. We demonstrate via simulations a 64% gain on energy efficiency (EE) achieved by eICIC and another 17% gain on EE achieved by FeICIC. We also show that FeICIC can bring other significant gains in terms of cell-edge throughput, spectral efficiency, and fairness among user throughputs. Moreover, we propose a downlink scheduler based on a cake-cutting algorithm that can further improve the performance of the optimization algorithms compared with conventional schedulers.