FCRA: Femtocell Cluster-based Resource Allocation Scheme for OFDMA Networks

Recently, operators have resorted to femtocell networks in order to enhance indoor coverage and quality of service since macro-antennas fail to reach these objectives. Nevertheless, they are confronted to many challenges to make a success of femtocells deployment. In this paper, we address the issue of resources allocation in femtocell networks using OFDMA technology (e. g., WiMAX, LTE). Specifically, we propose a hybrid centralized/distributed resource allocation strategy namely Femtocell Cluster-based Resource Allocation (FCRA). Firstly, FCRA builds disjoint femtocell clusters. Then, within a cluster the optimal resource allocation for each femtocell is performed by its cluster-head. Finally, the contingent collisions among different clusters are fixed. To achieve this, we formulate the problem mathematically as Min-Max optimization problem. Performance analysis shows that FCRA converges to the optimal solution in small-sized networks and outperforms two prominent related schemes (C-DFP and DRA) in large-sized ones. The results concern the throughput satisfaction rate, the spectrum spatial reuse, and the convergence time metrics.