Energy-Efficient Interference Mitigation with Hierarchical Partial Coordination for MIMO Heterogeneous Networks

In heterogenous networks (HetNets), the deployment of small cells with the reuse of limited frequency resources to improve the spectral efficiency results in cross- and co-tier interference. In addition, the excessive power usage in such networks is also a critical problem. In this paper, we propose precoding and postcoding schemes to tackle interference and energy efficiency (EE) challenges in the two-tier downlink multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) HetNets. We propose transmission strategies based on hierarchical partial coordination (HPC) of the macro cell and small cells to reduce channel state information (CSI) exchange and guarantee the quality of service (QoS) in the upper tier with any change of network deployment in the lower tier. We employ the interference alignment (IA) scheme to cancel cross- and co-tier interference. Additionally, to maximize the EE, power allocation schemes in each tier are proposed based on a combination of Dinkelbach's method and the bisection searching approach. To investigate insights on the optimization problem, a theoretical analysis on the relationship between the maximum achievable EE and the transmit power is derived. Simulation results prove the superior EE performance of the proposed EE maximization scheme over the sum rate maximization approach and confirm the validity of our theoretical findings.