Network-Assisted Radio Resource Management for Cell-Edge Performance Enhancement

Abstract

A number of network-level techniques have been proposed to mitigate inter-cell interference and improve throughput for cell-edge users in wide-area wireless data networks. To facilitate the coordination among base stations (BSs), we propose a new radio-resource management framework where cell-edge users and cell-interior users are separately managed by two different radio-resource managers (RRM). In the proposed framework, we address the issue of how to classify a user as cell-edge user or cell-interior user, and how much radio resource the cell-edge users may occupy. We present a solution where a user switches the RRM so as to maximize overall network throughput subject to the condition that her own throughput does not decrease upon switching. We verify our solution using analysis and simulation experiments, and demonstrate that our solution can guarantee superior cell-edge performance and achieve high network throughput.