A Cluster-based Resource Allocation Scheme for OFDMA Femtocell Networks ⋆

When femtocells are deployed densely, the co-tier and cross-tier interference greatly impair the network performance in spectrum-sharing orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) femtocell networks. In order to solve this problem efficiently, a cluster-based resource allocation algorithm is proposed. First, the interference graph of femto-tier is built based on the measurement reports of femtocell users equipment (FUEs). Secondary, a coloring algorithm is implemented to construct disjoint clusters in which the frequency band can be reused to improve the spectrum efficiency. Once more, macrocell users equipment (MUEs) are assigned to the corresponding clusters, in which MUEs suffer minimal interference. Last, femtocells and macrocells allocate sub-channels to FUEs and MUEs according to their data rate requirements, respectively. Simulations show, compared with existing literatures, the proposed algorithm can well satisfy the quality of serve (QoS) of both FUEs and MUEs by mitigating interference.