Dynamic eICIC - A Proactive Strategy for Improving Spectral Efficiencies of Heterogeneous LTE Cellular Networks by Leveraging User Mobility and Traffic Dynamics

Enhanced Inter-cell Interference Co-ordination (eICIC) is a time-domain multiplexing technique for improving the performance of legacy co-channel Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets). eICIC offers several benefits, including a more equitable distribution of user traffic across the macro and embedded pico cells (i.e., load balancing), in turn leading to better pico cell utilizations and better edge user throughputs. eICIC uses two mechanisms to achieve load balancing: (i) a cell selection bias to increase the pico coverage area, enabling the pico to attract more users, and (ii) macro muting ("Almost Blank Sub-frame", ABS) to improve SINRs of range extended pico users. Network load in the cellular system varies continuously as a result of user mobility and traffic dynamics (the varying amount of data pending for a user - arising from packet arrivals and eventual departures). Previous work did not consider dynamically changing network conditions in HetNets. Hence, they studied the benefits of eICIC over legacy HetNets arising from static optimization of eICIC parameters. Our approach is dynamic, and further improves performance by keeping the HetNet continuously optimized for improved user experience, by adapting the ABS in response to dynamic variations in network load. We present several analytical formulations, which allow for simple optimizations and an intuitive understanding of the desired system response to load variation. Exhaustive system simulations illustrate the performance gains along different dimensions, such as spectral efficiency, fairness, mean file transfer times, number of file transmissions, number of file drops, and mean queue lengths. Furthermore, we study the impact of different mobility scenarios, traffic mixes, and adaptation rate. We also provide a brief discussion of practical considerations in implementing Dynamic eICIC.