Joint load balancing, intercell interference coordination, and scheduling in pico cell heterogeneous networks

We formulate the problem of centralized, jointly optimized user-to-cell association, time-domain inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC), and user scheduling in a picocell heterogeneous network. We develop a simple (but suboptimal) algorithm for solving the above problem, which iterates between a greedy algorithm for determining the user-to-cell association and user scheduling for fixed ICIC parameters, and a Frank-Wolfe-based algorithm for optimizing the ICIC parameters and user scheduling for fixed user-to-cell association. Simulation results illustrate the gains in median and edge rate gains achievable with this algorithm.