A Study on Bandwidth Management and User Classification in Hotspot Scenarios

OFDMA-based networks allow for better spectral efficiency when mitigating Inter-Cell Interference (ICI). However, cell-edge users still suffer from interference due to the reuse of the bandwidth from adjacent cells, especially in scenarios with hotspots. The hotspots create a spatial resource management problem and due to its extraordinary nature, they are difficult to predict and plan for. This work studies the impact of user classification and sub-band allocation on the performance of a widely known FFR technique in scenarios with different hotspot deployments. We draw conclusions that can guide the design of future intelligent RAN solutions. For example, our results demonstrate the importance of dynamically tuning both parameters, since the lack of it can lead to a loss of up to 30% in throughput. We also show that relying on SINR alone for driving dynamic solutions can lead to a waste of resources and lower throughput.