Load-aware Antenna Power Level Control for Wireless Forward Link Data Services

[[abstract]]We propose power level control schemes to improve the forward link data throughput of mobile users in cell edges where inter-cell interference is significant. We assume that the antenna power of base station (BS) can be adjusted to full power (high power level), reduced power (low power level), and no power. We then propose algorithms by which the cell with the highest loading is first chosen to transmit at high power level while some of its neighboring cells with lighter loading are chosen to transmit at low power level. Such a procedure is repeated until each BS antenna is set to a proper power level. We further assume that the information of sectorized loading is available and then modify the proposed algorithms taking into account the information. Based on numerical data all obtained from simulations, we study the performance of the proportional fair scheduling under proposed power level control schemes. Results show that our schemes are able to achieve more favorable delay-throughput characteristics, less interference holes, and traffic hot-spot relief.