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wideband LTE (20 MHz), South Korea's mobile market is hotter than ever with its big 3 operators competing fiercely in
speed and quality (see Netmanias Report, LTE in Korea UPDATE - May 1, 2014). Operators can offer different maximum
speeds depending on how wide frequency bandwidths they can actually use. All three, with pretty much same amount of
LTE frequency bandwidths obtained, practically support the same maximum speeds.
However, these theoretical maximum speeds are not available to users in real life. What users experience, i.e., Quality of
Experience (QoE) is affected by various factors, and so the actual QoE is far from the maximum speeds. One of the
biggest factors that causes such quality degradation is Inter-cell Interference.
In 2G/3G networks, it was base station controllers, i.e., upper nodes of base stations, that control inter-cell
interference. In 4G networks like LTE/LTE-A, however, inter-cell interference can be controlled through coordination
among base stations. This was made possible because now LTE networks have X2 interfaces defined between base
stations. By exchanging interference information over these X2 interfaces, base stations now can schedule radio
resources in a way that avoids inter-cell interference.1
There are several Interference Coordination technologies in LTE and LTE-A:
LTE-A: Enhanced ICIC (eICIC) which is an adjusted version of ICIC for HetNet, and Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) which
uses Channel Status Information (CSI) reported by UE
In this and next few posts, we will learn more about these Interference Coordination technologies. First, let's find out
ICIC, the most basic interference coordination technology.
resource2 (fi, fiF). As seen in the figure below, if the two UEs are located in cell centers like A2 and B2, no interference is
caused because they use low power to communicate. However, if they are at cell edges like A1 and B1, their signals
cause interference for each other because the two use high power to communicate.
Interference is caused because cells only know what radio resources their own UEs are using, and not what other UEs in
the neighbor cells are using. For example, in the figure above, Cell A knows what resources A1 is using, but not about
what B1 is using, and vice versa. And the cells independently schedule radio resources for their own UEs. So, to the UEs
at cell edges (A1 in Cell A and B1 in Cell B), same frequency resource can be allocated.
ICIC Concept
ICIC is defined in 3GPP release 8 as an interference coordination technology used in LTE systems. It reduces inter-cell
interference by having UEs, at the same cell edge but belonging to different cells, use different frequency resources. Base
stations that support this feature can generate interference information for each frequency resource (RB), and exchange
the information with neighbor base stations through X2 messages. Then, from the messages, the neighbor stations can
learn the interference status of their neighbors, and allocate radio resources (frequency, Tx power, etc.) to their UEs in a
way that would avoid inter-cell interference.
For instance, let's say a UE belonging to Cell A is using high Tx power on frequency resouce (f3) at the cell edge. With
ICIC, Cell B then allocates a different frequency resource (f2) to its UE at the cell edge, and f3 to its other UE at the cell
center, having the one at the center use low Tx power in communicating.
RNTP: Indicates frequency resources (RBs) that will be using high Tx power for DL during the next ICIC period. Power
strength of each RB is measured over the current ICIC period and shown in bits (0: low, 1: high). For example, the
strength can be averaged over the current ICIC period.
HII: Indicates frequency resources (RBs) that will be using high Tx power for UL during the next ICIC period, just like
RNTP, but for UL this time. RBs with high allocated power are used by UEs at cell edges, and thus are very likely to cause
interference for neighbor cells. The power strength of each RB is measured and shown in bits (0: low, 1: high).
OI: Indicates frequency resources (RBs) that have experienced most interference during the last ICIC period. Degree of
interference caused to each RB is measured and marked as Low, Medium or High.
RNTP and HII are information about interference to be caused by a cell to its neighbor cell. However, OI is information
about interference that has already been caused by the neighbor cell to the cell during the last ICIC period.
HII information is mandatory and serves as the most important information.
Footnotes
1. Over X2 interfaces, not only interference information, but also information on handover, resource status, neighbor
cells, etc., can be exchanged. However, only interference information is discussed here in this post.
2. Frequency resources are allocated in resource blocks (RBs). In this post, RBs (or sub-carriers) that are allocated to
UEi are referred to as fi.
3. 3GPP TS 36.423