Cognition and Docition in OFDMA-Based Femtocell Networks

Abstract

We address the coexistence problem between macrocell and femtocell systems by controlling the aggregated interference generated by multiple femtocell base stations at the macrocell receivers in a distributed fashion. We propose a solution based on intelligent and self-organized femtocells implementing a realtime multi-agent reinforcement learning technique, known as decentralized Q- learning. We compare this cognitive approach to a non-cognitive algorithm and to the well known iterative water- filling, showing the general superiority of our scheme in terms of (non-jeopardized) macrocell capacity. Furthermore, in distributed settings of such femtocell networks, the learning may be complex and slow due to mutually impacting decision making processes, which results in a non-stationary environment. We propose a timely solution -referred to as docition- to improve the learning process based on the concept of teaching and expert knowledge sharing in wireless environments. We demonstrate that such an approach improves the femtocells' learning ability and accuracy. We evaluate the docitive paradigm in the context of a 3GPP compliant OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) femtocell network modeled as a multi-agent system. We propose different docitive algorithms and we show their superiority to the well known paradigm of independent learning in terms of speed of convergence and precision.