In multi-cell OFDMA-based networks, co-channel interference (CCI) is inevitable when the frequency reuse scheme is used. The CCI affects the performance of users, especially that of cell edge users. Several frequency reuse schemes and subcarrier allocation algorithms have been proposed to solve the CCI problem. Nevertheless, it is difficult to improve both the cell capacity and the performance of cell edge users since they have a trade-off. In this paper, we propose a new balanced frequency reuse (BFR) as a new frequency partitioning scheme that gives more power to the users in the outer region and allocates more subcarriers to the users in the inner region. In addition, we propose ordering and directional subcarrier allocation (ODSA) for our frequency partitioning proposal to mitigate the CCI effectively when cells have heterogeneous traffic loads. The performance of the proposed BFR with the ODSA algorithm is investigated via analyses and simulations. Performance evaluation shows that the proposed BFR with the ODSA algorithm can increase both the spectral efficiency and the performance of cell edge users if the transmission power is appropriately handled.

Multichannel MAC protocols with a single control channel in a cognitive radio ad hoc network (CRAN) suffer from the bottleneck problem. So a multichannel MAC protocol that can realize a virtual control channel on all available channels is preferred. Discontiguous-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (D-OFDM) enables multiple data to be sent and received on discontiguous multiple channels. In this paper, we propose a new cooperative multichannel MAC (CM-MAC) protocol using D-OFDM in a CRAN. In the proposed CM-MAC protocol, a new approach utilizing multiple discontiguous control channels is presented and a remedy to tackle new collision types by the approach using D-OFDM is provided. The proposed mechanism mitigates the bottleneck problem of the protocol using single control channel, but does not need to share hopping patterns between a sender and a receiver. In addition, cooperative communications with relays reduce the time required to send the data of low-rate secondary users (SUs) by enabling relay SUs to relay the data of source SUs. The proposed CM-MAC protocol is shown to enhance throughput. Analysis and simulations indicate that throughput performance improves compared to the MAC protocol using the split phase control channel (SPCC) approach.