  Next generation cellular networks will be heterogeneous with dense deployment
of small cells in order to deliver high data rate per unit area. Traffic
variations are more pronounced in a small cell, which in turn lead to more
dynamic interference to other cells. It is crucial to adapt radio resource
management to traffic conditions in such a heterogeneous network (HetNet). This
paper studies the optimization of spectrum allocation in HetNets on a
relatively slow timescale based on average traffic and channel conditions
(typically over seconds or minutes). Specifically, in a cluster with $n$ base
transceiver stations (BTSs), the optimal partition of the spectrum into $2^n$
segments is determined, corresponding to all possible spectrum reuse patterns
in the downlink. Each BTS's traffic is modeled using a queue with Poisson
arrivals, the service rate of which is a linear function of the combined
bandwidth of all assigned spectrum segments. With the system average packet
sojourn time as the objective, a convex optimization problem is first
formulated, where it is shown that the optimal allocation divides the spectrum
into at most $n$ segments. A second, refined model is then proposed to address
queue interactions due to interference, where the corresponding optimal
allocation problem admits an efficient suboptimal solution. Both allocation
schemes attain the entire throughput region of a given network. Simulation
results show the two schemes perform similarly in the heavy-traffic regime, in
which case they significantly outperform both the orthogonal allocation and the
full-frequency-reuse allocation. The refined allocation shows the best
performance under all traffic conditions.
