Most recently proposed wireless dynamic channel allocation methods have used carrier-to-interference (C/I) information to increase the system performance. Power control is viewed as essential for interference-limited systems. However, the performance of such systems under an imbalance of load among cells, as may occur often in microcells, is largely unknown. Here, we study a typical interference-limited dynamic channel allocation policy. Calls are accepted if a channel can be assigned that will provide a minimum C/I, and power control and intracell handoffs are used to maintain this level. We focus on the relationship between system performance and the amount of imbalance in load among neighboring cells. Previous studies for systems that do not use C/I information have found that dynamic channel allocation (DCA) outperforms fixed channel allocation (FCA) in all but heavily loaded systems with little load imbalance. We present two principal new results. First, we find that with use of C/I information, the difference in performance between FCA and DCA (in terms of throughput or blocking probability) is increasing with load imbalance. DCA was found to be more effective in congestion control at the cost of a slightly lower call quality. Second, we find that use of power control to maintain a minimum C/I results in two equilibrium average power levels for both DCA and FCA, with DCA using a higher average power than FCA, and that while DCA's power is increasing with load imbalance, FCA's average power is decreasing with load imbalance.
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