such as macro, pico, and femto base stations (BSs), as well as
fixed relay stations in different tiers [1]. BSs in different tiers
have different transmit powers and coverages. For example, a
macrocell uses the highest power to provide large coverage,
while a femtocell is usually a low-power home BS intended
for short-range communications. Due to the co-channel spectrum
sharing between different tiers, network interference in the
HCN is much more severe than that in a conventional single-tier
cellular network, thus posing a challenge to the successful coexistence
of tiers [2]. Therefore, one of the major challenges in
deploying HCNs is to efficiently manage network interference.
Femtocell access control, using either closed or open access,
is an important mechanism for interference management [3].
In closed access, femtocell access points provide service only
to the specified subscribers, whereas arbitrary nearby users can
use the femtocell in open access. Xia et al. [2] point out that
open access is preferred by network operators, since it not only
efficiently reduces cross-tier interference, but also provides an
inexpensive way to expand network capacity.