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Heterogeneous Networks are expected to include large
number of outdoor and indoor small cells, deployed for
providing additional capacity to the macro network and/or
improve coverage where required.
Ideally, small cells will be deployed with minimal or without
engineering involvement and it is expected that the small cells
and the macro network will automatically adjust themselves,
using automatic mechanisms for obtaining the maximum
benefit from the small cells layer.
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An inherent cellular problem arises where small cells are
installed as a hotspots under the coverage area of a macro
cell.
Consider, for example, a SC installed in a crowded square for
offloading the overlaid macro cell there. Planting a cell where
the macro cell signal is high, creates a conflict since on one
hand the SC needs to transmit high enough power for
capturing the hotspot area from the Macro cell, and on the
other hand, it is expected that the small cell will not interfere
with the service provided by the macro cell in the surrounding
of this hotspot.
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In some cases, small cells may be deployed for providing a
service to a closed subscriber group. For example where small
cells are installed in an enterprise building surrounded by
heavy pedestrian and vheichle traffic. Opening the service to
the public might suck the available capacity of the small cells
on the expanse of the Enterprise users.
To avoid such a situation, the SC system may be configured to
employ CSG policy where only the pre-registered enterprise
users get service from the enterprise small cells.
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This mode of operation might conflict with the simple cellular
rule that says that service should be provided by the cell that
provides the best signal (in terms of signal strength or quality).
If this rule is not kept, the stronger cell might become to be a
strong interferer.
This situation is shown here. A mobile device is served by a
remote macrocell but it is located very close to an enterprise
building where a SC provides a service to a CSG. Since the
UE is not allowed to HO to the SC it remains on the macrocell
and the SC become to be an interferer.
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These issues and others may be solved by the envisioned SON-
- Self Organized Network mechanism. Some early SON systems
already exist today but the full concept and its supporting algorithms
are still being developed and not yet commercially operated. SON
concepts will be discussed on the next tutorials. At this point well say
that SON algorithms get indications on signals and interferences
from the mobile devices and from the base stations (macros and
SCs) and based on that, coordinate the operation of the base
stations and the mobile devices for minimizing interferences and for
balancing the system for optimal coverage and capacity
performance. SON algorithms are expected also to optimize other
aspects of the cellular network such as HOs and others and will be
discussed on next sessions.
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When discussing small cells deployment, two possible
spectrum planning strategies may be used:
Strategy 1: The Small cells and the macro network share the
same Spectrum or in other words use the same radio channel
or,
Strategy 2: The Small cells and the macro network use
different Spectrum or in other words use a different radio
channel
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When each of the layers uses dedicated spectrum, no
co-channel interference exists between the macro layer and the
small cells layer. However, possible leakage from the adjacent
channel, if adjacent channel is used by the other layer , might
result in interferences. These interferences will be lower, of
course then the co-channel interferences.
Using dedicated spectrum for the small cells layer makes a lot
of sense from interference avoidance perspective but by
definition requires to split the spectrum in advance and by that
decrease the overall system capacity.
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In the case of shared spectrum deployment which in terms of
spectral efficiency is potentially more effective then in the case
of dedicated spectrum deployment, the co-channel interference
created between the small cell and the macro cell layers will
degrade SINR (Signal to Noise Interference Ratio) and as a
result less effective Modulation and Coding scheme will need
to be used and as a result the capacity will be degraded.
When small cells are few this might only have a local impact
but when small cells are deployed massively, the overall
system capacity might be degraded significantly. This is the
role of the interference mitigation SON features: to minimize
the interferences and their impact on the overall network
capacity.
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It should be noted here that besides of the shared spectrum
and the dedicated spectrum strategies, other strategies are
considered such as soft frequency reuse.
With soft frequency reuse the macro cell and the small cell
layers share most of the spectrum but a small portion of the
spectrum, shown here in grey is kept for serving cell edge
users and by that minimizing interferences that result from the
use of the same spectrum by two adjacent cells.
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In order to understand the SON features required for mitigating
interferences between small cells and themselves and
between the small cell layer and the macro layer, well analyze
first the involved interference mechanisms.
In this analysis well use the following terminology for the
following network elements. A Macro cell, a Macro cell UE
served by that macro cell, a SC and a SC UE served by that
SC.
UE is an LTE term for describing a mobile device, however the
following explanations apply also to other technologies.
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A first Interference mechanism to consider is where the
downlink signal of the macro cell interferes with the downlink
signal of the SC.
In this scenario, the SC and the macro cell use the same
spectrum for serving their related UEs
If the signal of the macro cell is strong at the location of the SC
UE, the reception at the SC UE will be interfered by the macro
cell that serves its UEs by the same radio resources. As the
SC UE gets remote from the SC, lower will be the SINR it sees
and as a result lower will be the capacity that can be provided
to the SC UE in a given time frame.
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An interesting conflict arises here. on one hand we would like
to increase the range of the SC in order to offload more
subscribers from the macro cell but as the range of the SC
increases, lower is the capacity that can be provided to the cell
edge users
As a result, the overall capacity that can be gained by
extending the area of the SC hotspot is limited.
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A Second Interference mechanism to consider is where the
downlink signal of the SC interferes with the downlink signal of
the Macro cell.
The Macro cell shown here serves a macro cell UE but since
the macro cell UE is close to the SC, the reception at the
macrocellUE is interfered by the SC. As the macro cell UE is
closer to the SC, lower will be the SINR at the Macro UE and
as a result, lower will be the capacity that may be provided to
the macro cell UE, in a given time frame.
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If the signal of the SC provides better service then the macro
cell, it may be suggested to instruct the macro UE to handoff to
the SC. However, if the SC employs a closed subscriber group
policy, this handoff will not be allowed by the SC and without
additional interference mitigation mechanism the victim macro
UE might suffer sever disturbances.
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The SINR seen by the macro UE can be calculated as the
signal of the macro base station received at the Macro UE
minus the signal of the SC received at the Macro UE.
In this equation:
Pts is power transmitted by the SC
Ptm is the power transmitted by the Macro cell
PLm-UE is The Path loss between the small cell and the
macro UE
and PLs-ue is the Path loss between the SC and the macro
UE.
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With some simplifications we may also derive the equation
shown here for calculating the radius of the circle around the
SC that guarantees a certain SINR
Other parameters in this equation are: SC transmitted power -
Pts, Macro cell transmitted power ptm and the distance between
the Macro cell and the small cell dMS.
N on this equation characterizes the decay rate of the path loss
and it is dependent on the specific environment.
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Using the data given in blue characters we can demonstrate
now the use of this equation for calculating the radius of the
circle around the SC that guarantees a required SINR at the
MacroUE.
Lets assume that the required SINR is 5 dB and the
environment is sub urban characterized by N equals 3.
Inserting the data into the equation will yield a distance of 60
meters. It means that, under the given parameters, Macro-UEs
that are within 60 meters from the SC will experience SINR
worse then 5 dBs.
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Until now we have discussed interferences coming from the
downlink signals. Well discuss now scenarios where
interferences are a result of the uplink signals.
At the scenario shown here the SC serves a SCUE and
receives its uplink signal. Another UE, served by the macro
system is close to the SC and remote from the macro cell.
Since the macro UE is remote from its serving macrocell it will
transmit high power signal to reach it. However, this signal
might also reach the SC with high enough power to interfere
with the reception of the uplink signal arriving from the SC-UE.
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Here is another uplink interference scenario. At this scenario
the uplink signal of the SCUE interferes with the uplink signal
of the Macro cell UE.
At this scenario, the Macro cell serves a MacroUE and
receives its uplink signal. A SCUE, served by SC, transmits
high enough power to interfere with the reception of the uplink
signal arriving from the Macro-UE.
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This drawing shows a scenario where this type of interference
might be severe. Assume, for example, that the SCUE is
located on a high floor with a line of sight to the macro cell and
the MacroUE is located remotely from the macro cell and its
path to the macro cell antenna is obscured by buildings or by
other obstructions. Assume also that both UEs transmit full
power.
Since the maximum power levels of the UEs are usually
identical, the uplink signal arriving from the SCUE to the
MACROcell might be significantly higher then the signal
arriving from the macro UE and therefore might severely
degrade it.
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In light of this scenario it may be suggested that when there is
such an exposure to a macro cell, the SCUE will be instructed
to HO to the Macrocell. This makes a lot of sense from pure
cellular perspective
However when deploying small cells we usually want the
subscriber to stick to the small cells. This wish may come from
offloading considerations where the In building small cells are
expected to offload the macro cell or even from tariffing
considerations where according to taarifing agreements, calls
conducted from the building, using the SC layer get better
tariffs.
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When SCs are deployed in a multi tenant building where each
tenant has its own SCs and use CSG, serious interferences
might occur between the SCs and the UEs of the two tenants.
At the example shown here SC1 serves SCUE1 and SC2
serves SCUE2. However SCUE1 is closer to SC2 then to its
serving SC (1). Therefore, SCUE1 might receive strong
interfering signal from SC2. In a traditional cellular network
SCUE1 will be instructed to handoff to SC2 but since CSG
policy is practiced by SC2, this HO will not be allowed.
Without interference mitigation mechanism this kind of system
will perform poorly.
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The UL Interference case of the previous scenario is shown
here. SC2 serves SCUE2 but since SCUE1 is closer to SC2
then SCUE2, it interfere with the UL signal of SCUE2.
if SCUE 1 transmits high power, as might happen when the
path loss to its serving SC is high, a significant interference
might occur.
Again, interference mitigation mechanisms this kind of system
will perform poorly.
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This is the end of the first part of the tutorial on SON features
for supporting Heterogeneous networks.
We have explained the major interference scenarios that might
occur between the macro and the small cell layers and within
the small cell layer itself. This will be the ground for our next
discussion on the SON mechanisms aimed to solve these
issues.
Hope you found this session helpful.
You are most well come to visit this website again and watch
other video tutorials in your areas of interest.