Feasibility study of pico cellular-relaying system in urban outdoor environment

Heterogeneous networks, in particular cellular-relaying networks, have the potential to provide high data-rate services at low infrastructure costs. Macro and micro base stations have traditionally been used to provide coverage and capacity, respectively. In this paper, we analyze a new approach in which coverage is provided by means of inband relays. We show that compared with a traditional network based on macro base stations, a good outdoor coverage for a target data rate could be provided in a more cost efficient way by deploying a network based on pico base stations and relays. However, this is valid only for low data-rate because part of the spectrum is allocated to the backhaul and therefore the capacity of cellular-relaying networks is typically limited. Moreover, this break-even point depends on how the networks are deployed.