On Downlink Intercell Interference in a Cellular System

The main difference between a non-cellular and a cellular communication system is the intercell interference. Therefore, modelling the intercell interference and analyzing its effects is of particular interest for cellular communication systems. On the one hand, the intercell interference can be modeled by system level simulations. On the other hand, it is also meaningful to assess the intercell interference without performing exhaustive simulations which nonetheless at the same time still capture the major effects that determine the interference. To this end, we consider the intercell interference as a random variable composed of many other random variables. In this paper, we present a semi-analytical method to analyze the downlink intercell interference in a cellular system. Through such an approach a quick and reliable assessment of the downlink inter-cell interference can be obtained. Our focus is on the methodology and we consider basic access schemes: WCDMA, TDMA, FDMA, and random OFDMA. However, our model can be extended to include other access schemes and other features.