Heterogeneous Deployment to Meet Traffic Demand in a Realistic LTE Urban Scenario

The main objective of the paper is to investigate and compare the downlink performance of different LTE heterogeneous network (HetNet) deployment solutions. By adding small cells to the existing macro overlay, network coverage and capacity can be significantly enhanced to accommodate the fast growth of mobile broadband traffic. Emphasis is put on how to optimally assign the spectrum for the different networks layers in an evolved HetNet including outdoor and indoor small cells. The study is conducted for a "Hot-Zone" scenario, i.e. a high-traffic area within a realistic dense urban deployment. A broadband traffic volume growth by a factor of 50 compared to today's levels is assumed. The investigated deployment schemes are outdoor pico-only, indoor femto-only and joint pico-femto deployments, all combined with an overlay macro layer. The results indicate that the best network coverage performance with a minimum user data rate of 1 Mbps is achieved when deploying small cells on dedicated channels rather than co-channel deployment. Furthermore, the joint pico and femto deployment turns out to be the right trade-off between increased base station density and enhanced network capacity.