Performance analysis of cell selection solution in Macro-Pico Heterogeneous Networks

In order to enhance the cell coverage and achieve the higher spectral efficiency, the concept of Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) has been proposed in LTE-Advanced standardizations. In Macro-Pico HetNet scenario, Pico-eNBs are typically deployed within the coverage areas of Macro-eNBs. The setup details of Pico-eNBs (such as the number of Picos, transmit power, and hotspots distribution) will influence the system performance. However, the deployment of Picocells leads to severe imbalance between Macrocells and Picocells. Thus, some cell selection solutions are just proposed to solve such problem. This paper mainly discusses three different hotspot deployment schemes of Pico-eNB (Case 1, Case 4a, Case 4b) and evaluates the network performance of two kinds of cell selection solutions: Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and Cell Range Expansion (CRE) based solution. Test results show that Picos under Case 4b scheme has the best performance, and setting CRE bias properly and using Almost Blank Subframe (ABS) can improve the throughput of Pico cell-edge users.