Modeling and Analysis of Coverage in 3-D Cellular Networks

Cellular networks are usually modeled by the point process theory and stochastic geometry with mobile users either scattered randomly or deterministically set. These models are used widely in a 2-D space but are not suitable for dense urban environment in which a large number of small cells are distributed to satisfy the rapid increase in mobile subscribers as well as the traffic demand. In this paper, a new general model based on a 3-D space for a cellular network is proposed. Under general assumptions, the coverage probability of downlink cellular networks can be obtained by fast integral calculation and in some special cases can be simplified to an analytical form. Compared with the 2-D space model and actual small cells deployment, the proposed 3-D space model is more accurate and provides a closer bound of coverage probability. In addition to being more tractable, the model proposed in this paper can better capture the increasingly opportunistic and dense small cells deployment in future heterogeneous cellular networks.