Capacity Evaluation of LTE Network in Dynamic Spectrum Access and Interference Analysis

The spectrum scarcity problem can be tackled by promoting a more efficient use of the radio spectrum. Spectrum sharing techniques like TV White Spaces (TVWS), Licensed Shared Access (LSA), and Spectrum Access System (SAS), are adequate solutions for this problem and there exist already regulation and standardization efforts worldwide. To evaluate the coexistence between primary and secondary spectrum users, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) multi-cell simulator has been designed, which employs a generic spectrum sharing technique, Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA), in order to obtain additional network capacity. As a way to bring attention and confidence of the telecommunications sector regarding the benefits that this technology may bring, the analysis is done in terms of interference suffered by incumbents (primary users) and capacity by secondary users. Results have confirmed the unfeasibility of co-channel coexistence for moderate distances between the cordless camera service (incumbent) and LTE network (secondary user) due to high interference. However, for adjacent bands, a gain of 40% in the secondary users’ capacity is possible following more restrictive interference protection requirements and 30% gain with the smaller frequency separation between primary and secondary operating frequencies.