Analysis of K-tier 5G heterogeneous cellular network with dual-connectivity and uplink–downlink decoupled access

Abstract

Smallcells deployment in heterogeneous networks (HetNets) introduce uplink (UL) downlink (DL) asymmetry, backhaul bottleneck, cell load imbalances, increased core network signaling, interference and mobility management problems. In order to address these issues, concept of dual connectivity has been introduced in 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) release 12. In dual connectivity, a given user equipment can consume radio resources of at least two different network points connected through non-ideal backhaul for spectrum aggregation and cooperative access mechanisms in dense 5G HetNets. Alternatively, another concept of downlink and uplink decoupling (DUDe) has also been recently introduced in 3GPP to improve uplink performance, load balancing and cell capacity. In order to take advantage of the strengths of these latest developments, this paper significantly advances prior work by analyzing K-tier 5G HetNets having dual connectivity and decoupled access (joint DUDe dual-connectivity) for spectrum aggregation in UL and DL. In the preceding works, K-tiers as per present-day heterogeneity, uplink power control and receiver noise have not been considered for joint DUDe dual-connectivity. With the use of stochastic geometry, we have developed closed form solutions for association, coverage and outage probabilities along with average throughput for joint DUDe dual-connectivity by considering uplink power control, receiver noise and K-tiers of HetNets. The resultant performance metrics are evaluated in terms of achieved gains over conventional downlink received power access policies. Results show that cell association technique based on joint DUDe dual-connectivity can significantly improve load balancing, mobility management and UL performance for forthcoming 5G HetNets.