Impact of various System Design Parameters on Coverage in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Abstract

Recent cellular systems are moving towards heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) that consist of a mixture of miniature cells and legacy macro-cells to meet the requirements of wireless data traffic, owing to the immense amount of multi-purpose mobile applications. The inclusion of small cells is a cost-effective solution for enhancing the size and coverage of the existing macro-cellular network. This article assumes a heterogeneous cellular network consisting of two tiers of base stations (BSs): large-scale (macro) and small-scale (pico) BSs. The users are evenly distributed, and each tier of BSs and users create a uniform Poisson point process (PPP). Practical third-generation partnership project (3GPP) models for path loss are considered, and three camping/association criteria are utilized to relate user equipment (UEs) to large or small-scale BSs, including coupled and decoupled camping criteria to study coverage. The impact of several system design parameters on coverage is investigated using the aforementioned heterogeneous cellular network, association criteria, and 3GPP path loss models. Our simulation results provide insights into the effect of infrastructure sharing between macro and pico-cells and user density on coverage. We also explore the impact of fractional power control (FPC) and signaling limits on coverage under all considered association strategies. Finally, we investigate the effect of open-loop UE transmission power, pico-density, and biasing on coverage. Specifically, we thoroughly explore the effect of empty BSs on coverage under all system design parameters.