Performance Analysis of Cellular Ultradense IoT Networks With Wireless Backhauls

Abstract

The rising era of smart living requires unprecedented advancements in cellular networks to support the communications of the Internet of Things (IoT), referred to as Machine-Type Communication (MTC). Hence, we consider an Ultra-Dense Network (UDN) environment supported by wireless backhaul links and investigate the achievable performance gains for MTC. By doing so, we avoid the complexity, cost, and/or infeasibility of providing fiber backhaul links for the massive number of Small Cells (SCs) found in UDNs. We utilize the Millimeter Wave (mmWave) band to support the communications between the IoT Devices (IoTDs) and their serving SCs. By doing so, the excess available bandwidth can be used to support a massive number of IoTDs while the propagation characteristics of the mmWave signals can be exploited to mitigate the severe Inter-Cell Interference (ICI) found in UDNs. In this regard, we formulate a mathematical framework using tools from stochastic geometry to derive analytical expressions for the density of supported IoTDs and the average capacities per SC on both the Access Link (AL) and the Backhaul Link (BH). In addition, we obtain a tight lower bound of the average capacity per SC under the considered wireless limited-capacity backhaul links. The obtained results show the existence of an optimal active SC density that maximizes SC utilization.