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Section 3
Small Cell Solution Features
Module 3
Macro-Small Cell Radio Co-existence
TMO54070_M06 Issue 1.0
Document History
Page
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1 Dedicated Carrier Deployment 7
1.1 Indoor Propagation 8
1.2 Small Cell Power Requirements 9
2 Co-Channel Deployment 11
2.1 Small Cell within Macro Cell Coverage 12
2.2 Ec/Io Comparison of Small Cell and Macro Cell 13
2.3 Macro Cell Interference Distribution 14
3 Methods of Interference Mitigation 15
3.1 Self Optimization 16
3.2 Small Cell Tx Power Auto-Adjustment 18
3.3 Small Cell Tx Power Auto-Adjustment 19
3.4 Conclusions 20
Small Cells can be deployed at a dedicated carrier or the same carrier as the underlay UMTS Macro cell
network. When Small Cell is deployed at the same carrier as the underlay Macro cell network, the Small
Cell coverage and Macro cell coverage will be exclusive, except the handover region. This is due to the
nature of Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA) air interface.
Due to propagation loss and shadow fading effect, the Macro cell signal strength varies at different location in
the Macro cell network coverage area. Shadow fading is a phenomenon that occurs when a mobile moves
behind an obstruction and experiences a significant reduction in signal power. If Small Cell is deployed at
different places in the Macro cell network coverage area, the down link interference from Macro cell to
the Small Cell users will be location dependant. In order for the Small Cell to maintain its designed
coverage, it should be capable to adjust its pilot and max. transmission power, while not causing too much
interference to Macro cell users.
4
Small Cell should preferably be -70
Distance [m]
2
in right place. -80
0
-90
-2
-4 -100
-6
-110
-8
-120
-10
-10 -5 0 5 10
Distance [m]
Path loss to the Small Cell ocation (dB)
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Small Cell Solution Features Macro-Small Cell Radio Co-existence
9360 Small Cell Solution R2.4 Overview
dB – dezibel
PL – Path Loss
Coverage plots for Small Cell TxPWR: 1mW & Pilot Power: 0.1 mW
To reduce interference to street, or for smaller flat, lower cell/pilot
power may be needed
Pilot Power: 0.1mW (-10 dBm) is 3GPP min. allowed broadcast value.
Distance [m]
A village of 15 houses is shown above. There are three rows of houses and five houses in each row. The houses
are separated 18 meters in X axis and 36 meters in Y axis (all coordinates are given in meters). There is one
Small Cell in each house. It is assumed that Small Cell transmit power is 1mW and Pilot Power is 0.1mW.
Cell pilot coverage is dependent on the UE sensitivity. Common UE have a sensitivity for RSCP of -110 dBm and
Ec/Io of -17dB. On the left hand side the pilot RSCP (in dBm) is plotted from the centre house. RSCP values
below -110 dBm are not shown in the plot. It is noticed that there is significant cell coverage outside the
house. This means that Small Cell can provide outdoor as well as indoor coverage. If the Small Cell access is
restricted only to registered users, transmitted pilot power below -10 dBm will be needed in order not to
cause too much interference to out door users. It should be noted that pilot power of -10 dBm is current
3GPP allowed minimum value. When it is required to set the pilot power below -10dBm, in order for 3GPP
compliance, special handling of open loop power controls is required.
On the right hand side the pilot Ec/Io coverage from the Small Cell in center of the village. The Pilot Ec/Io
coverage is smaller than the Pilot RSCP coverage, this is due to the interference from Small Cell located in
neighbor houses.
Coverage plots for Small Cell TxPWR: 1mW & Pilot Power: 0.1 mW.
The figure on the left hand side shows the max. Pilot RSCP coverage from all the houses in the village. It is
seen that Small Cell can provide significant outdoor coverage, when operating at a different frequency than
the underlay Macro cell network.
Figure on the right hand side shows the max. Pilot Ec/Io coverage from all the houses in the village. It can be
seen that Pilot Ec/Io got larger coverage than RSCP in the plots. This is due to the fact that in the plots the
min. value of RSCP is -110 dBm, while pilot Ec/Io is the ratio between signal and interference with a
minimum value of -17dB.
In conclusion, if Small Cells are deployed in a separate frequency, no significant Small Cell power is needed to
provide indoor coverage. When Small Cell is restricted only to registered users, care must be taken to
reduce outside the house coverage. If public access is allowed, pilot power restriction can be relaxed, in
which case, the Small Cell may run out of capacity, as current design only supports a maximum of 4 users.
Assumptions: 2000
Macro Cell Radius = 1200m
MacroCellmW = 20000 1500
MacroPilotmW = 1000
0.1*MacroCellmW;
FemtoCellPmW = 20; Y Coordinate in meter
500
FemtoPilotPmW=0.1* 0
FemtoCellPmW
No shadow fading is applied -500
-1000
-1500
-2000
-2500
With the increase of Small Cell network deployments, the Small Cell will eventually share the same frequency
with the underlay Macro cell network.
The figure above shows the scenario where the Small Cell, illustrated by the green square, is within a macro
cell network coverage area. The coordinates are in meters. The macro cell transmission power is assumed to
be 43dBm and macro cell pilot power is 33dBm. The influence of Small Cell location and transmit power on
the Small Cell coverage is investigated in this section.
2 8
-11
8
1
-11
6 6
-12 -12
4 4
2 2
-13 -13
800 meters 0 0
-14 -14
-2 -2
-4 -15 -4
-15
-6 -6
-16 -16
-8 -8
-10 -10
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
10 10
3 8
-11
48
-11
6 6
-12 -12
4 4
2 2
-13 -13
50 meters 0 0
-14 -14
-2 -2
-4
-15 -4
-15
-6
-6
-16 -16
-8
-8
-10
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 -10
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
X Coordinate in Meter
Assuming the house is 800m/50m away from the central Macro cell Node B transmitter Antenna and:
Small Cell power =20dBm
Small Cell pilot = 10dBm.
It is shown (1) that Small Cell coverage is significantly larger than the area of the house where there are
windows or doors. In this case, the Small Cell Tx power needs to be reduced. Some area in the house is still
not covered due to the heavy penetration of the thick walls in the house. In the pilot Ec/Io plot, the effect
of indoor penetration losses can not be seen. This is due to the fact that in calculation of pilot Ec/Io, both
Ec and Io from serving Small Cell experience the same amount of penetration loss and the ratio does not
change. Due to the location of the house in the macro cell network, the interference from macro cell is
negligible.
In the corresponding Macro Cell coverage plot (2) it can be seen that there is no Macro cell coverage
surrounding the house.
One important observation is that in the Small Cell coverage area, there will be no macro cell coverage at the
same frequency. If access restriction is implemented in the Small Cell, UEs which are not on the access list
will not be able to make any call via the Macro cell, except emergency calls which are provided by the Small
Cell, as the UE can only detect pilot from the Small Cell.
It should be noted that with the same power settings, if the house is 50m away from center Macro cell, the
Small Cell/Macro cell coverage will be significantly different. (3) shows that the Macro Cell coverage, when
the house is 50 meters way from the macro cell base station. It is seen that there are areas in the house
near the window are covered by Macro cell, while, at the same time, it lacks coverage in some areas outside
the house. (4) shows the Small Cell coverage. It is seen that the Small Cell is unable to cover the entire
house any more. There are a few areas outside the house which are covered by the Small Cell. This
simulation result suggests that Small Cells cannot be deployed too closely to the Macro Node B, unless there
are macro cell coverage holes, where the total interference is much less than -45dBm, as a rule of thumb.
0.7
Cumulative Distribution
0.6
0.4
PA Power 18 dBm
0.3
0.1
Indoor IodBm
outdoor IodBm
0
-100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20
Inerference in dBm
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Small Cell Solution Features Macro-Small Cell Radio Co-existence
9360 Small Cell Solution R2.4 Overview
The figure above presents the cumulative distribution probability of the macro cell interference. A
penetration loss of 15dB is assumed for indoor macro cell interference. For Required Pilot Ec/Io = -15 dB,
Maximum Covered Path loss = 80 dB, the three vertical lines indicate applicable areas of different Small Cell
powers in support of indoor/out door deployment.
If PA power is 13dBm (20mW), for indoor use, it can be used in 85% of the macro cell coverage area; if used
for outdoor, it can be used in 36% of the macro cell coverage area. If PA power is 21dBm (125mW), for
indoor use, it can be used in 98% of the macro cell coverage area; if used for out door, it can be used in 62%
of the macro cell coverage area. It should be noted that since houses got different layout, window, door
and sizes, the Small Cell may be set at different location within the house; the applicable area may be
different from this general calculations. The results presented here are for guidance only.
Small Cell optimization can be performed in two ways. One is based on UE measurement. The other uses Small
Cell sniffer for both 2G and 3G macro networks.
1. UE Assistant Optimization
This setting is used when the UE starts a CS or PS call. After RAB establishment, the Small Cell shall send a
MEASUREMENT CONTROL message to the UE with the following info:
Measurement command with an enumerated value as: Setup
Measurement reporting mode: Periodical Reporting
Reporting Interval with a default value of 1000, it’s an OAM configurable parameter with integer values
of: 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 6000, 8000, 12000,16000, 20000, 24000, 28000, 32000, 64000
Intra-frequency reporting quantity: cell reporting quantities>>CPICH Ec/Io, there are two modes of
operation for the pilot power adjustment, a feature that can also be disabled (default):
TargetEcIo mode: all UEs served by the Small Cell will periodically report pilot Ec/Io measurements of
the serving Small Cell, the Small Cell will adjust its transmitted pilot power to ensure that the worst
pilot Ec/Io measurements from UEs are better than a targetPilotEcIo, of e.g. -14dB, while maintaining
planned coverage, this threshold is an OAM configurable parameter
NeighbourEcIo mode: all UEs served by the Small Cell will periodically report pilot Ec/Io
measurements of all the monitored neighbor cells, the Small Cell will adjust its pilot power to ensure
that the serving Small Cell pilot Ec/Io is larger than any other neighbor cell’s Ec/Io.
Assuming the UE received RSSI at cell edge is approximately the same as Small Cell measured RSSI. The UE
received Pilot EcIo is given by,
0dB SIR
Small Cell TxPWR
Small Cell Pilot power
Requirement:
Small Cell coverage should be guaranteed to achieve a consistent cell range independent of the location
within the macro cell and prevent unwanted HOs resulting from increased coverage.
Solution:
Each Small Cell adjusts its max. Tx power to achieve a SIR of 0 dB with respect to the Macro cell at the
intended cell radius
As a result the max. Tx power is a function of the Macro cell distance, ensuring the same Small Cell range
irrespective of the location within the macro-cell.
-55
15
60 60
-60
10
Distance [m]
Distance [m]
40 40
-65
20 5
20
-70
0 0
0
-75
-20 -5
-20
-80
-40 -10
-40
-85
-60 -15
-60
-90
-80 -20
-80
-95
-100 -25
-100 -100 -50 0 50 100
-100 -50 0 50 100
Io – Interference Level
RSSI – Received Signal Strength Indicator
TxPWR – Transmission Power
The figure on the left hand side shows one simulation of interference level measured from each Small Cell in
the house. This represents Small Cell to Small Cell interference. It is assumed that the Small Cell is located
at the center of the house. There are 65 houses in this area. The path loss among the Small Cells is
calculated using the path loss model described before, which is taken into account when calculating the
interference among the Small Cells. Additional interference from Macro cell is randomly generated to
reflect the nature of shadow fading. The interference at different Small Cell site varies from -45 to -100dBm.
The figure on the right hand side shows the Small Cell Tx Power after Auto-adjustment. It is seen that the
Small Cell required power varies between -25 and 24dBm to maintain the same coverage at different
interference level.
Both simulation and measurement shows that Small Cell can be deployed at the same frequency as the
underlay Macro cell network or in a dedicated carrier. Small Cell transmission power shall be automatically
adjusted according to the surrounding area interference level in order to maintain its designed coverage.
When Small Cell access is restricted, its coverage shall not be larger than planned coverage, as it will
produce coverage holes in the Macro cell network. It is advisable that Small Cell shall be operated on one of
the spare carriers if it is available.
The applicable area of the Small Cell, for co-channel deployment, with different power is dependent on the
interference level surrounding the house.
Small Cell shall be placed in the centre intended coverage, including garden and drive way, if applicable. The
Small Cell shall be located away from windows next to public streets.