W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells

Architecture, Requirements and Dependencies

Published 08 May 2012

Small Cell Forum Ltd PO Box 23 GL11 5WA United Kingdom

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The Small Cell Forum, formerly known as the Femto Forum, supports the wide-scale adoption of small cells. Small cells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum, are operator-managed and feature edge-based intelligence. They provide improved cellular coverage, capacity and applications for homes and enterprises as well as metropolitan and rural public spaces. They include technologies variously described as femtocells, picocells, microcells and metrocells. The Small Cell Forum is a not-for-profit, international membership organisation, with membership open to providers of small cell technology and to operators with spectrum licences for providing mobile services. The Forum has 137 members including 63 operators representing more than 1.99 billion mobile subscribers 33 per cent of the global total as well as telecoms hardware and software vendors, content providers and innovative start-ups. The Forum has three main aims: To promote adoption of small cells by making available information to the industry and the general public; To promote the rapid creation of appropriate open standards and interoperability for small cells; To encourage the development of an active ecosystem of small cell providers to deliver ongoing innovation of commercially and technically efficient solutions.

The Forum is technology agnostic and independent. It is not a standards setting body, but works with standards organisations and regulators worldwide to provide an aggregated view of the small cell market.

If you would like more information about the Small Cell Forum or would like to be included on our mailing list, please contact: Email info@smallcellforum.org Post Small Cell Forum, PO Box 23, GL11 5WA UK Member Services Lynne Price-Walker lynne@smallcellforum.org For a full list of members and further information visit our website www.smallcellforum.org

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

Executive summary
Deploying W-CDMA smallcells in an open access presents a shift from the majority of current deployment where closed access is used in residential femtos. Some questions are legitimately being asked on the potential increase of interference to existing network. Management and mitigation of interference is a normal part of the planning and operation of the wireless networks. The interference management techniques used by the femtocell enable smallcells to be distributed within a macro network and to provide a good solution when used in an open access mode, thereby allowing much more efficient reuse of spectrum and greater ability to offload traffic from the macro network. The resulting network can supply much higher data and voice traffic than can be supported in a traditional macro-only network. The simulations performed in the Small Cell Forum WG2 and WG3 encompass a wide spectrum of possible deployment scenarios including shared carrier (a.k.a co-channel) in an open access mode. In addition, the studies looked at the performance of the smallcells and the macro in different locations and how smallcells coverage and performance vary based on their relative location to the macro. The following are broad conclusions from the studies: 1. When smallcells are used in areas using shared carrier and in open access mode, traffic offload from the macro is possible. 2. If the small cells network is sharing the channel with the macro network, interference may occur. However, if the interference mitigation techniques advocated by the Small cells Forum are adopted, the resulting interference can be mitigated in most cases. 3. The number of users offloaded from the macro increases as the number of smallcells is increased. Different backhauling technologies are possible while they differ in terms of the technical specifications and characteristics. Most technologies we studied seem to be suitable for W-CDMA small cells, although some will require more elaborate design to address increased delay, or lower bandwidth.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

Contents
1. Introduction .................................................................... 3 2. Definitions of open and hybrid access .............................. 3 2.1 Installation and SON ........................................................... 3 2.2 Femtocell Mobility .............................................................. 4 2.3 CSG Membership Considerations .......................................... 5 2.4 RF propagation model and parameters .................................. 5 3. Deployment scenarios...................................................... 8 4. Architecture and Requirements ....................................... 8 5. Enhanced application for open access .............................. 8 5.1 Key Femtocell Application Enablers ....................................... 8 5.2 Open Access Application Examples ....................................... 9 5.3 Service Requirements ........................................................10 6. Interference and performance analysis ......................... 10 6.1 Macro Network Offloading ..................................................10 6.2 Downlink Throughput Simulations........................................11 6.3 Downlink Co-channel Interference .......................................13 6.4 Uplink Throughput Results ..................................................15 6.5 Uplink Interference to Macrocell ..........................................17 6.6 Summary and challenges ...................................................19 7. Backhauling technologies .............................................. 19 8. Other requirements ....................................................... 20 8.1 Traffic support and interworking with macro network .............20 8.2 Mobility and handover requirements ....................................20 9. Conclusions ................................................................... 20 References .......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Tables
Table 2-1 Table 6-1 Table 6-2 Propagation Models and Simulation Assumptions for Small Cells. .......... 7 Offloading ................................................................................... 11 Summary of parameters in the example for FUE jamming macrocell ... 18

Figures
Figure 5-1 Figure 6-1 FemtoEnhanced Application "Sweet Spot" .......................................... 9 Distribution of UEs by serving cells for 30 active users per macro area, for 30 dBm small cells. With increasing small cell density more users are offloaded from macrocells. The users per small cell also reduce with increasing density of small cells. ................................... 11

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

Figure 6-2

Downlink user throughputs for full buffer traffic for increasing Small Cell densities. User denstity is 30 active users per macro area. The curves The results show the cell splitting benefits on the user experience. ................................................................................. 13 CPICH Ec/Io on the Serving Cell. Macrocells as well as small cells have 50% loading. ....................................................................... 13 CPICH Ec/Io of the UEs served on the small cells (left) and macrocells (right) . Macrocells as well as small cells have 50% loading. The reduction in CPICH Ec/Io distribution with increasing the small cell density indicates that inter-small cell interference affects the user experience. Note that each of the curves correspond to different subsets of UEs. ............................................................... 14 Adjacent Channel Interference for 4 Small Cells/Macrocell when small cells are transmitting at full power of 30 dBm. The figure suggests that the UE experience on adjacent carrier, near small cells may suffer. The set of UEs near small cells is defined as UEs that would be served on small cells if they were camped on the common carrier. . 15 Uplink User throughput distributions under increasing density of small cells . Cell Splitting benefits are apparent in the simulations .............. 16 Behavior of UE Tx powers and distributions of average Noise Rise at the macro and small cells. ............................................................. 17 Simple Example of a small cell UE jamming a macrocell ................... 18

Figure 6-3 Figure 6-4

Figure 6-5

Figure 6-6 Figure 6-7 Figure 6-8

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

1. Introduction
A joint WG2/WG3 work item to study Small Cells with Open Access was proposed at the 14th FemtoForum Plenary, San Francisco in September 2010. The remit of this work item includes investigating deployment scenarios such as: Metro femtos (hot spots, coffee shops, hotels, etc); Rural areas (as an extension to macro cells); In-fill where macro coverage is not reliable (eg deep inside a building); Dense traffic area cell splitting (replacing macro with a cluster of metro femtos).

This work item aims at addressing critical elements which facilitate the use of smallcells in various operating scheme. Deployment and locations of femtocell with open access may be as described above, but this is by no mean an exhaustive list. We cover the following topics: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Definition of open access and types of accesses Network architecture Deployment scenarios Mobility requirements Applications and services Backhauling technologies

2. Definitions of open and hybrid access

An open access cell is a regular cell, providing service to any UE subject to authentication/authorization (with the normal considerations of PLMN membership and roaming). A femtocell operated in open access mode does not broadcast a CSG identity and does not perform any kind of CSG-based access control. A hybrid cell is defined as follows: Hybrid cell: A cell broadcasting a CSG identity which is accessible as a CSG cell by UEs which are members of the CSG and as a normal cell by all other UEs. The way in which a hybrid cell is identified is that it broadcasts a CSG identity (on SIB3 for UMTS / SIB1 for LTE) but no CSG indicator (MIB for UMTS / SIB1 for LTE). This means that a hybrid cell can be used in exactly the same way as an open access cell by UEs who are not members of the CSG or who are CSG-unaware. But in addition, a hybrid cell can be identified as such by CSG-aware UEs and, perhaps more importantly, by other nearby smallcells. This can have a number of advantages as discussed below.

2.1

Installation and SON

As far as open access femtocell installation is concerned, there are likely to be two alternative use cases. Firstly, the femtocell can be deployed completely under the control of the operator; this would most likely be the case in rural and certain outdoor metropolitan scenarios. Alternatively the femtocell could be installed by an end-user rather than an operator, in much the same way as residential smallcells; this is more likely to be the case with indoor hot-spot and in-fill scenarios. For operator-controlled deployments it is possible that a centralised cell-planning approach is taken, where the location of the femtocell and its neighbours are known and modelled within an RF propagation analysis tool to allow for OAM configuration of the cells. While this may be applicable to rural deployments, it is likely that in metropolitan cases the localised propagation conditions at the scale of these small cells, coupled with the restricted availability of suitable installation sites, could mean that such an approach is unfeasible. The (hopefully) very large numbers of smallcells involved in an operators network also makes centralised cell-planning an unattractive if not intractable option. Further, it has been reported recently from trials of the 3GPP Rel-10 Automatic Neighbour Relations (ANR) feature, that cells using this approach are apt to find neighbours which would not have been identified using traditional cell-planning techniques.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

And clearly in the case of end-user installations, there is no opportunity for centralised operator OAM to provide deployment-specific configuration of the femtocell. This leads us somewhat inevitably to the conclusion that open access smallcells will derive great benefit from self-configuration and other SON techniques, in much the same way that residential smallcells can use SON to mitigate against unwanted interference to and from neighbouring cells. An additional benefit of the use of SON by open access smallcells can be realised in the case of RAN-sharing multi-operator deployments. Rather than needing to answer the question of which operator provides the specific cell configuration, the onus is instead placed on the femtocell itself to come up with its own answers. There are a wide range of SON practices that would apply in an open access deployment, including: self-configuration of physical cell identifier to be not only collision-free (ie different from immediate neighbours) but also confusion-free (ie different from neighbours of neighbours) amongst a cluster of open access femtos; autonomous discovery of neighbouring cells and self-configuration of neighbour list/relations for handover and interference management purposes; self-configuration of transmit power to provide a continuous archipelago of coverage from one open access femto island to the next; self-optimisation of PSC/PCI and transmit power as new cells are added to the cluster; self-optimisation of cell (re-)selection thresholds within a cluster of open access femtos, making a femto more or less attractive or sticky according to its loading (aka Mobility Load Balancing); self-optimisation of handovers to and from small cells (eg, based on UE speed to keep high mobility users on macro) self-healing within a cluster of open access femtos, automatically detecting the failure of a neighbour cell and accommodating with an increase in coverage.

These SON techniques can be supported by the use of a Network Monitor Mode in the femtocell, sniffing for surrounding cells then collecting and recording measurements and broadcast System Information from them. Additionally, UE assistance in form of measurement reports can also be used in conjunction with Network Monitor Mode to enhance performance of these SON techniques. The key to many of these techniques is the ability for a femtocell to be able to detect neighbours within its own cluster ie other smallcells with which it should be co-operating to provide seamless coverage and quality of service. This is where the use of hybrid cells can make a difference. A hybrid cell will always broadcast a CSG identity, principally for the use of UEs to locate a cell which is on their whitelist. However it also allows for smallcells deployed within a cluster to identify each other by virtue of them being assigned the same CSG identity. By sniffing for neighbours with the same CSG identity, a hybrid access femtocell can unambiguously identify those with which it needs to co-operate, thereby opening up the sort of SON opportunities discussed above.

2.2

Femtocell Mobility

In UMTS Rel-8, femtocell mobility was limited to outbound (femto-to-macro) handovers. Rel-9 then added inbound mobility from the macro layer; this was enabled by resolving PSC ambiguity, through the use of full cell identity in UE measurement reports, and the addition of HNB-GW triggered UE registrations. These features apply equally to closed, hybrid and open access smallcells. The major change in Rel-10, and one that is especially significant for the sort of deployments being considered here, is the introduction of enhanced femtocell-to-femtocell mobility. This allows for a UE to handover between smallcells under the same HNB-GW without any Core Network involvement, thereby reducing the latency, signalling and network impact associated with femto-femto mobility. This will clearly be beneficial in metro-femto, in-fill and cell-splitting scenarios where clusters of smallcells provide a continuous swathe of coverage. As of Rel11, the use of RNSAP-based solution with direct HNB-HNB interface has been adopted, while the RANAP-based is added to the appendix of TS25.467 as it requires no additional changes to the interface. It is noted that these HNB-HNB mobility enhancements are not only intra-GW but are also defined to be intra-CSG, meaning that they may only apply to smallcells broadcasting the same CSG identity. Therefore open access smallcells would not be able to benefit from this enhanced mobility as they do not have CSG identities. Hybrid smallcells, however, would be able to support enhanced mobility, while at the same time continuing to provide access as if they were fully open cells.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

For LTE, femtocell mobility over the S1 interface has been present since Rel-8, allowing both inbound and outbound handovers femto-macro and femto-femto. The major restriction in both Rel-8 and Rel-9 is the omission of X2 support for smallcells; where two eNBs have a X2 connection this is the preferred interface for handover. In Rel-10 X2 support is being introduced for femtocell mobility where no access control in the MME is required. This will apply to both open-access smallcells and closed/hybrid cells with a common CSG ID [6], so hybrid mode will be able to offer the same level of enhanced mobility as open access. Apart from these standaridzed solutions for UMTS, proprietary network based solutions (e.g., PSC disambiguation using delta OTD based on UE reports) can be used to address legacy mobiles. It is also expected that SON will be needed for mobility management (e.g., managing handovers based on UE speed) to ensure good user experience and manage handover related signaling load in the network

2.3

CSG Membership Considerations

So far the discussion of hybrid smallcells has concentrated on the provision of open access capability, and then looked at the additional benefits arising from having a CSG identity. But thats not the only way in which hybrid cells can be operated. Hybrid cells differ from fully open cells in that they can provide preferential service to UEs which are part of their Closed Subscriber Group. As defined in [1], non-CSG members being served by a hybrid femtocell can have their PS data rate reduced, or be handed off to another cell, in order to free up capacity for CSG members. So how can this usefully be exploited in an otherwise open deployment? One obvious possibility would be to add CSG membership status to UEs held by a particular group, such as the emergency services. While emergency calls made from any UE will always be treated as a special case, it might also be valuable to allow non-emergency calls made by such a group to be assured of preferential access. This could be provided by conferring CSG membership to all UEs held by that group. Other examples could be the granting of CSG membership to individuals or organisations who provide sites for installing the smallcells making up the cluster, or to individuals who subscribe to a higher class (and cost) of service from the operator. So, almost as a by-product of their use, hybrid smallcells can provide another advantage over regular open access smallcells, allowing for preferential treatment of a selected group of UEs.

2.4

RF propagation model and parameters

As the focus of the interference analysis of the open-access smallcells (small cells) is on outdoor deployments, the deployment scenario resembles that of picocells in the 3GPP heterogeneous networks study. Therefore, the RF propagation and simulation models for the open-access femtocells can be adopted from the corresponding models in the 3GPP evaluation methodology for heterogeneous deployments [3GPP TR 36.814 V9.0.0 E-UTRA: Further advancements for E-UTRA physical layer aspects, Table A.2.1.1.2-3]. We propose to use the propagation models and simulation assumptions listed in Table 2-1 for the openaccess femtocell interference analysis. The proposed models and assumptions are largely based on the outdoor RRH/Hotzone models in [3GPP TR 36.814 V9.0.0 E-UTRA: Further advancements for E-UTRA physical layer aspects, Table A.2.1.1.2-3]. In Table 2-1, open-access smallcells are referred to as small cells (SCs).

Parameter group Carrier Frequency Carriers

Value 2 GHz 2, one carrier shared between macrocells and small cells and the other carrier for macrocells only. Trisector Hexagonal layout

Description/Remarks

Deployment Assumptions Assumed to be adjacent

Macro Network Assumptions Layout

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

Parameter group Inter Site Distance of Macrocells

Value 500m

Description/Remarks Case 1 of 3GPP macrocell model in TR 25.814. Corresponds to dense urban areas.

Macrocell Antenna Height Macrocell Antenna Pattern

32m Two dimensional antenna pattern For simplicity. Corresponds to the horizontal pattern of the 3D pattern as described in Table A.2.1.1-2 3GPP Case 1 of [3].

2 A ( ) = min 12 , Am 3dB

3dB = 70 degrees,
Macrocell Antenna Gain + Connector loss Pathloss Macro to UE 14dBi

Am = 25 dB [3,], 3GPP TR 25.814.

PLLOS(R)= 123.4+24.2log10(R) PLNLOS(R)= 151.1+42.8log10(R)

Modification of Model 2, Case 1 in [3, Table A.2.1.1.2-3] R is the distance in km between Node B and UE. A 20 dB correction term has been added to the intercept This is useful to make the Macro CPICH RSCP distribution similar to observed dense urban deployment values in the field Whether a link is LOS or NLOS is decided by a biased coin with probability dependent on the distance of the two nodes. From ITU M.2135, Table A1-2 for Urban Microcells[4] , Also in Table B.1.2.1-1 of [3]

Probability of LOS from Macro to UE

Prob(R)=min(0.018/R,1)*(1exp(-R/0.063))+exp(-R/0.063)

Log Normal Shadowing Standard Deviation Shadowing Correlation between Cells Transmit Power UL Rx Diversity UL Noise Figure Pathloss SC to UE

3 for LOS link and 4 for NLOS link 0.5

43 dBm Yes 5 dB PLLOS(R)=103.8+20.9log10(R) PLNLOS(R)=145.4+37.5log10(R) Model 2, Case 1 for RRH/Picocells in [3, Table A.2.1.1.2-3]. R is the distance in km between Node B and UE. Whether a link is LOS or NLOS is decided by a biased coin with probability dependent on the distance of the two nodes.Alternatively, if scatterers are explicitly modeled, the propagation models for LOS and NLOS can be deterministically chosen according to the dominant propagation path. From ITU M.2135, Table A1-2 [4] 2 Rx antennas are assumed at the macrocell

Small Cell (SC) Assumptions

Probability of LOS

Prob(R)=0.5-min(0.5,5exp(0.156/R))+min(0.5, 5exp(R/0.03))

Log Normal Shadowing

3 for LOS link and 4 for NLOS link

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

Parameter group Standard Deviation Shadowing Correlation between Cells Antenna Height Antenna Gain and Pattern Max Transmit Power UL Noise Figure UE Assumptions Antenna Height Max Transmit power UE Speed Fading Model Other Assumptions Macro to SC link SC Distribution SC Density in a Macrocell Minimum Separation of UE to Macro Minimum Separation of UE to SC Minimum Separation of SC to Macro Minimum separation of SC to SC
Table 2-1

Value 0.5

Description/Remarks

5m
A ( ) = 5dBi

Omnidirectional antenna

30 dBm 13 dB Max UL Noise Figure for Medium Range BS class in 3GPP TS 25.104 is 15 dB

1.5m 24 dBm

Fast Fading Assumptions 3kmh Single path Rayleigh Same as Macro to UE link Uniform in a Macro cell 1,4,10,20 For lower max power (20 dBm) larger number of SCs per cell can be deployed. [3, Table A.2.1.1.2-3] Pedestrian Speeds For simplification. For simplification.

System Level Simulation Assumptions

35m

5m

[3, Table A.2.1.1.2-3] uses 10m. Could be smaller for Lamppost deployment of Small cells. [3, Table A.2.1.1.2-3]

75m

40m

[3, Table A.2.1.1.2-3]

Propagation Models and Simulation Assumptions for Small Cells.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

3. Deployment scenarios
Femto cells with open access might be deployed as follows, but this list is not exhaustive.

4. Architecture and Requirements

The smallcells with open access should have the same network architecture as that for closed access and the architecture used is based on Home NodeB architecture as defined by 3GPP.

5. Enhanced application for open access

5.1 Key Femtocell Application Enablers

As suggested in Figure 5-1, femtocell technologies offer a unique combination of key benefits. Through APIs and services, FemtoEnhanced applications exploit these benefits to enhance the users mobile experience when serviced by a femtocell.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

Figure 5-1

FemtoEnhanced Application "Sweet Spot"

A summary of the three benefits is as follows: 5 Bar Coverage Sufficient signal strengths are a perquisite for high quality voice and high speed data. Smallcell installations can provide areas of 5 bar coverage where it was previously difficult, such as indoors, sparsely populated areas or in locations with large obstructions (such as cities). High Speed, Low Cost Data and Voice Backhauling voice and data through IP connections reduces the costs to the operator while potentially increasing the available bandwidth. This opens the door to media rich applications, such as those involving video, that might otherwise be uneconomical beyond femtocell coverage areas. Location Femto-based location technologies provide applications the following two capabilities: Femto Access Awareness: Indications that a particular subscriber is being serviced by a femtocell. From this, the application can infer availability of 5 bar coverage and a low cost data pipe. In addition, it can act as a rough proxy to the mobile location. FemtoEnhanced Precise Terminal Location: Femto-based location technologies offer both accurate and economical mobile location capabilities even in difficult indoor locations without the use of GPS.

In open access scenarios, FemtoEnhanced applications may exploit the benefits of smallcells through APIs specified by the FemtoForum. Realizations of these APIs are currently underway.

5.2

Open Access Application Examples

Coffee Shop Loyalty Program - Upon arrival at a coffee shop, the user receives an SMS with a link to a web portal that supports mobile ordering and payment. Additionally, while in the shop, the user can view videos or read media from a complementary content library. The user spends more time enjoying coffee rather than waiting in lines. Museum Audio Guide Museums may take advantage of precise indoor location as part of a museum audio guide. Users pay a nominal fee for the service where their mobile device automatically delivers audio or visual content based on proximity to particular works. Through accurate location, such applications can offer a simplified user experience while making full use of the mobile device capabilities (i.e. support for video etc). Special Event Video Streaming Highly attended events, such as sports matches or rock concerts, contain huge numbers of mobile-equipped spectators in a confined area. Video services, such as instant replays or close-up views of performers would undoubtedly be very popular.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

Delivering high bandwidth media simultaneously to large number of users in confined spaces without stressing the mobile operator network can be very challenging. However, with femtocell technologies, and the ability to store such media locally, it is possible to directly stream the media to mobile devices local thereby offloading the operator network. Commercial Shopping Assistant FemtoEnhanced applications can offer significant benefits to shoppers in commercial centers with femtocell coverage. Accurate indoor location, coupled with profile information gathered in an opt-in process could allow applications to deliver enticing offers that are of real perceived value. Additionally, through linkages with social network programs, subscribers can be notified instantly whenever other friends have entered the mall.

5.3

Service Requirements

In order to satisfy FemtoZone applications in open spaces (such as those listed above), there are several requirements that shall be fulfilled: Femtocell Roaming In most cases, within a femtocell coverage area serviced by a FemtoEnhanced application, it must be possible to support mobile devices subscribing to different mobile operators. Billing Considerations There are two considerations for billing in open spaces. How much should be charged for network utilization and who should pay for it. In an extreme case, a subscribers plan minutes or bandwidth allowance might not be affected while in a FemtoZone. Rather, the vendor, such as a store or the mall, might pay the mobile operator a greatly reduced flat rate (since voice and data is offloaded from the mobile network). In other cases, different billing schemes might be offered to different subscribers whilst in a particular FemtoZone. Gold customers might receive free use of their mobile device. Silver customers may be required to pay a nominal usage fee. In any case, billing schemes should be customizable based on the needs of the application and clientele. Dependency on FemtoZone Services The FemtoForum Services Special Interest Group (SSIG) has worked with the industry to define a set of APIs supporting FemtoEnhanced Applications. Open Access FemtoZones shall make use of the services realizing the APIs defined by the SSIG. Differentiated Service for Opt-in Users For all foreseeable FemtoEnhanced applications, there are potential interactions between a mobile device and the application. Subscribers must first opt-in to the use the service and to accept such interactions. In some cases, it may be desirable to further differentiate the service offered to opt in users verses those that dont. For example, only opt-in users might be able to camp onto a femtocell that is serviced by a particular FemtoZone application. Other users would have to rely on the regular macro network. In other cases, anyone would be able to camp onto a femtocell, but only opt-in users would be able to take advantage of the FemtoEnhanced application capabilities.

6. Interference and performance analysis

In general, it was assumed that open access small cell deployments are likely to be co-channel with the macro (ie shared carrier frequency), but adjacent channel is also possible. It was agreed that interference scenarios in shared carrier be analyzed and used to derive best practice for such deployment case. In the simulations, we investigate macro network offloading, estimate the users throughputs and impact of co-channel interference and adjacent carrier interference due to deployment of small cells. The analysis is carried out for both downlink and uplink.

6.1

Macro Network Offloading

Example of offloading of users from Macro network to small cells is described in the Table 6-1 below for the case of 30 dBm small cells. The users are served on the best downlink. The offloading percentages depend critically on the assumptions of propagation models and penetration loss in the network and the output power of the small cell. It is evident that the higher the output power and the lower the RSCP of the macro, the larger the coverage area of the small cell. The larger coverage area maps directly the offload percentage.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

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Small Cell Density per Macrocell 1 4 10

Table 6-1 Offloading

Percentage of users served by small cell 21% 56% 75%

Assuming on an average, 30 active users per macro cell area, the distributions of active users by serving cell under the simulation model is shown in Figure 6-1. As the density of small cells increases, more users are offloaded away from macro. At higher densities of small cells, the coverage boundaries of small cells are affected by inter-small cell interference. As a result, the macro offloading grows less than linearly as a function of number of small cells and user load per small cell also decreases.

Users served by Macrocells 1 0.8 0.6

CDF

0.4 0.2 0

1 SC/Macro 4 SC/Macro 10 SC/Macro No Small Cells 0 20 30 40 Users Users served by Small Cells 10 50

1 0.8 0.6

CDF

0.4 0.2 0 1 SC/Macro 4 SC/Macro 10 SC/Macro 10 15 Users

Figure 6-1 Distribution of UEs by serving cells for 30 active users per macro area, for 30 dBm small cells. With increasing small cell density more users are offloaded from macrocells. The users per small cell also reduce with increasing density of small cells.

6.2

Downlink Throughput Simulations

Full Buffer downlink traffic for users was simulated using a packet simulator with proportional fair scheduler at each Node B, assuming 30 active users per macro cell area. The UEs are modelled to be 64QAM capable with Type 3i receivers. The user throughput distributions in Figure 6-2 indicate that all the users, and in particular macro users benefit from offloading from the macrocell to the small cells. As more and more users are offloaded to small cells, the macrocell resources are shared among fewer users and hence macro user throughput distribution improves steadily. Users on small cells experience excellent throughputs due
Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

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to high likelihood of LOS conditions and low user density per small cell as depicted in Figure 6-2. As the small cell density increases, likelihood of inter small-cell interference increases as well. Consequently, although user load per small cell decreases, the lower end of small cell user throughput is largely unchanged.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

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Figure 6-2 Downlink user throughputs for full buffer traffic for increasing Small Cell densities. User denstity is 30 active users per macro area. The curves The results show the cell splitting benefits on the user experience. When small cells are deployed with user clustering, the per-user small cell throughput is expected to reduce due to increased user load per small cell. On the other hand, the macro user offloading is expected to be more pronounced under clustering.

6.3

Downlink Co-channel Interference

Figure 6-3 and Figure 6-4 examine the CPICH Ec/Io performance seen by UEs under the simulation model, with increasing small cell densities. The loading on small cells and macrocells is assumed to be 50% (i.e. total radiated power of 27 dBm for small cells and 40 dBm for macrocells). Figure 3-3 shows the CPICH Ec/Io observed on the serving cell. Deployment of small cells improves the user experience as more users find themselves in LOS conditions from the serving cell. But at higher densities of small cells, namely 10 small cells/ macro, the likelihood of inter-small-cell interference increases, and overall CPICH Ec/Io may degrade. From Figure 6-4 both small cell UEs and macro UEs are affected at high small cell densities. Note that CPICH Ec/Io distribution will differ from these curves for different loading conditions on small cells and macrocells.

CPICH Ec/Io on the Serving Cell, SC loading 50% 1 0.8 0.6 No Small Cells, Macro 1 SC/Macro 4 SC/Macro 10 SC/Macro

CDF

0.4 0.2 0 -16

-14

-12 -10 -8 CPICH Ec/Io, dB

-6

-4

Figure 6-3 loading.

CPICH Ec/Io on the Serving Cell. Macrocells as well as small cells have 50%

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

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CPICH Ec/Io for Small Cell UEs, SC loading 50% 1 0.8 0.6 No Small Cells, Macro 1 SC/Macro 4 SC/Macro 10 SC/Macro

CDF

0.4 0.2 0 -16

-14

-12 -10 -8 CPICH Ec/Io, dB

-6

-4

CPICH Ec/Io for Macro UEs, SC loading 50% 1 0.8 0.6 No Small Cells, Macro 1 SC/Macro 4 SC/Macro 10 SC/Macro

CDF

0.4 0.2 0 -16

-14

-12 -10 -8 CPICH Ec/Io, dB

-6

-4

Figure 6-4 CPICH Ec/Io of the UEs served on the small cells (left) and macrocells (right) . Macrocells as well as small cells have 50% loading. The reduction in CPICH Ec/Io distribution with increasing the small cell density indicates that inter-small cell interference affects the user experience. Note that each of the curves correspond to different subsets of UEs.

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

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Downlink Interference on the adjacent carrier

Macro network CPICH Ec/Io in other carriers, 4 SC/macro 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6
CDF

All UEs in adj. Carrier UE in adj carrier near SC UEs in non-adj. carrier UEs in adj carrier not near SC

0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 -20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 CPICH Ec/Io, dB -8 -6 -4

Figure 6-5 Adjacent Channel Interference for 4 Small Cells/Macrocell when small cells are transmitting at full power of 30 dBm. The figure suggests that the UE experience on adjacent carrier, near small cells may suffer. The set of UEs near small cells is defined as UEs that would be served on small cells if they were camped on the common carrier. When the common carrier with macrocells and small cells (say F1) is adjacent to a macro-only carrier (say F2), the latter may be impacted by the adjacent channel interference (ACI) arising from small cells. We examine the impact on F2 when the small cells on F1 are transmitting at full power of 30 dBm. The Figure 6-5 shows the CPICH Ec/Io observed on F2 under the simulation model due to a downlink ACI from F1. Compared to UEs in a non-adjacent macro only carrier, the UEs on F2 experience degradation. The overall impact of ACI is determined by the path loss distribution to the small cells. The impact is observed in the vicinity of small cell where a UE camped on F2 may have a LOS link to small cell present on F1 but an NLOS link to the (serving) macrocell on F2. InFigure 6-5 the UEs near the small cells are defined as those UEs who would be served by the small cell if they were on the common carrier. As expected, the UEs not near the small cells are unaffected by ACI from the small cells. On the other hand, UEs very close to small cell, e.g. below a lamp post with small cell, may see outage of macro carrier on F2. This ACI impact to overall network may be more pronounced when the small cell deployment is near user clusters such as shopping malls. The impact of ACI near small cells can partly be addressed by reduction in max transmit power of the small cell at macro-cell edges. Alternatively, or in addition, the impact is reduced or eliminated if efficient mechanism is available for moving a user from adjacent macro carrier to the open small cell via interfrequency active hand-in.

6.4

Uplink Throughput Results

The uplink throughput simulations are obtained under slightly modified settings. Instead of a single simulation of 19 macro base stations with 57 macrocells, the uplink is simulated for an area covered by 3 macrocells that belong to a single macro base station. The data is collected over 19 drops where each drop corresponds to 3 macrocells and smalls cell in that region. The uplink interference modeled includes only contributions from UEs associated with the macrocells and the corresponding small cells. 30 active users are statically dropped per macrocell area and their association (serving cell) is determined by the best downlink CPICH strength. Full Buffer traffic is assumed at the UEs, which is transmitted over the air by HSUPA with 2ms TTI format and maximum of 4 HARQ transmissions per packet. The scheduler at the serving base station is assumed to be an equal load scheduler targeting 5 dB average noise rise. Soft(er) handover is simulated between two macro links to the UE. All small cell UEs are served only by the serving cell. Figure 6-6 shows the UE uplink throughput distributions as the density of small cells is increased. As more and more users are offloaded from the macrocell, the share of resources available to macro UEs increases and hence their throughputs increase. Under uniform UE distribution, small cells inherently serve a smaller coverage area and hence smaller load than a macrocell. As small cell density is increased, small cells also see reduced load per cell as the same geographical area is split into coverage of multiple small cells. Hence

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small cell throughputs are seen to increase. Figure 6-7 shows other parameters of interest, namely UE transmit (Tx) power distribution and distribution of average noise rise at the node Bs. MUE transmit power distribution is reduced with increasing small cell density as UEs farther from the macrocell are offloaded to the small cells. The Small Cell UE Tx power distribution also shows reduction with increasing small cell density, but the effect is less pronounced. Noise rise at the macrocells is controlled but the distribution increases with small cell density as the portion of uncontrolled other cell interference (arising from small cell UEs) is increased. On the other hand, the small cell noise rise shows a reverse trend. The noise rise at the small cells is reduced as more and more MUEs, which constitute uncontrolled other cell interference, are replaced by small cell UEs that transmit to serving Node B with lower path loss.

MUE Throughput
1

FUE Throughput
1

0.8

0.8

0.6

0.6

CDF

0.4

0.2

0 picos per cell 1 picos per cell 4 picos per cell 10 picos per cell

CDF
0.4 1 picos per cell 4 picos per cell 10 picos per cell 0.2
0 0 200 400 600 800 MUE Throughput [kbps] 1000 1200

0 0

200

400

600 800 1000 FUE Throughput [kbps]

1200

1400

1600

UE Throughput
1

0.8

0.6

CDF
0.4 0 picos per cell 1 picos per cell 4 picos per cell 10 picos per cell 200 400 600 800 UE Throughput [kbps] 1000 1200 1400 0.2 0 0

Figure 6-6 Uplink User throughput distributions under increasing density of small cells . Cell Splitting benefits are apparent in the simulations

Report title: W-CDMA Open Access Small Cells Issue date: 08 May 2012 Version: Published

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MUE Tx Power
1 0 picos per cell 1 picos per cell 4 picos per cell 10 picos per cell

FUE Tx Power
1 1 picos per cell 4 picos per cell 10 picos per cell

0.8

0.8

0.6
CDF

0.6

0.4

CDF
0.4
0.2

0.2

0 -80

-70

-60

-50

-40 -30 -20 MUE Tx power [dBm]

-10

10

20

0 -80

-70

-60

-50 -40 -30 FUE Tx power [dBm]

-20

-10

Macro Noise Rise

10
0

Small Cell Noise Rise

10
0

CDF

CDF

0 picos per cell 1 picos per cell 4 picos per cell 10 picos per cell

1 picos per cell 4 picos per cell 10 picos per cell

10

-1

3 Macrocell 1 RoT [dB]

10

-1

3 Femtocell 1 RoT [dB]

Figure 6-7 Behavior of UE Tx powers and distributions of average Noise Rise at the macro and small cells. The results indicate that, provided the serving cell is chosen reliably, the system is largely stable and users benefit from the reduced load per cell obtained by cell splitting. Still there are cases where interaction between uplink interference caused by MUE to a small cell can contribute to increased interference on the macro network. An example of such a case is illustrated in the next section.

6.5

Uplink Interference to Macrocell

As system simulations indicate, under the assumption of UEs being served by strongest cells, the uplink of both macrocell and small cells can operate stably at different small cell densities. The uplink interference levels may even reduce in some cases due to smaller path losses to serving cells. Yet there are situations when the asymmetric uplink and downlink coverage in a heterogeneous deployment may lead to increased interference at both small cells and macrocells. A macro UE at the boundary of a small cell and a macrocell contributes significantly to the uplink interference at the small cell. For example, in the case of a 30 dBm small cell deployed co-channel with 43 dBm macrocell, an MUEs contribution to noise rise at small cell can be as high as 13 dB more that its contribution to the noise rise at the macrocell. Such uplink interference, in turn, forces UEs served on small cells to transmit at higher power. An example of a scenario where an FUE may jam the macrocell is given in Figure 6-8with parameters summarized in Table 6-2. In this case, a FUE is served by a small cell with 86 and 100 dB path loss to the small cell and macrocell. An MUE, a UE served by macrocell, has a path loss of 88 and 100 dB to the small cell and macrocell. On DL, the small cell and macrocell have CPICH Tx power of 20 and 33 dBm with total Tx power of 27 and 40 dBm, respectively. It is straightforward to show that the MUE and the FUE are respectively under macro and small cell downlink coverage. In UL, it is assumed that the noise floor is -98 dBm for the small cell and -103 dBm for the macrocell. Furthermore, for both UEs, the UL required pilot Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR) is -20 dB, and the traffic to pilot power ratio is 20.5 dB. With closed loop power control, the converged total Tx power is 3.6 dBm for FUE and 5 dBm for MUE. At the macrocell, FUE will cause 3.6-100-(-103) =6.6 dB interference to noise ratio, and the total noise rise is 10.7 dB. However, in the absence of FUE, the macrocell noise rise is only 3.3 dB with lower MUE Tx power of -2.5 dBm.

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As a result, to achieve the same data rate, macro UE needs 7.5 dB higher Tx power to overcome the FUE interference. Also, if macrocell has noise rise control with fixed noise rise threshold, e.g. 5 dB, the UL scheduler will try to keep noise rise below the threshold by reducing the MUE data rate. In addition, the FUE impact will be more pronounced when there are multiple FUEs in the macrocell. Note that, in this example, the contribution of MUE to the uplink interference at the small cell is nearly -83 dBm and the resulting noise rise is nearly 18 dB.

Interference Macro UE Interference Macrocell Small Cell UE

Figure 6-8 Simple Example of a small cell UE jamming a macrocell

Small Cell

Parameter

Value 20 dBm 27 dBm 33 dBm 40 dBm -98 dBm -103 dBm -99 dBm -99 dBm 3.6 dBm

Parameter FUE to small cell path loss FUE to macrocell path loss MUE to small cell path loss MUE to macrocell path loss FUE target pilot SIR FUE traffic to pilot ratio MUE target pilot SIR MUE traffic to pilot ratio MUE total Tx power

Value 86 dB 100 dB 88 dB 100 dB -20 dB 20.5 dB -20 dB 20.5 dB 5 dBm

Small cell CPICH Tx power Small cell total Tx power Macrocell CPICH Tx power Macrocell total Tx power Small cell noise floor Macrocell noise floor FUE noise floor MUE noise floor FUE total Tx power
Table 6-2

Summary of parameters in the example for FUE jamming macrocell

In this example, the UEs were served by the cells with strongest downlink. The uplink interference impact may worsen when UEs are temporarily not served by the best cell, such as near handover scenarios. Note that, on the uplink, the interference impact arising from FUEs is not local as it affects all the users on the macrocell. These situations indicate that proper uplink interference management is important for open small cell deployments. As a solution, FUE interference to macro UL can be managed by limiting UL resources (e.g., Tx power and scheduling grant) to FUE as discussed in [reference the WP from the SCF]. Adjacent Channel Impact on Macrocell Uplink When an active MUE approaches a small cell closely on an adjacent carrier, it may contribute adjacent channel interference to the small cell uplink. This causes the small cell UEs to transmit at higher power. In contrast to the uplink interference due to co-channel MUEs, this interference is (1) smaller, and (2) does not increase when FUEs transmit at higher power. For example, consider the scenario with downlink transmit power difference of 13 dB between macrocell and small cell and an uplink ACIR of 33 dB. For an MUE on the adjacent cell to contribute as much to the uplink

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interference at the small cell as a co-channel MUE at the handover boundary, the difference in the path loss from the UE to the macrocell and to the small cell should be at least 33+13 = 46 dB. This is a low likelihood event in the case of a dense urban macrocell deployment. Therefore, although small cell uplink throughputs may get affected by ACIR from MUEs, the impact on the macrocell uplink is not as pronounced as that arising due to interaction of FUEs with co-channel MUEs.

6.6

Summary and challenges

As shown in the simulations presented in this contribution, small cell deployment can provide effective offloading of users from the macro network. Both the macro users and the small cell users have improved experience: the former due to reduced load on the macro network and the latter due to excellent channel conditions seen from the serving small cell. Both downlink and uplink user data rates see a gain. The interference analysis of the impact of small cells on co-channel and adjacent channel macro downlink and co-channel macro uplink motivates the following: Need for efficient inter-frequency active hand-in and small cell discovery mechanisms: The impact of dead-zone and higher downlink interference created around the small cell due to ACI can be reduced considerably, if mechanisms for efficient inter-frequency active hand-in to the small cell are available. Such mechanisms further facilitate macro network offloading to small cells. They can work in conjunction with ACI management by power reduction Need for uplink interference management techniques: The coverage of a small cell may be surrounded by macrocell coverage and macrocell UEs may approach a small cell closely. As outlined in section 4, the interaction between the uplink of active UEs served on the macrocell and small cell UEs may lead to higher interference levels both at the small cell and the macro network uplinks. As this scenario may affect all the users in a macrocell at once, careful uplink interference management is needed. Techniques such as limiting UL resources (e.g., Tx power and scheduling grant) allocated to a small cell UE [Ref WP from SCF) Need for efficient intra-frequency handover and active hand-in: Outdoor small cells may experience user mobility between macro and small cells at vehicular speeds. Small cell path loss may change rapidly as a function of geographical distance due to relatively near-field conditions. The need for intra-frequency active hand-in in this scenario is well understood from both offloading and DL interference management viewpoint.

In order to realize the full benefits of small cell deployment, the above technical challenges need to be addressed.

7. Backhauling technologies
Different technologies exist that can be used for providing backhauling for small cells with open access. However, these technologies differ in terms of availability, suitability, cost, delay, availability. The analysis below shows that the information used points to the suitability of most of these technologies for W-CDMA small cells operating in open access. The analysis will need to be extended to cover LTE as the sensitivity to higher delay becomes more critical. The orange colour indicates that these technologies are applicable but special design considerations are required to address the QoS and other issues indicated in the table.

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Throughput

Pros

Cons

Suitable for open access femto

DSL

VDSL: 50 Mb/s; up to 100 Mb/s

High capacity

Need multiple pairs

Fiber / GPON HFC/Docsis PLC Wi-Fi Micro-waves 60 / 80 GHz

100 Mb/s

Very high capacity

Upfront Infra structure required

30 Mb/s; 100 Mb/s 1Gb/s 100Mb/s over 300 meters 100 Mb/s

Large availability in Americas Existing technology/ Easily available Rapidly deployable, quasi-LOS, Cost

Low penetration in Europe

Distance / Bandwidth

Quality Cell range in Non LOS Expensive, LoS required

100Mb/s up to 1Gb/s

High bandwidth, Good QoS QoS, Coverage No need of LoS Rapidly deployable everywhere

NLOS LTE / WiMAX 100 Mb/s TDD technologies Satellite

variable

Expensive Spectrum availability Cost,delay, location, QoS

8. Other requirements
8.1 8.2 Traffic support and interworking with macro network Mobility and handover requirements

It is expected that smallcells deployed in public areas and supporting open access would need to support bidirections handover (ie to and from macro), but this is a design issue and the implementation is left as optional to the vendor and operators to support all or a subset of this feature.

9. Conclusions
Small cells, when deployed in open access, provide spectrum re-use and higher spectral efficiency. Small cells may be deployed in dedicated carrier (may or may not be adjacent carrier to macro carrier) or shared carrier. Dedicated carrier deployment will provide better coverage, better capacity through better offloading and more robust mobility. However, dedicated carrier may not be available or economically feasible until enough small cells are deployed. In such a case, an operator can choose shared carrier deployment. The mutual interference between the macro and small cells (especially a concern for shared carrier case) may be mitigated using the techniques developed by the Small cells forum. Small cells provide a powerful means to offload traffic from the macro resulting in an overall user throughput improvement. The level of traffic offload depends on many factors such as the strength of the macro signal, the output power of the small cell and the number of small cells used per macro. The study concludes that deployment of small cells in shared carrier is possible and may be used in urban, dense urban or rural environments. Backhauling technologies exist and differ in their specifications, but the use of a technology depends on the requirements and we recommend that the backhaul is designed to avoid having bottleneck at the back of the small cell. It is possible to address QoS in most backhauling technologies and this is a matter left to the operator and the vendor, but it was found that satellite backhauling will require special attention as the delay is generally
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larger than that encountered in different technologies. The specific design for satellite backhauling is not discussed in this paper as it is outside the scope. When DSL is used for backhauling, it might be advisable to use bonding to increase the available bandwidth as well as special QoS settings.

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