Ultra-Dense Networks: Is There a Limit to Spatial Spectrum Reuse?

Abstract

The aggressive spatial spectrum reuse (SSR) by network densification using smaller cells has successfully driven the wireless communication industry onward in the past decades. In our future journey toward ultra-dense networks (UDNs), a fundamental question needs to be answered. Is there a limit to SSR? In other words, when we deploy thousands or millions of small cell base stations (BSs) per square kilometer, is activating all BSs on the same time/frequency resource the best strategy? In this paper, we present theoretical analyses to answer such question. In particular, we find that both the signal and interference powers become bounded in practical UDNs with a non-zero BS-to-UE antenna height difference and a finite UE density, which leads to a constant capacity scaling law. As a result, there exists an optimal SSR density that can maximize the network capacity. Hence, the limit to SSR should be considered in the operation of future UDNs.

conference submission in Oct. 2017

References in corpus (2)

• On the Performance of Practical Ultra-Dense Networks: The Major and Minor Factors
• Performance Impact of Idle Mode Capability on Dense Small Cell Networks

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• Optimum Interference Management in Underlay Inband D2D-Enhanced Cellular Networks
• What Is the True Value of Dynamic TDD: A MAC Layer Perspective
• Ultra-Dense Networks: A New Look at the Proportional Fair Scheduler
• A Tractable Framework for the Analysis of Dense Heterogeneous Cellular Networks