Heterogeneous Networks with LTE-Advanced Technologies

Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) are a powerful solution to handle the rapidly increasing demand for mobile broadband bandwidth and are a key concept of Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio strategy. HetNets consist of small cells embedded in a macro cellular network and enable flexible and scalable capacity enhancement. The first part of the paper discusses basic HetNet-specific aspects, e.g. small cell placement and fairness with respect to service quality. We present solutions for cell range expansion of small cells, which enable more UEs to profit from the additional capacity. The second part discusses advanced approaches for interference management optimized for HetNets. We present advanced solutions which exploit the possibilities offered by new LTE-Advanced features like inter-cell interference-coordination (eICIC) and carrier aggregation (CA). Based on standard compliant DL system simulations we evaluate the performance of these advanced solutions in different application scenarios and give recommendations on optimal scheduling strategies.