4G Heterogeneous

Networks (HetNet)
4G Heterogeneous Networks
Supporting high data rates has been the most essential
requirement for the next generation cellular system.
1G bps for static; 100M bps for mobility (definition of 4G by IMT-
Advanced)
How to significantly enhance the data rate?
Enhancing multiple access, technology
Shortening the distance between the transmitter and the receiver
Extending the bandwidth by allowing more concurrent transmissions.
Reduce the cell size
The cost of re-deployment is too high
Deploying cells with smaller coverage overlaying conventional
Macrocells
Femtocells (indoor)
Picocells (outdoor)
Relay nodes (RNs)

2
4G Heterogeneous Networks
Multi-tier network

Macrocell

Macrocell Macrocell
eNB HeNB
HeNB RN
Pico-eNB UE
HeNB eNB
UE Femtocell
HeNB Picocell HeNB eNB
Femtocell UE
UE eNB
HeNB
HeNB RN UE
eNB Femtocell
UE
eNB Pico-eNB
Femtocell
UE UE Picocell
Macrocell Pico-eNB eNB Macrocell
Picocell
Macrocell Interference

3
Femtocell
AAA P-GW
Wx
Server
D/Gr HSS
Evolved
Packet Wm S6a
S5
Core (EPC) AHR
SeGW
S1 MME / S-GW
HeNB GW
S1
S1
S1
S1
X2
S1 eNBc S1
X2

X2 HeNB eNBa

Macrocell
eNBb
HeNB
HeNB Femtocell

4
HetNet architecture
Femtocell
enhance the indoor signal strength
backhaul: users digital subscription line (DSL),
delivery delay is around the level of milliseconds.
a real-time communication between a femto-BS and a
macro-BS is unavailable.

5
HetNet architecture
Picocell
share the traffic load of the macrocell on a hop
spot area.
identical to a macro-BS, except a smaller
transmission.
direct interface (known as X2) between a pico-
BS and a macro-BS
a real-time communication between pico-BS and a
macro-BS is possible.

6
Relay Station

MME / S-GW

Type II

RS eNB
Type I

RS

RS

7
HetNet architecture
RNs
deployed at the coverage edge of a macrocell
to enhance the signal strength of a macro-BS at
the coverage edge.
Type I RN has a cell identity,
Type II RN does not

a RN is more than just a signal repeater in

Layer 1, but may also be capable of
scheduling and resource allocation.

8
HetNet Challenges
Haphazard deployment
femto-BSs are deployed by users in a fully
dynamic fashion
Restricted/closed access
femto-BSs are paid by the customers,
only users defined by the owners are allowed to
access femto-BSs.
No coordination between macro-BS and
femto-BS
Backward compatibility:

9
HetNet Technical Issues
Interference management
Access control
Security/QoS
Time Synchronization

10
Interference Management
Severe cross-tier and
Wired
Backhual
intra-tier interference femto-MS a
occurs
macro-BS femto-BS 1
An effective interference
mitigation scheme macro-MS c

femto-MS b femto-BS 2
Centralized (global) radio Macrocell

resource allocation macro transmission cross-tier interference

schemes femto transmission intra-tier interference

High computational complexity

No scalability
Distributed radio resource allocation schemes with
information exchange
A large amount of information exchanges among users/cells
Interfaces for information exchange may not be available

11
Interference Management
Inter-cell/intra-tier interference
macrocell y
The typical macro-UE
located at origin macro-UE macrocell
macro-UE macro-BS
macro-UE
macro-BS
macro-BS
macro-BS x0
x
macro-BS
macro-BS
macro-UE macro-UE
macro-UE macro-BS
macro transmission
inter-cell (intra-tier) interference

12
Interference Management
Intra-tier and cross-tier interference
macrocell y
The typical macro-UE
located at origin pico-BS macrocell

macro-BS
femto-BS femto-BS
macro-BS x0
femto-BS x

femto-BS
pico-BS pico-BS

pico-BS intra-tier interference

cross-tier interference
macro transmission pico transmission femto transmission

13
Interference Management
Orthogonal /separate channel assignment
femto macro

frequencey

time

14
Interference Management
Co/common channel assignment

frequencey

time

15
Location Locking
Emergency Call Location:
Spectrum Use
People may bring the femto-BS to a new
location without the operator's awareness and
permission to enjoy the free transmission with
high quality everywhere.
incur heavy cross-tier and intra-tier interference
Commercial
Operators may decide they can justify charging
an additional fee to process a femtocell
relocation

16
Location Locking
HeNB Management
Evolved Packet System (HMS) Internet
Core (EPC)
HeNB GW
SeGW
P-GW
MME
eNB S-GW
UE 1

UE 4
UE 2
UE 3
HeNBb eNB
HeNBa
HeNBb
Move to a
new location
Cross-tier interference Macrocell
Intra-tier interference

17
Interference Management
orthogonality at no orthogonality at
time-frequency time-frequency

frequencey

orthogonality at
location/spatiality
time

RB occupied by macrocells macrocell BS macrocell users

RB occupied by small cells small cell BS small cell users

RB occupied by both cross-tier interference from
empty RB
macrocells and small cells small cells to macrocell

18
Target of Orthogonality
Location/Spatiality
two nodes physically locating closely to each
other do not suggest severe interference
to/from each other even if a small transmission
power is adopted in both nodes
Time-Frequency
Resource blocks (RB)
Antenna Orthogonality
Multiple Input Multiple Output
(MIMO) form different transmissions spatial
paths.

19
Methods of Information Acquisition
Exchanging at the BS side
By leveraging wireless/wired interfaces, small
cell BSs and macro-BS could directly exchange
information
no direct interface between a macro-BS and a
femto-BS
heavy communication overheads
Measuring at the UE side
performing periodical channel measurement in
UEs and reporting the measurement results to
its serving BS
consume power in UEs

20
Methods of Information Acquisition
Measuring at the BS side
BS has the capability of measuring interference
if the received interference power on a RB
exceeds a certain threshold, femto-BS identifies
that this RB is occupied and retrieves activity

21
Interference Management
Information required Type
Inference mitigation techniques Activity Channel Codebook Message
Time-
o
frequency
Domain of Space/
Coordination o
orthogonality locaction
Antenna
o
spatiality
Cancellation Coding techniques o o o

22
Interference Management
Theoretical Analysis Stochastic Geometry
Consider a network snapshot
with a receiver at the origin
All other simultaneous
transmissions have randomly
located transmitters ={Xi}
Assume all nodes have same
transmit power
Nodes are randomly r
distributed according to a
point process
Fading power is

Aggregate interference
0
SIR 0 =
() 0 | |

23
Interference Management
Theoretical Analysis Stochastic Geometry
Reliability: outage probability relative to a SIR threshold
Shot noise interference: Z = () 0 | |

Assume exponential with unit mean

Signal is Rayleigh faded with unit average power
Assume Poisson point process (PPP)
The probability that there are nodes in is given by the Poisson
distribution and thus equal to () /!
Outage probability for fetmo-UE receiver (FUE):
FUE = Pr SIR FUE > = Pr 0 > Z
z
= 0
= E |=
2 2/
= exp( )
2
where = 22 / csc( )

24
Access Control
Closed Access Mode
Only emergency calls if not in closed subscriber
group (CSG)
Open Access Mode
All UEs are treated equally in the cell
Hybrid Access Mode
UEs not part of CSG may camp and acquire
some level of service.

25
Access Control
Closed Access
Nonsubscribers have strong interference behind
the femtocell.
High probability of outage.
Open Access
High frequency of handover.
Not enough cell IDs for femtocells in a
macrocell.

26
Security/QoS
3GPP was not able to complete the security
aspect.
Device Authentication
Encryption/Ciphering

QoS control
QoS for delay sensitive traffic, voice
Operators backhaul system
Third party entity (DSL, Cable Network)

27
Synchronization
Distributed interference management
methods
based on an ideal assumption of perfect timing
synchronization between femtocells and
Macrocells/picocells, and among all femtocells.

28
Synchronization
Synchronization and timing are very critical

What makes it difficult to achieve in

Femtocells
Timing and synchronization depends on reliable
receipt and delivery of RF signals.
There can be areas where there are no macro cells
nearby.
Macro cell with very bad radio condition.
Number of Femtocells and location of each
femtocell is unpredictable.

29
Synchronization
IEEE1588 : A Precision Time Protocol
deliver timing information from a
synchronization serverto all femtocell BSs
through the wired backhaul,
each femtocell BS can measure the timing
difference between the femtocell BS itself and
the synchronization server.
Air interface Based : GPS
GPS makes use of multiple continuously moving
satellite for synchronization

30
Synchronization
TV Receiver
Femto-BSs equipped with TV receiver are
proposed to achieve synchronization by
receiving broadcasted TV signals
penetration loss of building walls
User Equipment (UE):
UEs are leveraged to assist the serving BS to
synchronize with neighboring synchronized BSs

31
Synchronization
Solution: inter femto-BS communications
Gossip algorithm
fast averaging problem with continuous changes
of connections among nodes and the taken
values
Voter algorithm
Femto-BS updates its timing to that of only one
randomly selected femto-BS.

Asynchronous radio resource management

?

32
Mobility Management
Random deployment
Load balancing

33