Inter-cell Interference Coordination

in Atoll LTE

Atoll 2.8.1

October 2009

Confidential – Do not share without prior permission

 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC)

A means to improve signal quality at cell edges

Useful in co-channel scenarios

Compromise between improved cell-edge C/(I+N) or throughput

Categories of inter-cell interference coordination schemes

Static ICIC
• Fractional frequency allocation approach
• Fractions of the channel bandwidth allocated to sectors of an eNB to serve cell-edge users
• The allocation does not change over time

F1
F1
Ch 1 F1 F2 F3

Ch 1 Ch 1 Ch 1
F3 F2
F3 F2

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Categories of inter-cell interference coordination schemes (contd.)

Dynamic ICIC
• Scheduling/Resource allocation approach
• Signalling between eNBs (X2 interface) to identify the resource blocks allocated by each sector
to cell-edge users
• Interference at cell-edges avoided by allocating different resource blocks to cell-edge users in
different sectors
• Collisions may be avoided in both frequency and time
• Allocation may be adapted over time to match traffic requirements

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Downlink static ICIC based on fractional frequency reuse

Fixed, 1/3rd fractioning of channels in cell-edge areas

• Cell-edge area determination based on path loss difference between the best server and the
second best server

Fractional frequency allocation linked to PSS ID

• Automatic fractional frequency planning possible through automatic physical cell ID allocation

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Fixed, 1/3rd fractioning of channels in cell-edge areas
• Cell-edge area determination based on path loss difference between the best server and the
second best server
• User in cell-edge if:
• PL2ndBS – PLBS ≤ ΔPLThreshold

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Fractional frequency allocation linked to PSS ID
• Physical Cell ID (0 to 503)  PSS ID (0, 1, 2) and SSS ID (0 to 167)
• PSS ID 0  Fraction 0
• PSS ID 1  Fraction 1
• PSS ID 2  Fraction 2
• Fractions of channel bandwidth available for cell-edge users  Better C/(I+N)
• Entire channel bandwidth available for near-cell users  Higher throughput

Fraction 0 (F1)
Non fractioned
Non fractioned Fraction 1 (F2) Area
Area (F1 + F2 + F3)
(F1 + F2 + F3)

Non fractioned
Area
(F1 + F2 + F3)

Fraction 2 (F3)

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Fractional frequency reuse settings in Atoll LTE

Determines which 1/3rd of the channel

bandwidth is used by the cell

Determines cell-edge areas

ICIC support

Amount of downlink traffic

load of cell-edge users
Monte Carlo simulation
output or O&M stats
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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Automatic fractional frequency planning
(Automatic Physical Cell ID Allocation)
• Based on an iterative cost-based algorithm
• Automatic Physical Cell id allocation allocates PSS IDs
• Collision between PSS IDs is taken into account in the cost calculation

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Automatic fractional frequency planning
(Automatic Physical Cell ID Allocation)
• Different Physical Cell ID allocation plans are tried and a cost calculated for each
• The best Physical Cell ID allocation plan is the one with the lowest cost
• The cost is calculated for cells with the following relations
• Neighbours
• Distance between cells < min reuse distance

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Interference calculation
• For both interfering and interfered cells, the ICIC ratio provides the switching point in time
between the ICIC and non-ICIC parts of the frame
• The positions of the switching points determines the received interference
• From fractional channel to fractional channel
• From fractional channel to full channel
• From full channel to fractional channel
• From full channel to full channel

Shorter ICIC part Longer ICIC part

(Less cell-edge traffic) (More cell-edge traffic)

Interferer switching point Server switching point

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Variation of the switching point with ICIC ratio

ICIC ratio: 100%

Switching point at the end of the frame

ICIC ratio: 50%

ICIC ratio: 0%

Switching point at 75% of the frame

Switching point at the start of the frame

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

PDSCH C/(I+N) without ICIC

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

PDSCH C/(I+N) with ICIC

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Downlink throughput without ICIC

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE

Downlink throughput with ICIC

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 Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Future improvements
Static inter-cell interference coordination in uplink

Dynamic inter-cell interference coordination

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