Performance Evaluation of Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination with Pico-Cell Adaptive Antenna in Long Term Evolution-Advanced

Abstract

The concept of heterogeneous networks has attracted a lot of interest recently as a way to improve the performance of the network. The heterogeneous networks approach consists of complementing the Macro layer with low power nodes such as Micro or Pico base stations. In LTE-A hetnet , pico-eNBs are deployed to adequately offload traffic from macro layer and bring users closer to the base station to enhance the cell edge user experience. However, macro-eNB causes strong interference to pico cell edge users due to its higher transmission power. Hence, inter-cell interference is the biggest challenge in LTE-A HetNets. The intercell interference management is a critical point to improve the performance of the cellular mobile networks. This thesis aims to mitigate intercell interference in the downlink LTE-A HetNets. Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) schemes have been proposed to mitgate the heavy interference in the Range Extension case ranging from time domain schemes like Almost Blank Subframes (ABS).enhanced This thesis is an in-depth analysis of inter-cell interference in LTE-Advanced HetNets and explores various solutions proposed in the literature to reduce interference. It presents a pioneering tactic based on the blend of eICIC (enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination) and smart antennas to further reduce the macro interference. The simulations for downlink co-channel deployment of macro-eNB (evolved Node B) and pico-eNB, demonstrates overall network performance gain and improved QoS (Quality of Service) for the pico cell edge users’ achieved using the proposed scheme.