Performance Improving for Indoor Users in LTE Networks Using Femtocells

Abstract

The exponential growth of mobile data traffic affects not only the capacity requirements of the mobile networks, but even the expected quality of service. The introduction of LTE improved the situation to some extent. However, as a high percent of mobile data traffic is generating from indoors, LTE operating at higher frequencies cannot really meet the ever-increasing demand of data traffic and reasonable quality of service. This Thesis provides an analysis of the network throughput with LTE technology. In this regard a system level simulation environment was developed that included macro and indoor traffic distribution pattern. Simulation results show that with increasing percentage of indoor traffic the aggregated throughput of the macro network decreases significantly. Lately, two scenarios emerged to offload the indoor traffic, by Femtocell. LTE is designed to provide multi-megabit bandwidth, more efficient use of the radio network, latency reduction, and a lower cost per bit. This combination aims to enhance the user’s experience and further drive the demand for mobile multimedia services. With LTE, people will more readily access their Internet services from mobile devices, including real time and on demand television, blogging, social networking and interactive gaming. Femtocells are low-power access points that operate in licensed spectrum and provide mobile coverage and capacity over internet-grade backhaul. Femtocell applications include residential, enterprise, indoor hotspot, and outdoor hotspot deployments. Femtocells are lower in cost than typical macrocells while retaining full operator management even if they are located on the customer premises.