Correlated Shadow Fading for Cellular Network System-Level Simulations with Wrap-Around

In system-level simulations, it is vital to appropriately model spatially correlated shadow fading, especially the autocorrelation, so as to emulate realistic scenarios. However, as the size of the network increases, the complexity of the straightforward approach involving the Cholesky decomposition grows exponentially. Alternatively, low-complexity oriented schemes to generate correlated shadow fading value (SFV) maps for large networks are more preferable. However, the existing schemes do not consider wrap-around, which should be taken into account in the generation of SFV maps to facilitate user equipment (UE) mobility simulation and avoid the reduced interference in the outer-rim region. In order to prevent discontinuous shadow fading across the border of the simulated area and the wraparound area, new methods to efficiently generate SFV maps are required. In this paper, a novel scheme to generate SFV maps with wrap-around is proposed, and its significant accuracy is analysed using computer simulations.