Effects of User-Deployed, Co-Channel Hierarchical Cells on the Call Drop Probability in a Residential Scenario

This paper analyses the effects of low-power, co-channel hierarchiac UMTS femtocells deployed by users in their homes on the dropped called resulting from additional handovers. These residential femtocell base stations would be deployed without much consideration to cell planning on the part of the user, relying instead on inbuilt auto-configuration abiltiies to minimise the impact on the macro cellular network by limiting the base station transmit power levels. Simulations of the deployment of such femtocells in a residential scenario were performed to study its effects on the service experienced by users that are connected to the underlay macrocells. The results show that the addition of the femtocells would not pose a signficant impact on the dropped call rate, causing an additional 0.45% increase in the chance of a macrocell user's call dropping in the simulation's worst case scenario.