Interference Management with Successive Cancellation for Dense Small Cell Networks

Network-Assisted Interference Cancellation and Suppression (NAICS) receivers have appeared as a promising way to curb inter-cell interference in future dense network deployments. This investigation compares the performance of a NAICS receiver with successive interference cancellation capabilities, known as Symbol-Level Interference Cancellation (SLIC), with respect to a baseline Minimum Mean Square Error-Interference Rejection Combining (MMSE-IRC) receiver. The study is carried out on a dense, clusterized small cell network, illustrating to which extent NAICS can overcome the additional interference associated with such deployments. Moreover, we analyse how much the data rates could be potentially improved by estimating the throughput with ideal cancellation of the dominant interferer. The results point to limited gains of up to 12% in the coverage data rates when NAICS is used, and that the instantaneous throughput might increase up to 100% in the most favourable case, falling significantly below the estimated 200% maximum gain with ideal cancellation.