Skip to main content

On Femto Deployment Architectures and Macrocell Offloading Benefits in Joint Macro-Femto Deployments

01 January 2010

New Image

This paper provides an overview of opportunities and challenges related to joint deployments of macro and femtocells. It provides insights on possible deployment architectures for femtocells along with an analysis framework for quantifying macro offloading benefits in realistic network deployment scenarios by means of advanced performance analysis techniques. Such benefits include potential enhancement in quality of radio signals for users served by the macro network in joint macro-femto deployments. This in turn translates into potentially better data rates (throughput) for macro cell users and may offer the possibility of adding more users to the macro network while preserving the network configuration - resulting in direct Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) savings. The approach taken in this paper consists of creating a framework for quantifying macro offloading benefits in joint macro-femto deployments. A baseline configuration where all users (indoor & outdoor) are served by traditional macro network (state-of-the-art macro only network) is considered first. The analysis is followed through joint macro-femto deployments, where femtocells are serving indoor users. Through comparison of the baseline configuration and the joint macrofemto analysis, we quantify the benefits of the joint macro-femto deployment.