On the Fundamental Characteristics of Ultra-Dense Small Cell Net

In order to cope with the forecasted 1000x increase in wireless capacity demands by 2030, network operators tend to aggressively densify the network infrastructure, so as to reuse the spectrum as much as possible. However, it is important to realise that these new ultra-dense small cell networks are fundamentally different from the traditional macrocell or sparse small cell networks, and thus ultra-dense networks (UDNs) cannot be deployed and operated in the same way as in the last 25 years. In this paper, we analyse several fundamental characteristics of UDNs as a whole, that mobile operators and vendors should consider when deploying UDNs. Moreover, we also provide new deployment and management guidelines to address the main challenges brought by UDNs in the future.