Seamless Macro-Cell Anchored Radio Transmission for Enhanced Downlink Performance in Heterogeneous Networks
31 July 2011
Heterogeneous networks comprising overlapping layers of macro cells and small cells are expected to be widely deployed to cope with the rapidly increasing demand for wireless bandwidth. While the use of judicious resource sharing and interference management mechanisms allow these networks to provide adequate performance for static or pedestrian users, they often fail to meet the needs of users with any significant mobility. In this paper, we propose a cooperative data transmission scheme called "Seamless Macro-Cell-Anchored Radio Transmission" that enables even highly mobile users to experience performance levels similar to those enjoyed by static users. The performance improvements effected by this scheme occur mainly at low percentiles; in that sense it can be said to deliver sustained end-user experience even to highly mobile users. Further improvement in edge performance is possible with the use of rate thresholds in conjunction with the proposed scheme. Keywords- Heterogeneous Networks, Resource Partitioning, Edge Performance, Handoffs. I. INTRODUCTION The rapidly increasing demand for mobile data applications coupled with limited licensed spectrum availability has led to significant interest in the deployment of small cell overlays, i.e., to form heterogeneous (or hierarchical) networks comprising mixtures of macro-cells and small cells operating in the same spectrum. These small cells are expected to have lower transmission powers; these lower powers and the high interference levels encountered due to macro-cellular transmissions result in significantly reduced coverage areas compared with their macro-cellular counterparts.
