Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
TECH-BLOG
As mobile communication technology has evolved dramatically, from LTE (10 MHz) to LTE-A (10+10 MHz), and
then to wideband LTE (20 MHz), South Korea's mobile market is hotter than ever with its big 3 operators
competing fiercely in speed and quality (see Netmanias Report, LTE in Korea UPDATE - May 1, 2014).
Operators can offer different maximum speeds depending on how wide frequency bandwidths they can
actually use. All three, with pretty much same amount of LTE frequency bandwidths obtained, practically
support the same maximum speeds.
However, these theoretical maximum speeds are not available to users in real life. What users experience, i.e.,
Quality of Experience (QoE) is affected by various factors, and so the actual QoE is far from the maximum
speeds. One of the biggest factors that causes such quality degradation is Inter-cell Interference.
In 2G/3G networks, it was base station controllers, i.e., upper nodes of base stations, that control inter-cell
interference. In 4G networks like LTE/LTE-A, however, inter-cell interference can be controlled through
coordination among base stations. This was made possible because now LTE networks have X2 interfaces
defined between base stations. By exchanging interference information over these X2 interfaces, base stations
now can schedule radio resources in a way that avoids inter-cell interference.1
There are several Interference Coordination technologies in LTE and LTE-A:
LTE: Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC)
LTE-A: Enhanced ICIC (eICIC) which is an adjusted version of ICIC for HetNet, and Coordinated Multi-Point
(CoMP) which uses Channel Status Information (CSI) reported by UE
In this and next few posts, we will learn more about these Interference Coordination technologies. First, let's
find out ICIC, the most basic interference coordination technology.
f3
f3
f1
A2
in ignal
te
rf e
re
n
ce
A1
e
en c
rf e r
e
t
in
al
n
sig
No interference in
central region
B1
Cell A
Interference
in Cell Edge
f1
B2
Cell B
Interference is caused because cells only know what radio resources their own UEs are using, and not what
other UEs in the neighbor cells are using. For example, in the figure above, Cell A knows what resources A1 is
using, but not about what B1 is using, and vice versa. And the cells independently schedule radio resources for
their own UEs. So, to the UEs at cell edges (A1 in Cell A and B1 in Cell B), same frequency resource can be
allocated.
ICIC Concept
ICIC is defined in 3GPP release 8 as an interference coordination technology used in LTE systems. It reduces
inter-cell interference by having UEs, at the same cell edge but belonging to different cells, use different
frequency resources. Base stations that support this feature can generate interference information for each
frequency resource (RB), and exchange the information with neighbor base stations through X2 messages.
Then, from the messages, the neighbor stations can learn the interference status of their neighbors, and
allocate radio resources (frequency, Tx power, etc.) to their UEs in a way that would avoid inter-cell
interference.
For instance, let's say a UE belonging to Cell A is using high Tx power on frequency resouce (f3) at the cell edge.
With ICIC, Cell B then allocates a different frequency resource (f2) to its UE at the cell edge, and f3 to its other
UE at the cell center, having the one at the center use low Tx power in communicating.
High power High power Low power
Low power
Low power
F
sign
f1
f3
A1
l
na
sig
f1
f3
B3
B2
B1
No interference in
central region
Cell A
f2
al
A2
No Interference
in Cell Edge
Cell B
different frequency
resources (f3 and f2) are
allocated to A1 and B1 at the
cell edge, allowing for
enhanced communication
quality with no interference.
Cell B allocates f3 to a UE
that uses low Tx power if Cell
A is already using f3 for a UE
at the cell edge that uses
high Tx power.
3. UL: OI {f1, f2, f3, f4, f5} = {High, High, Low, Low, Low}
OI
high
Sign
al
Sign
al
low
Int
er
In feren
te
r f e c e f1
re
nc
B1
e
f3
A3
f1
l
na
Sig
A1
high
l
na
Sig
l
na
Sig
f2
B2
Cell A
f2
Cell A
Cell B
A2
f
5
4
3
2
1
high
high
low
1msec
Ave.
0
0
1
1
0 t
None
High power
Low power
TTI
ICIC period
TTI: Transmission Time Interval
ICIC: Inter-Cell Interference Coordination
Cell A
f1
f2
f3
f4
f5
Cell B
f1
f2
f3
f4
f5
Measure signal/
interference and generate
interference information
Send
interference
info. through
X2 message
ICIC
Calculation
(Coordination)
ICIC-based Scheduling
(ICIC power control)
A2
Signal/Interference Measurement
...
High power
Low power
5
4
3
2
1
Load Information
OI HII RNTP
Cell A
A3
ICIC Calc.
Tx (X2 Delay)
X2
#12
#13
X2
#11
Cell B
Signal/Interference Measurement
OI HII RNTP
Load Information
Tx (X2 Delay)
ICIC Calc.
f
5
4
3
2
1
B1
B2
...
High power
Low power
Footnotes
1. Over X2 interfaces, not only interference information, but also information on handover, resource status,
neighbor cells, etc., can be exchanged. However, only interference information is discussed here in this post.
2. Frequency resources are allocated in resource blocks (RBs). In this post, RBs (or sub-carriers) that are
allocated to UEi are referred to as fi.
3. 3GPP TS 36.423
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
eMBMS/Mobile IPTV
CDN/Mobile CDN
Transparent Caching
BSS/OSS
Services
Cable TPS
Voice/Video Quality
IMS
Policy Control/PCRF
IPTV/TPS
LTE
Mobile
Network
Mobile WiMAX
Carrier WiFi
LTE Backaul
Data Center Migration
Carrier Ethernet
FTTH
Wireline
Network
Data Center
Metro Ethernet
MPLS
IP Routing
CDN
Transparent
Caching
Analysis
Networks
eMBMS
LTE
IMS
Infrastructure Services
Concept Design
DRM
POC
Training
Wi-Fi
protocols
IP/MPLS
Carrier Ethernet
Consulting
Future