Future Cellular Networks

David Lopez-Perez

November 2013
Agenda

1. Trends & Cellular Network Evolution

2. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Indoor Small Cells

3. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Outdoor Small Cells

4. Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Cell Networks

5. New Macrocell Architecture

6. Conclusions
Important

This presentation only includes Bell Labs research ideas/work and

there is no commitment by the business divisions of Alcatel-Lucent
to support this them.
 Traffic Growth in Wireless Networks

Wireless Network Trends:

• Broad availability of small, highly capable
mobile devices
• Users want access to internet and mobile
services anytime anywhere
New mobile devices
• Exponential increase in wireless capacity
demand

Challenges:
• Mobile users are not willing to spend
exponentially more money
• Limited available frequency spectrum
• Energy consumption of networks

Bell Labs traffic predictions for North America

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Historic Capacity Gains in Wireless Networks

Wireless Network Capacity

Gains 1950-2000
15x by using more spectrum
(3 GHz vs 150 Mhz)
5x from better voice coding
5x from better MAC and
modulation methods
2700x from smaller cells

Total gain 1 million fold

Source: William Webb, Ofcom.

We can always further increase

spatial frequency re-use by
reducing cell size!
 Future Network Topology & Small Cells today

Future Cellular Network Topology:

• Small cells are the solution to the wireless
capacity problem
• Macrocells required for coverage

Small Cell Deployments Today:

• Over 6 million small cells deployed,
exceeding the number of macrocells
worldwide (2012)
• 98% of mobile operators believe that
small cells are essential for the future of
their networks
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media, 2012

Source: Prof. Berthold Horn, MIT; OpenSignalMaps

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 Macrocellular Network
Current Cellular Network Model

• Predominant Cellular Network Model

today consists of macrocells with small
cells for indoor coverage
• Small cells transmit on separate
frequency band
• Closed access model for small cells
Pros:
– Simple to deploy Residential
Femtocells provide
Cons: indoor coverage

– Requires large amount of spectrum

– Capacity outdoors limited by macrocell
Mobile access
– Closed access causes interference issues
between small cells in dense deployments

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 Macrocellular Network
Future Dense Multi-tier HetNets

• High density HetNet deployment where

outdoor small cells provide capacity and
macrocells ensure area coverage.
• Co-channel deployment
• Public access model for small cells
Pros:
– High frequency re-use Lower CapEx
– Capacity scales with Allows massive Dense multi-tier
HetNet provides
number of cells capacity increase high capacity
Cons:
– More interference Potential
Mobile access
– Requires fast handovers QoS problem
– Large number of cells Increased
may be difficult to deploy CapEx & OpEx
and expensive to operate

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Agenda

1. Trends & Cellular Network Evolution

2. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Indoor Small Cells

3. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Outdoor Small Cells

4. Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Cell Networks

5. New Macrocell Architecture

6. Conclusions
Effects of Small Cell Deployments on the
Core Network
• Femtocells deployed in dense urban areas frequently result in mobile macrocell users passing
through the coverage of multiple femtocells.
• For public access deployments where femtocells can share a single frequency with the
macrocell underlay, handovers of macrocell users into the femtocell are required to prevent
dropped calls due to co-channel interference. This can cause very high number of handovers
(can increase call drop probability).
• For private access deployments, Location/Routing Area Codes assigned to femtocells needs to
be different from the macrocell underlay and neighbouring femtocells to prevent camping of
un-registered users. This can cause a very high number of LA/RA update requests.

Femtocell overlay
LA2 LA3 LA7
LA5 LA8
LA6
LA4

LA1

Macrocell underlay

Femtocell coverage needs to be optimized

 Coverage optimization based on neighbors transmit power

Initial configuration – Downlink power

• Each femtocell adjusts its transmit power to achieve a SIR of 0 dB with respect to the macrocell at
the intended cell radius.
• As a result the DL power is a function of the macrocell radio distance. This ensures the same
femtocell range irrespective of the location within the macrocell.
60
(a) max. received macrocell power
40 (b) received macrocell pilot power
(c) noise power at the UE
(d) max. received femtocell power (d=400m)
20  
 min Pmacro  G ( )  Lmacro (d )  Lfemto ( r ), Pmax 

(e) received femtocell power (d=400m)
(f) max. femtocell Tx-power Pfemto
0 (g) femtocell pilot power    
 estimate of recieved macro cell power 
Power [dBm]

-20

-40
Problem: Best coverage depends on
-60 house type and deployment location
within the building.
-80

-100 Further optimization required.

0 100 200 300 400 500
distance from the macrocell [m]
Femtocell power auto-configuration to achieve a pre-defined coverage
Coverage optimization based on mobility events

Practical self-optimization approach:

• The femtocell classifies handovers in wanted
and unwanted handovers dependent on
whether the UE is registered.

• If the number of unwanted HO nt1 during time

t1 exceeds the maximum allowed number n1
the pilot is reduced by D1.

• If nt2 during time t2 is smaller than the

maximum allowed number n2 the pilot is
increased by D2.

• Here, n1 = n2 = 0 to prevent all unwanted

mobility events.
Example of self-optimization process
Overview
 Residential scenario with house
facing busy road including indoor
and outdoor mobility model.
 Femtocell is deployed in the back
of the house
 Initial pilot power setting is auto-
configured based on received
signal from macrocell
 During operation, mobility event
based self-optimization of the
coverage is performed

Results
 The optimization results in optimal
performance for this scenario
 Full indoor coverage is achieved

click on image to start video

Performance of Coverage Optimization
Macro<->Femto mobility events per hour in idle mode (1 indoor user) Mean indoor coverage in active mode
14 1
fixed power
distance based 0.9 <- House boundary
average number of handovers per hour

12 measurement based
handover based (no passing user HO) 0.8
handover based (minimum total HO)
10 0.7
handover based (optimum minimum total HO)

indoor coverage
0.6
8
0.5
6 0.4

0.3 fixed power

4
distance based
0.2 measurement based
2 handover based (no passing user HO)
0.1 handover based (minimum total HO)
<- House boundary handover based (optimum minimum total HO)
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Femto-cell distance from footpath Femto-cell distance from footpath

• Handover based self-optimization of coverage can significantly reduce the total number of handover
events caused by femtocell deployments.
• Indoor coverage for femtocells deployed in suitable locations is improved compared to simpler
methods that aim to achieve a constant cell radius.

References
[1] H. Claussen, L. T. W. Ho, and L. G. Samuel, “Self-optimization of coverage for femtocell deployments," in Proc. Wireless Telecommunications Symposium
(WTS), Los Angeles, USA, Apr. 2008, pp. 278-285.
[2] H. Claussen, L. T. W. Ho, and F. Pivit, “Self-optimization of femtocell coverage to minimize the increase in core network mobility signalling," Bell Labs
Technical Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 155-184, Aug. 2009.
Coverage optimization using multiple antennas

Since the cell radius is constrained such that With multiple antennas the coverage can be better
passing users are not affected, good indoor adapted to the house which improves the
coverage can only be achieved when the achievable indoor coverage for different
femtocell is deployed in the center of the house. deployment locations without impacting other users

Strong constraints on cost and size

 Due to cost constraints no independent adaptation of lobes feasible at this time. Focus is
on switching between multiple gain patterns resulting from combinations of antennas.
 Antenna design must fit into a small femtocell enclosure.
 Pattern diversification and null steering using multiple
antenna system
•IFA

Antenna System Setup:

4 Antennas:
- 2 mono-pole-type (IFA)
- 2 Patches

Feed network: front antenna •Patch

Simple 1x4 Switching Circuit

•Foam
•spacer
•Switch
•Power
amplifier •Antennas

•Diplex •Coaxial feed

er lines
Cost:
~3 € Prototype of femtocell antenna system with
dummy printed circuit board.
Simulated and measured antenna patterns
0° •-15° •0° •15°
330° 30° •-30° •30°
5 dB •-45° •45°

300° 0 dB 60° •-60° •60°

-5 dB •-75° •75°
IFAs
270°
Patches 90° •-90° •90°

•-105° •-4 •105°

240° 120° •-120° •0 •120°

•-135° •4 •135°
210° 150° •-150° •150°
180° •-165° •±180° •8•165°
Single patch
Single IFA
Combined IFA and patch
IFA—Inverted F antenna

Antenna pattern in decibel of a single patch, single IFA, Ten measured antenna patterns resulting from selection of one or a
and of a combination thereof. combination of two antennas.

High beam versatility enables null steering and exposition reduction

Algorithm
Practical self-optimization approach:
Select the beam pattern and power based on
both mobility events and path-loss
measurements:
• The femtocell collects path-loss statistics
for each gain pattern by periodically
switching through all gain patterns when a
mobile is connected
• The femtocell collects information on
mobility events and classifies them into
wanted and unwanted events
• The femtocell uses the above information in
an iterative optimization process to
determine the best gain pattern and
corresponding pilot power level

Optimal solution as benchmark:

• Global search over all possible combination
to find optimal configuration.
• Good as benchmark, but not suitable for
implementation due to slow convergence.
Results: Multi-element antennas

reduced number of
mobility events improved indoor
coverage

• Multi-element antennas can both reduce the number of mobility events and
improve indoor coverage particularly in poor femtocell location choices
• Improvements of more than 20% in performance over single antenna optimization can be
achieved for only a small increase in costs
• The flexibility where a femtocell can be deployed and give good coverage is
increased, resulting in an improved customer perception of the product.
• The proposed coverage optimization method approaches optimal performance.
References
[1] H. Claussen and F. Pivit, \Femtocell coverage optimization using switched multi-element antennas," in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Com-
munications (ICC), Dresden, Germany, June 2009.
Agenda

1. Trends & Cellular Network Evolution

2. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Indoor Small Cells

3. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Outdoor Small Cells

4. Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Cell Networks

5. New Macrocell Architecture

6. Conclusions
Problem overview
• Uneven SINR distribution with current macro-
cellular configuration due to interference
 Poor SINR between sectors of base stations with
frequency re-use 1
 Cell edge UEs receive poor throughputs

• Strong interference between macrocells and

small cells in co-channel HetNet deployments
 Poor small cell UE performance at cell-edges and
expanded regions
 Macrocell UEs may incur HO failures

We address these problems using a

novel sector offset configuration
Multi-carrier sector offset configuration
Traditional multi-carrier New multi-carrier
macrocell configuration macrocell configuration with sector offset

Benefits:
• areas with poor SINR do not overlap
• frequency re-use 1
• enhanced worst UE and average UE throughputs
due to improved SINRs 2 columns
• reduced HO failure since HOs start at higher SINRs within
the same
Cost: radome
• larger number of antennas
• increased number of HOs
 Single-carrier sector offset configuration
Equip each eNodeB with 2 sector
Split the available bandwidth into 2
configurations, offset with respect to
spectrum fragments, and
each other
Both
fragments
use the same
common
reference
signal (CRS)

Each sector
configuration
transmit a
spectrum fragment
Characteristics:
• areas with poor SINR do not overlap
• frequency re-use 1 Same as
• improved worst UE and average UE throughputs due to improved SINRs before
• reduced handover failure since handover start at higher SINRs
• reduced number of HOs
HOs among offset antennas that transmit the same CRS are not necessary
 Sector offset configuration for HetNets

• Combining sector offset with 3GPP

Release 10 Almost Blank Subframes
(ABS) and smart load balancing

• Interference mitigation due to macrocell

sector offset:
– Small cells under the macrocell red
spectrum fragment see low interference in
blue spectrum fragment

– Improve SINR of small cell range-expanded

UEs

• Implication:
– Improved interference coordination
– Enhanced cell-edge performance
– Lower ABS duty cycles
– Larger small cell biases
Simulation model
Parameters & Mobility model

Mobility simulations:
• 500 routes
• 3km/h and 30km/h users
• HO and HOFs modelled
according to TS 36.839

Capacity simulations:
• Typical Urban fast-fading model
• Time and frequency domain PF-based scheduler
• 2 Rx antennas at the UE with Maximal Ratio
Combining (MRC)
• wideband SINRs computed with Exponential Effective
SINR Mapping (EESM)
Performance comparison: macrocell-only, 1 carriers
3 sector, reuse 1 3 sector, offset 6 sector, reuse 1 6 sector, offset

Number of HOs slightly increased by +13% (3 sect.)

22% average and 32% edge throughput improvements (3 sect.)
69% reduction of HO failure rate (3 sect.)
Scales well to higher sectorizations
Performance comparison: HetNet, 1 carrier
3 sector, reuse 1 3 sector, offset 3 sector, offset

For a given ABS duty cycle, cell-edge performance increases by 50%

For a targeted ER UE performance, ABS duty cycle reduces by
50%, and thus MUE performance increases by 31%
46% reduction of HO failure rate
Potential for larger range expansion
LTE high traffic: Sector offset provides 7-15% savings for
Macro; 23-28% savings for Hetnet
Macro with sector Macro without Hetnet with sector Hetnet without
offset sector offset offset sector offset
5 year TCO €5.2M €5.7M €10.5M €13.8M
CAPEX & OPEX 64% & 36% 64% & 36% 39% & 61% 38% & 62%

Additional BSs/SCs 56/0 70/0 0/915 0/1205

LTE Macro TCO Savings LTE Hetnet TCO savings

8 Savings 15.6% 20
Savings 15% Savings 28% Savings 28%
7
Savings 7% 15 Savings 24%
6
5
TCO €(M) 4 TCO without offset TCO €(M) 10 TCO without offset
3 TCO with offset
5 TCO with offset
2
1
0
0 30% 35% 40%
30% 35% 40%
Edge capacity % of mean capacity
Edge capacity % of mean capacity

•TCO savings would be higher if edge capacity required is higher, max savings at edge capacity 35%
•Sector offset can provide additional 5%-6% edge capacity for Macro case and about 10% for Hetnet case at the same TCO
Agenda

1. Trends & Cellular Network Evolution

2. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Indoor Small Cells

3. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Outdoor Small Cells

4. Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Cell Networks

5. New Macrocell Architecture

6. Conclusions
 Impact of small cells on the network energy consumption

Energy Facts:
• Telecommunications is a large consumer of energy
(e.g. Telecom Italia uses 1% of Italy’s total energy
consumption, NTT uses 0.7% of Japan’s total energy
consumption)
• Increasing costs of energy and international focus on
climate change have resulted in high interest in
improving the efficiency in the telecommunications
industry
Opportunity:
Small cells have the potential to reduce the transmit
power required for serving a user by a factor in the
order of 103 compared to macrocells.
Problem:
Most femtocells today are not serving users but are still
consuming power:
50 Million femtos x 12W = 600 MW 5.2 TWh/a
Comparison:
- Nuclear Reactor Sizewell B, Suffolk, UK: 1195MW
- Annual UK energy production: ~400 TWh/a Source: BBC News - How the world is changing

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 Reducing energy consumption
Idle mode procedures for femtocells
When femtocells become more widely deployed, their
energy consumption becomes a concern.
Idle mode procedures can:
• Significantly reduce energy consumption
• Reduce power density in the home
• Reduce mobility procedures and associated
signalling
• Reduce interference caused by pilot
transmissions
References:
[1] I. Ashraf, L. T. W. Ho, and H. Claussen, “Improving energy efficiency of femtocell Femtocell activation based on noise rise from active UE
base stations via user activity detection," in Proc. IEEE Wireless Communications
and Networking Conference (WCNC), Sydney, Australia, Apr. 2010.
allows to activate the femto only for serving a call
[2] H. Claussen, I. Ashraf, and L. T. W. Ho, “Dynamic idle mode procedures for
femtocells," Bell Labs Technical Journal, to be published in 2010.

Femtocell energy consumption - Today Femtocell energy consumption – Optimized design

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 Small Cells enable significant improvements in energy
efficiency
Results x 10
4

10
• A mixed macro- and small cell architecture can Macrocells Only
significantly reduce the energy consumption of 9 PIFm =15%, PIF s=15%, m =0.4, s=0.4
cellular networks for high data rate user demand in 8 PIFm =30%, PIF s=30%, m =0.2, s=0.3
urban areas where macrocells are capacity limited 7
PIFm =50%, PIF s=50%, m =0.2, s=0.05

• The power consumption can be reduced by up to

Total Power [W]

6
60% for high data rate demand in urban areas
5
(2007 technology) [1],[2].
4
• With more dynamic idle mode control and efficient 46x improvement
3
power scaling with load a 46x efficiency for 2016
improvement is possible in 2016 [3]. 2

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Year

References:
[1] H. Claussen, L. T. W. Ho, and F. Pivit, “Leveraging advances in mobile broadband technology to improve environmental sustainability," Telecommunications
Journal of Australia, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 4.1-4.18, Feb. 2009.
[2] H. Claussen, L. T. W. Ho, and F. Pivit, “Effects of joint macrocell and residential picocell deployment on the network energy efficiency," in Proc. 19th IEEE
International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), Cannes, France, Sept. 2008.
[3] R. Razavi and H. Claussen, “Urban small cell deployments: Impact on the network energy consumption,” in Proc. IEEE Wireless Communications and
Networking Conference (WCNC), Paris, France, Apr. 2012.

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Agenda

1. Trends & Cellular Network Evolution

2. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Indoor Small Cells

3. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Outdoor Small Cells

4. Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Cell Networks

5. New Macrocell Architecture

6. Conclusions
Where are we going outdoors?
If we do more of the same …

Contamination Discrimination Obstruction

We need new macrocell architectures

 Architecture improvements for macrocells
lightRadio Cube and Active Antenna Array

Characteristics:
• Picocell – Macrocell
solutions
• Enables intelligent
antenna techniques
• Avoids Cable losses
(3 dB)

RF

Picocell
lightRadio
Active Digital
Cube
Antenna link
Array Macrocell

or Cloud
Ethernet
or CPRI

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 Large Scale Antenna Systems
Reducing Energy Consumption
Only one antenna panel is powered to
simulate a call to an end-user. All powered but only at a fraction

End-user End-user
Power used = 16W Power used = 1W
Proof of Concept Demonstration, London 2011.
Collaborators: Bell Labs, Freescale, Huawei, imec, Samsung
09 December 2013© 2011 GreenTouch Consortium COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Circular Antenna Array
Higher-order sectorization strategies
Beam 1
Beam 2

Beam3

.
.
.

Bell Labs prototype

24 column Array. Each beam/sector is generated

Diameter: ~21” @2.45 GHz using 7 adjacent antenna elements.

Performance comparable with MU-MIMO

09 December 2013© 2011 GreenTouch Consortium COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Agenda

1. Trends & Cellular Network Evolution

2. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Indoor Small Cells

3. Improving Co-existence of Macro- and Outdoor Small Cells

4. Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Cell Networks

5. New Macrocell Architecture

6. Conclusions
 Summary & Conclusions
• Small cells are a necessary topology evolution for future data growth:
– Dense Multi-tier HetNets
– Co-channel operation with public access to achieve high frequency re-use
• Joint optimization of macrocells and small cells with offset sectorization results in:
– Significant increase in user throughput for both macrocell and small cell
– Increased deployment flexibility for small cells
– Improved handover failure rate – highly mobile users remain on macrocell
• Energy efficiency becomes critical when small cells become widely deployed:

– Idle mode control in combination with low idle power consumption have a
high potential for significantly reducing the network energy consumption.

– Active antenna arrays (Light Radio) and large scale antenna systems can
improve the energy efficiency of macrocells.

09 December 2013 COPYRIGHT © 2013 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 The Team

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