On the area spectral efficiency improvement of heterogeneous network by exploiting the integration of macro-femto cellular networks

Heterogeneous networks are an attractive means of expanding mobile network capacity. A heterogeneous network is typically composed of multiple radio access technologies (RATs) where the base stations are transmitting with variable power. In this paper, we consider a Heterogeneous network where we complement the macrocell network with low-power low-cost user deployed nodes, such as femtocell base stations to increase the mean achievable capacity of the system. In this context, we integrate macro-femto cellular networks and derive the area spectral efficiency of the proposed two tier Heterogeneous network. We consider the deployment of femtocell base stations around the edge of the macrocell such that this configuration is referred to as femto-on-edge (FOE) configuration. Moreover, FOE configuration mandates reduction in intercell interference due to the mobile users which are located around the edge of the macrocell since these femtocell base stations are low-power nodes which has significantly lower transmission power than macrocell base stations. We present a mathematical analysis to calculate the instantaneous carrier to interference ratio (CIR) of the desired mobile user in macro and femto cellular networks and determine the total area spectral efficiency of the Heterogeneous network. Details of the simulation processes are included to support the analysis and show the efficacy of the proposed deployment. It has been shown that the proposed setup of the Heterogeneous network offers higher area spectral efficiency which aims to fulfill the expected demand of the future mobile users. © 2012 IEEE.