LTE Small Cell Optimization

7 Small Cell Interference Management

Rajeev Agrawal, Anand Bedekar, Harri Holma, Suresh Kalyanasundaram, Klaus Pedersen and Beatriz Soret

1. 7.1 Introduction
2. 7.2 Packet Scheduling Solutions
3. 7.3 Enhanced Inter-cell Interference Coordination
4. 7.4 Enhanced Coordinated Multipoint (eCoMP)
5. 7.5 Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP)
6. 7.6 Summary
7. References

7.1 Introduction

Interference is an old acquaintance with new significance when migrating from carefully planned macro-only deployments to HetNet deployments with denser and denser small cell installations. The deployment of small cells such as pico cells and micro cells poses new challenges. The use of interference mitigation techniques, therefore, plays an important role when deploying small cells to fully maximize the benefits of such investments. Interference mitigation comes in many different forms as summarized in Table 7.1, where the main options offered for LTE are listed. On the network side, neighbouring interfering cells can use different forms of resource partitioning to reduce co-channel interference. Among such options, higher order sectorization and coordinated beamforming implement resource partitioning in the spatial domain and are typically considered feasible for macro eNodeBs that can be equipped with the required number of antennas to enable such solutions. Resource partitioning in the time and/or frequency domain is another option, where especially coordinated time-domain muting between macro and/or small cells has gained ...