Heterogeneous network

deployments in LTE
Complementing high-power macro nodes with lower-power ones is an attractive means
of meeting the predicted requirements for higher data rates and additional capacity.
mechanism. In practice, some addi-
tional factors such as backhaul capac-
ity should also be included in the cell
selection process. Increasing the uptake
area of a node is sometimes referred to
as range expansion.
The advantages of this technique are:
enhanced uplink data rates by at least
partially taking uplink path loss into
account when associating terminals with a
low-power node;
increased capacity receiving downlink
traffc from the low-power node even if the
received signal strength from the macro is
higher allows for the reuse of transmission
resources across low-power nodes; and
improved robustness enlarging the
coverage area of a low-power node can
reduce its sensitivity to ideal placement in
a traffc hotspot.
A heterogeneous deployment, with a
modest range expansion somewhere in
the region of 3-4dB, is already possible in
the rst release of LTE, Rel-8. The bene-
ts gained from range expansion are
highly dependent on the individual sce-
nario and, in many cases, modest range
expansion is best. Nevertheless, 3GPP
has recently discussed the applicability
of excessive range expansion with cell-
selection offsets up to 9dB. Such deploy-
ments are particularly problematic, as
a terminal in the range-expansion zone
(the striped area shown in Figure 2) may
experience very low downlink signal-
to-interference ratio due to the signi-
cant difference in output power of the
nodes. Specically, downlink control
signaling in the range expansion zone
which is essential for the low-power
node to control transmission activity
poses a problem. Transmission of the
LTE is rapidly emerging as
the worlds most dominant
4G technology, taking mobile
broadband to unprecedented
performance levels. To meet
expectations and predictions
for even higher data rates and
traffc capacity beyond what is
available in current LTE networks
a densifed infrastructure is
needed
1
. In scenarios where
users are highly clustered, using
multiple low-output power sites
to complement a macro cell
providing basic coverage is an
attractive solution as illustrated
in Figure 1.
This strategy results in a heterogeneous-
network deployment with two cell lay-
ers. The principle can be extended to
more than two layers and the concept
of multiple layers, is in itself not new;
hierarchical cell structures have been
considered since the mid-1990s but,
at that time, the discussion applied to
mobile technologies primarily offering
low-rate voice services.
In this article, the discussion focuses on
radio-interface solutions, standardized
by 3GPP, to enhance the performance of
heterogeneous-network deployments
(or heterogeneous deployments) with all
nodes operating on the same frequency.
Traditionally, a terminal connects
to the node from which the down-
link signal strength is the strongest.
In Figure 1, the solid orange areas are
those in which the signal from the cor-
responding pico node is the strongest.
Users in these zones connect to the
appropriate low-power node.
Due to the difference in transmission
power between the pico nodes and the
overlying macro node, this strategy does
not necessarily result in the terminal
connecting to the node to which it has
the lowest path loss as illustrated in
Figure 2. It is, therefore, not the best
node-selection strategy for achieving
high uplink data rates.
The uptake area of a low-power node
can be expanded without increasing
the output power of the node by add-
ing an offset to the received downlink
signal strength in the cell-selection
STEFAN PARKVALL, ERI K DAHLMAN, GEORGE JNGREN,
SARA LANDSTRM AND LARS LI NDBOM
ERI CSSON REVI EW 2 2011
The soft-cell approach
BOX A Terms and abbreviations
3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
4G 4th Generation mobile
wireless standards
ABS almost blank subframe
BCH broadcast channel
CA carrier aggregation
CRS cell-specifc reference signal
DM-RS demodulation-specifc
reference signals
ICIC inter-cell interference coordination
LTE Long Term Evolution
PDCCH physical downlink control channel
PDSCH physical downlink shared channel
PSS primary synchronization signal
RE range expansion
RRC Radio Resource Control
RRU remote radio unit
Rx radio receiver
SSS secondary synchronization signal
UL CoMP uplink coordinated
multipoint reception
FIGURE 1 Heterogeneous deployment
R
x
p
o
w
e
r
R
x
p
o
w
e
r
Macro cell Macro cell
Downlink-signal-strength
cell border
Downlink-signal-strength
cell border
Path-loss-based cell border Path-loss-based cell border
(p
a
th
lo
s
s
)
-1
(p
a
th
lo
s
s
)
-1
Low-power node Low-power node
Range
expansion
zone
Range
expansion
zone
FIGURE 2 Range expansion
Carrier aggregation
(CA)
Carrier aggregation
(CA)
Almost blank
subframes (ABSs)
Almost blank
subframes (ABSs)
f
1
f
1
f
2
f
2
ff
FIGURE 3 Frequency-domain and time-domain partitioning
data part is less challenging as Rel-8 sup-
ports methods for ensuring non-over-
lapping transmissions in the frequency
domain from the macro and the low-
power node using inter-cell interference
coordination (ICIC)
2
.
This article discusses two different
approaches to heterogeneous deploy-
ment resource partitioning and soft-
cell schemes both of which provide
support for excessive range expansion.
Resource partitioning
By restricting macro-cell transmissions
from using the same time-frequency
resources as the low-power node, con-
trol signaling from the low-power
node to the terminal can be protect-
ed. Resource partitioning can be imple-
mented in either the frequency domain,
by using support for carrier aggregation
(Rel-10), or in the time domain, by rely-
ing on almost blank subframes (ABSs),
a feature that will be fully supported in
LTE Rel-11 (see Figure 3).
Frequency-domain partitioning
This method protects downlink control-
signaling from the low-power node in
the range-expansion zone by placing
control signaling from the macro and
low-power nodes on separate carriers
as illustrated in Figure 3. Assuming
transmissions from low-power nodes
are time synchronized with the over-
lying macro, the control signaling on
carrier f2 in the range-expansion zone
will not be subject to major interfer-
ence from the macro node. At the same
time, through the use of carrier aggrega-
tion, data transmissions can still benet
from the full bandwidth of both carri-
ers. The Rel-8 ICIC mechanism can be
used to coordinate use of data resources.
Regardless of the extent of range
expansion, frequency-domain parti-
tioning is a natural choice to support
heterogeneous deployments for opera-
tors who already rely on carrier aggre-
gation (CA) to exploit fragmented
spectrum; and who have a reasonable
number of subscribers using CA-capable
terminals in their networks.
Time-domain partitioning
This method protects the downlink
control-signaling from the low-power
node by reducing macro transmis-
sion activity in certain subframes
ERI CSSON REVI EW 2 2011
PSS
A
, /SSS
A
, BCH
A
, CRS
A
PSS
A
, /SSS
A
, BCH
A
, CRS
A
PSS
B
, /SSS
B
, BCH
B
, CRS
B
PSS
B
, /SSS
B
, BCH
B
, CRS
B
Cell A Cell A Cell B Cell B Cell C Cell C
PSS
C
, /SSS
C
, BCH
C
, CRS
C
PSS
C
, /SSS
C
, BCH
C
, CRS
C
FIGURE 4A Independent cells
Cell A Cell A
PSS
A
, /SSS
A
, BCH
A
, CRS
A
PSS
A
, /SSS
A
, BCH
A
, CRS
A
FIGURE 4B Soft cell
22
11 33
Same PSS/SSS,
BCH, CRS
Same PSS/SSS,
BCH, CRS
Data (PDSCH)
Control (PDCCH)
Data (PDSCH)
Control (PDCCH)
FIGURE 5 Heterogeneous deployment using a soft-cell scheme
which is illustrated in the bottom
part of Figure 3. The low-power node
is provided with data about the set of
protected subframes over the X2 inter-
face and can use this information when
scheduling users who are in the range-
expansion zone.
For backward compatibility, the mac-
ro node must transmit certain signals,
most notably cell-specic reference sig-
nals (CRSs) and synchronization signals
(PSSs/SSSs), in downlink subframe in
the same way as in Rel-8. The protected
subframes are, as a result, not complete-
ly blank but they are almost blank.
Terminals need to apply interference
suppression to receive control signaling
from the low-power node. Time-domain
partitioning can thus be viewed as a ter-
minal-centric approach to achieving
excessive range expansion.
Support for time-domain partition-
ing for excessive range expansion is
incomplete in Rel-10; X2 and RRC sig-
naling are included, whereas inter-
ference-suppression receivers are still
under discussion for Rel-11. The main
argument for implementing time-
domain partitioning is to enable sup-
port for excessive range expansion for
those operators that do not want to rely
on carrier aggregation.
Soft-cell schemes
In both frequency-domain and time-
domain partitioning schemes, the low-
power nodes create separate cells, each
of which has an individual cell identi-
ty that differs from that of the macro
cell. As a consequence, each pico node
transmits unique system information
and synchronization signals, includ-
ing reference signals as illustrated in
Figure 4A. In an alternative approach
known as shared cell or soft cell, low-
power nodes can be part of the macro
cell without creating independent cells
as illustrated in Figure 4B.
The distinction between cell and
transmission points is an important
aspect of the soft-cell approach. Each
cell has a unique cell identity from
which the CRS is derived. With the
cell-identity information, a terminal
can derive the CRS structure of the cell
and obtain the system information it
needs to access the network. A transmis-
sion point, on the other hand, is simply
one or more collocated antennae from
ERI CSSON REVI EW 2 2011
The soft-cell approach
which a terminal can receive data trans-
missions. Note that the sectors of a site
constitute separate points.
Traditionally, each cell has one trans-
mission point from which the CRS, as
well as all data transmissions, are sent.
In Rel-10, however, demodulation-spe-
cic reference signals (DM-RSs) were
introduced. Unlike CRSs, these signals
are subject to the same pre-coding as
the associated data and are transmit-
ted only when a corresponding data
transmission is detected. The termi-
nal can deduce the channel needed for
demodulation based on the fact that
both the DM-RS and data are transmit-
ted in a similar manner. This implies
that DM-RS-based data transmission to
a terminal does not have to be sent from
the transmission point used for CRS-
based information, and that time-fre-
quency resources for data can be reused
at different transmission points.
In Figure 5, data is transmitted to
terminal 1 from the low-power node
farthest to the left. Since the associat-
ed DM-RS is transmitted from the same
transmission point as the data, the ter-
minal does not need to know which
point is used for data transmission to
achieve area-splitting gains the reuse
of time-frequency resources for data
transmission across multiple low-pow-
er nodes within the same macro cell.
The control information required in
Rel-10 is based on CRS and needs to be
transmitted from, at least, the macro
site. In many cases, this results in data
and associated control signaling orig-
inating from different transmission
points. This is transparent to the termi-
nal; it needs to match the reference sig-
nal with the corresponding data signal.
The identity of the transmission point,
on the other hand, is irrelevant.
Figure 5 shows different ways to
transmit control information. The case
for terminal 1 where control signal-
ing originates only from the macro site
has already been described. This meth-
od results in reduced network energy
consumption, because the low-power
node is active only when there is data
to transmit.
For terminal 2, identical CRS and con-
trol signals can be transmitted from the
macro and the low-power node. As the
same signal is transmitted from both
nodes, the terminal will interpret them
as a single composite node. This method
results in an improved signal-to-noise
ratio for control signaling through an
over-the-air combination of transmis-
sions from both the macro and the low-
power nodes.
For power-control purposes, LTE ter-
minals estimate the uplink path loss
from the strength of the received CRS
signal. Consequently, the case illustrat-
ed by terminal 2 can sometimes result
in more accurate uplink power con-
trol at least for Rel-8/9/10 terminals. A
minor update to a future release of the
LTE standard is currently under discus-
sion in 3GPP that will provide the same
uplink power-control accuracy while
allowing for greater energy efciency
in network operations.
To further improve the performance
of the soft-cell scheme, enhancements
to support DM-RS-based control signal-
ing are likely to be included in LTE Rel-
11. This will provide area-splitting gains
for control signaling, in contrast to the
CRS-based control signaling in Rel-10
and previous releases.
Terminals from previous releases
that do not support DM-RS-based trans-
mission can still operate in a soft-cell
scheme without any area-splitting
gains. Data transmission to such termi-
nals is CRS-based and is handled in the
same way as control signaling. These
terminals will benet from low-power
nodes because of the improved signal-
to-noise ratio.
A soft-cell scheme can be deployed
by connecting one or several RRUs and
the macro site to the same main unit. In
practice, this link should use high-speed
microwave or optical ber, as it requires
low-latency and a fairly high-capacity
connection for tight coupling between
the macro and low-power nodes where
control and data signaling originate
from different transmission points.
However, with the availability of DM-RS-
based control signaling, backhaul
requirements will be relaxed as both
the data and control signaling can orig-
inate from the same transmission point.
The centralization of processing pro-
vides benets in uplink performance,
which is often signicant enough to jus-
tify using RRUs with centralized pro-
cessing irrespective of range expansion.
Any combination of points not neces-
sarily those used for downlink trans-
mission to a terminal can be used to
receive transmissions from a terminal.
By combining the signals from differ-
ent antennae in a constructive manner
at the central processing node a meth-
od known as uplink softer handover a
signicant improvement in uplink data
rates can be achieved.
In addition to avoiding much of inter-
fering CRS transmissions heteroge-
neous deployments that use soft cells
can provide greater mobility robust-
ness than deployments with separate
cells. This is important, especially when
moving from a low-power node to the
macro. In separate cell deployment, a
handover procedure is required to
ERI CSSON REVI EW 2 2011
Rel-8 Rel-8 Rel-10 Rel-10 Rel-10+ Rel-10+
Separate cell Separate cell
Soft cell Soft cell
Medium RE Medium RE Rel 8 Rel 8
Excessive RE Excessive RE
Resource partitioning Resource partitioning
Any backhaul Any backhaul
Low-latency backhaul
(allows for UL CoMP)
Low-latency backhaul
(allows for UL CoMP)
Almost blank
subframes
Almost blank
subframes
Carrier
aggregation
Carrier
aggregation
DM-RS-based
data and control
DM-RS-based
data and control
DM-RS-based data
CRS-based control
DM-RS-based data
CRS-based control
CRS-based
data and control
CRS-based
data and control
Any RE Any RE
FIGURE 6 Comparison of diferent approaches to heterogeneous deployments
switch serving cells. If, during the
time it takes to perform the handover
procedure, the terminal has moved too
far into the macro area, it may drop the
downlink connection from the low-
power node before handover is complete
leading to a radio-link failure. In soft-
cell deployment, the transmission point
that should be used for downlink trans-
mission can be changed rapidly without
a handover procedure thus reducing
the probability of dropped connections.
Conclusion
A heterogeneous-network deployment
is a favorable means of meeting future
data-rate and capacity demands. In
many cases, the support provided in Rel-
8 is sufcient. This article has provided
an overview of various schemes, sum-
marized in Figure 6, including carrier
aggregation, almost blank subframes
and soft cell with a focus on the latter.
The choice of scheme depends on the
scenario, although the network-centric
soft-cell approach provides many bene-
ts without the requirement for not-yet-
standardized terminal functionality.
ERI CSSON REVI EW 2 2011
The soft-cell approach
1. S. Landstrm, A. Furuskr, K. Johansson, L. Falconetti, and F. Kronestedt,
Heterogeneous networks (hetnets) an approach to increasing cellular capacity
and coverage, Ericsson Review, No 1, 2011.
2. E. Dahlman, S. Parkvall, and J. Skld, 4G: LTE/LTE-Advanced for
Mobile Broadband, Elsevier, 2011.
References
Stefan Parkvall
is currently a principal
researcher at Ericsson
Research, with a focus on
future radio access.
Parkvall has been heavily involved in
the development of HSPA, LTE and
LTE-Advanced radio access. He is a
senior member of IEEE and co-author
of the book 3G Evolution HSPA and
LTE for Mobile Broadband and 4G
LTE/LTE-Advanced for Mobile
Broadband. In 2009, he was a co-
recipient of Stora Teknikpriset
(Swedens major technology award)
for his work on HSPA. In 1996, he
received a Ph.D. in electrical
engineering from the Royal Institute of
Technology (KTH) Stockholm. He was
previously an assistant professor in
communication theory at KTH and a
visiting researcher at University of
California, San Diego, in the US.
Sara Landstrm
is a senior researcher at
Ericsson Research in
Lule, Sweden. Her
research area is Wireless
Access Networks and her current
focus is heterogeneous networks.
She has also been involved in
evaluating IMT-Advanced candidate
technologies and service-oriented
research. She joined Ericsson in 2008
after receiving her Ph.D. in computer
networking from Lule University of
Technology, Sweden.
George Jngren
joined Ericsson
Research in 2005 and is a
master researcher in the
area of radio-access
technologies. His current focus is on
research and standardization of multi-
antenna and coordinated multi point
(CoMP) techniques for LTE. During his
early years at Ericsson he was part of
the development of the MIMO HSDPA
test-bed. He holds an M.Sc. (1998 ) and
Ph.D. (2003) in electrical engineering
from the Royal Institute of Technology
(KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. In 1997, he
was elected Teacher of the Year in
electrical engineering at KTH.
Erik Dahlman
joined Ericsson
Research in 1993 and is a
senior expert in the area
of radio access
technologies. He has been deeply
involved in the development and
standardization of 3G radio access
technologies (WCDMA/HSPA) as well
as LTE and its evolution. He is part of
the Ericsson Research management
team working on long-term radio
access strategies. He is also co-author
of the book 3G Evolution HSPA and
LTE for Mobile Broadband and 4G
LTE/LTE-Advanced for Mobile
Broadband. In 2009, together with
Stefan Parkvall, he received the Stora
Teknikpriset award in 2009 for
contributions to the standardization
of HSPA. He holds a Ph.D. from KTH
in Stockholm.
Lars Lindbom
currently holds a
position as systems
manager at Ericsson
Business Unit Networks,
where he works on concepts and
standards for future radio access,
including standardization related to
heterogeneous networks for 3GPP. He
has a Ph.D. in signal processing from
Uppsala University.