Realization of Licensed/Unlicensed Spectrum Sharing Using eICIC in Indoor Small Cells for High Spectral and Energy Efficiencies of 5G Networks

摘要

In this paper, we show how to realize numerous spectrum licensing policies by means of time-domain enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) technique to share both the licensed and unlicensed spectrums with small cells in order to address the increasing demand of capacity, spectral efficiency, and energy efficiency of future mobile networks. Small cells are deployed only in 3-dimensional (3D) buildings within a macrocell coverage of a mobile network operator (MNO). We exploit the external wall penetration loss of each building to realize traditional dedicated access, co-primary shared access (CoPSA), and licensed shared access (LSA) techniques for the licensed spectrum access, whereas, for the unlicensed spectrum access, the licensed assisted access (LAA) technique operating in the 60 GHz unlicensed band is realized. We consider that small cells are facilitated with dual-band, and derive the average capacity, spectral efficiency, and energy efficiency metrics for each technique. We perform extensive evaluation of various performance metrics and show that LAA outperforms considerably all other techniques concerning particularly spectral and energy efficiencies. Finally, we define an optimal density of small cells satisfying both the spectral efficiency and energy efficiency requirements for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks.