Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Atoll 2.8.1 October 2009

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC)
A means to improve signal quality at cell edges Useful in co-channel scenarios Compromise between improved cell-edge C/(I+N) or throughput

Categories of inter-cell interference coordination schemes

Static ICIC
Fractional frequency allocation approach Fractions of the channel bandwidth allocated to sectors of an eNB to serve cell-edge users The allocation does not change over time

F1

F1 Ch 1 F1 F2 F3

F3

F2

Ch 1 Ch 1 F3 F2

Ch 1

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Categories of inter-cell interference coordination schemes (contd.)
Dynamic ICIC
Scheduling/Resource allocation approach Signalling between eNBs (X2 interface) to identify the resource blocks allocated by each sector to cell-edge users Interference at cell-edges avoided by allocating different resource blocks to cell-edge users in different sectors Collisions may be avoided in both frequency and time Allocation may be adapted over time to match traffic requirements

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Downlink static ICIC based on fractional frequency reuse Fixed, 1/3rd fractioning of channels in cell-edge areas
Cell-edge area determination based on path loss difference between the best server and the second best server

Fractional frequency allocation linked to PSS ID

Automatic fractional frequency planning possible through automatic physical cell ID allocation

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Fixed, 1/3rd fractioning of channels in cell-edge areas
Cell-edge area determination based on path loss difference between the best server and the second best server User in cell-edge if: PL2ndBS PLBS PLThreshold

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Fractional frequency allocation linked to PSS ID
Physical Cell ID (0 to 503) PSS ID (0, 1, 2) and SSS ID (0 to 167) PSS ID 0 Fraction 0 PSS ID 1 Fraction 1 PSS ID 2 Fraction 2 Fractions of channel bandwidth available for cell-edge users Better C/(I+N) Entire channel bandwidth available for near-cell users Higher throughput
Non fractioned Area (F1 + F2 + F3)

Fraction 0 (F1)

Non fractioned Area (F1 + F2 + F3)

Fraction 1 (F2)

Non fractioned Area (F1 + F2 + F3) Fraction 2 (F3)

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Fractional frequency reuse settings in Atoll LTE

Determines which 1/3rd of the channel bandwidth is used by the cell

Determines cell-edge areas ICIC support

Amount of downlink traffic load of cell-edge users Monte Carlo simulation output or O&M stats
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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Automatic fractional frequency planning (Automatic Physical Cell ID Allocation)
Based on an iterative cost-based algorithm Automatic Physical Cell id allocation allocates PSS IDs Collision between PSS IDs is taken into account in the cost calculation

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Automatic fractional frequency planning (Automatic Physical Cell ID Allocation)
Different Physical Cell ID allocation plans are tried and a cost calculated for each The best Physical Cell ID allocation plan is the one with the lowest cost The cost is calculated for cells with the following relations Neighbours Distance between cells < min reuse distance

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Interference calculation
For both interfering and interfered cells, the ICIC ratio provides the switching point in time between the ICIC and non-ICIC parts of the frame The positions of the switching points determines the received interference From fractional channel to fractional channel From fractional channel to full channel From full channel to fractional channel From full channel to full channel

Shorter ICIC part (Less cell-edge traffic)

Longer ICIC part (More cell-edge traffic)

Interferer switching point

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Server switching point

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Variation of the switching point with ICIC ratio

ICIC ratio: 100%

Switching point at the end of the frame ICIC ratio: 50%

ICIC ratio: 0%

Switching point at 75% of the frame

Switching point at the start of the frame

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
PDSCH C/(I+N) without ICIC

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
PDSCH C/(I+N) with ICIC

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Downlink throughput without ICIC

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Inter-cell interference coordination in Atoll LTE
Downlink throughput with ICIC

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Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Atoll LTE

Future improvements
Static inter-cell interference coordination in uplink Dynamic inter-cell interference coordination

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