Study of LTE and LTE-Advanced as a Low Cost Backhauling Solution for HSPA Small Cells

Abstract

Mobile broadband has become the main way for people in emerging markets access internet. This is due to the very low penetration of fixed line broadband connections in those regions. The increased consumption of mobile broadband data in those regions can be accommodated through network densification of consumer deployed small cells. This provides operators to outsource some of the operational burdens to small cell owners in addition to providing coverage and capacity improvement.However, finding cost effective backhauling of the small cells is necessary as those regions are characterized by lack of fixed lines and energy scarcity. We studied LTE/LTE-Advanced as one alternative approach for backhauling small cells. We also studied different backhaul performance enhancement mechanisms, such as, MIMO (4x4 and 8x8) and bandwidth scaling as well as traffic steering policies to meet the demand of small cells backhaul. The simulation results highlight the potential of LTE/LTE-advanced as a cost-effective backhauling option without causing significant harm to normal LTE users. Both traffic steering policies (small cell backhaul prioritized and LTE-capable UEs prioritized) provide comparable performance as long as UEs in the service area are not majority LTE-capable. With LTE-capable UEs constituting majority of the users, we recommend either bandwidth scaling or higher order MIMO or a combination of both to achieve acceptable backhaul performance.