Hybrid Spectrum Usage for Overlaying LTE Macrocell and Femtocell

This paper investigates flexible spectrum usages for LTE network that consists of overlaying macrocell and femtocell. In such a networking environment, shared spectrum usage and partitioned spectrum usage are two options to be employed between two radio tiers. After recognizing the pros and cons of these two usages, we propose hybrid spectrum usage to take advantage of their merits. In our proposal, the femtocells embedded in macrocell are differentiated to inner and outer femtocells, which operate in partitioned spectrum usage and shared spectrum usage, respectively. Analysis and performance evaluation are given to illustrate and justify our proposed method on improving spectrum utilization for wireless overlay network.