Creating Desirable Interference by Optimized Sectorization in Cellular Systems

Most mobile communication systems deployed use 3-fold sectorization with directed antennas to avoid inter-sector interference and to spatially reuse available radio resources. However, innovations in next generation networks such as multiple antenna systems and coordinated multi-point techniques allow mitigation or even exploitation of interference. In this paper, we discuss how sectorization and antenna directivity can be adjusted to intentionally avoid or create interference in order to maximize the throughput of non-cooperative and cooperative transmission concepts. A key result is: the introduction of cooperative transmission renders higher sectorization using a larger number of inexpensive antennas with low directivity per site attractive.