Characterisation of Other-Cell Interference in Co-Channel WCDMA Small Cell Networks

This paper investigates the effect of the other-cell interference in WCDMA small cell networks when operating on the same frequency channel of the hosting macrocell tier. In this paper, the problem formulation is presented and it is shown that the co-channel interference and the effective capacity can not be analytically traced. Consequently, using simulation and modelling, the paper investigates the interference exposure of the macrocell tier on the small cells in regards to the small cell´s distance to the macrocell Base Station (BS), the small cell transmission power, the environment shadowing and macrocell load level. The results can serve as essential guidelines for operators when estimating the effective capacity of small cells in co-channel deployment scenarios.