Impact of dead zones on the performance of urban 3G cellular networks

The impact of dead zones on the performance of the frequency division duplex (FDD) mode of an urban UTRA cellular network was investigated. An urban cellular network was simulated with and without ACI produced by another uncoordinated cellular network. It was found that the overall capacity of the ´victim´ cellular network in the presence of ACI was similar to the capacity without ACI for the value of ACP defined in the UTRA FDD specifications (33 dB). However, in the areas that dead zones occur, we highlighted a number of ACI mitigation techniques and it was found that the most effective techniques require a significant degree of operator cooperation.