Simple optimizations for the growth of heterogeneous networks

Heterogeneous cellular networks are composed of a mixture of macro and small (pico) cells embedded in the macro network. A greedy strategy is proposed to maximize network capacity. Picos placement and either macro or pico transmit power are optimized jointly, as picos are deployed. The scaling of area spectral efficiencies (ASE) as pico densities are increased is studied. Median ASEs grow linearly with density and are comparable to cell-splitting given fixed pico power -20dB EIRP relative to the macro. The effectiveness of the pico at such low power is due in part to the improvement in area coverage of an omni vs. a 3 sectored antenna.