Performance Evaluation of Frequency Planning in a Novel Cellular Architecture Based on Sector Relay

To avoid inter-cell interference effectively and to improve the performance of cell-edge users, a novel cellular architecture, termed Cellular Architecture Based on Sector Relay (CASR), is proposed in this paper, and two frequency planning schemes based on CASR are investigated. In CASR, fixed relays equipped with directional antennas are located at the vertex of the hexagonal cell for sectorization, thus each relay can be shared by three cells. The two frequency planning schemes are designed for different situations, one of which focuses more on the performance of cell one-hop users and the other one focuses on the performance balance between one-hop users and two-hop users. Interference analysis and performance evaluation are implemented for both one-hop users and two-hop users. System-level simulation in multi-cell and multi-user environment shows that compared with the existing cellular relay cell architecture, the proposed CASR combined with the two frequency planning schemes yield higher cell spectral efficiency. Moreover, the performance of cell-edge users is significantly improved.