LTE indoor small cell capacity and coverage comparison

LTE indoor small cell solutions form an important part of the heterogeneous network ecosystem. The benefits are mainly due to spectral re-use over small distances, giving significant capacity and coverage benefits. This paper investigates the coverage and capacity gain achievable from two types of LTE indoor small cell product namely: 2 × 21 dBm and 2 × 24 dBm. Simulation results show that significant coverage gains up to 25% can be achieved on the high power product compared to the 2 × 21 dBm. The gain results are sensitive to propagation assumptions such as models and path loss exponents. Furthermore, the results also indicate that capacity gains up to 26% can be achieved on the 2 × 24 dBm, due to higher order modulation and coding (MCS) obtained in medium and cell edge conditions compared to the other unit. In addition, simulation results show the sensitivity of the throughput and capacity gain to macro layer reference signal received power (RSRP), as well as inter-cell interference from small cell cluster. The outcomes from this paper will be useful to guide operators/ vendors in the choice of an appropriate unit based on trade-offs between hardware complexities, cost, deployment scenarios.