Evaluating co-channel interference in long term evolution-advanced (LTE-Advanced) networks on NS-3 simulator

Abstract

Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-Advanced) networks enables the use of new and wider radio frequency spectrum and other new technologies that facilitates high data rates and lower latency. Furthermore, LTE-Advanced adopt the use of small cells as a traffic offloading mechanism. However, the use of small cells generates interference, which may lead to capacity loss. This paper analyse the downlink interference problem in LTE-Advanced small cell augmented macrocell network. We first analyse the interference observed in homogeneous network formed by configuring macrocell only. Secondly, we evaluate the co-channel interference of the heterogeneous network as results of the configuration between macrocell and small cell. We performed all simulations via extensive NS-3 simulations on LTE-Advanced topology and C++ programming language. Notable, our simulations demonstrate that confirm the interference observed when introducing small cell in a macrocell coverage area while they enhance the network.