Co-Primary Multi-Operator Resource Sharing for Small Cell Networks

TL;DR

This paper proposes four algorithms for co-primary multi-operator radio resource sharing in small cell networks, demonstrating through simulations that coordination and increased spectrum sharing enhance user throughput.

Contribution

It introduces novel algorithms for multi-operator resource sharing in small cell networks and evaluates their performance in both centralized and distributed scenarios.

Findings

Coordination among operators significantly improves resource sharing efficiency.

Maximizing spectrum sharing percentage leads to higher throughput gains.

Algorithms outperform non-sharing scenarios in simulated environments.

Abstract

To tackle the challenge of providing higher data rates within limited spectral resources we consider the case of multiple operators sharing a common pool of radio resources. Four algorithms are proposed to address co-primary multi-operator radio resource sharing under heterogeneous traffic in both centralized and distributed scenarios. The performance of these algorithms is assessed through extensive system-level simulations for two indoor small cell layouts. It is assumed that the spectral allocations of the small cells are orthogonal to the macro network layer and thus, only the small cell traffic is modeled. The main performance metrics are user throughput and the relative amount of shared spectral resources. The numerical results demonstrate the importance of coordination among co-primary operators for an optimal resource sharing. Also, maximizing the spectrum sharing percentage generally improves the achievable throughput gains over non-sharing.