On Dynamic Time Division Duplex Transmissions for Small Cell Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates dynamic TDD in small cell and heterogeneous networks, proposing scheduling schemes and interference mitigation techniques, and evaluates their performance through system-level simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a unified framework for dynamic TDD in small cell and heterogeneous networks, including new scheduling policies and interference mitigation strategies.

Findings

Dynamic TDD can effectively balance load in small cell networks.

Interference mitigation schemes improve system throughput.

Partial interference cancellation offers additional performance gains.

Abstract

Motivated by the promising benefits of dynamic Time Division Duplex (TDD), in this paper, we use a unified framework to investigate both the technical issues of applying dynamic TDD in homogeneous small cell networks (HomSCNs), and the feasibility of introducing dynamic TDD into heterogeneous networks (HetNets). First, HomSCNs are analyzed, and a small cell BS scheduler that dynamically and independently schedules DL and UL subframes is presented, such that load balancing between the DL and the UL traffic can be achieved. Moreover, the effectiveness of various inter-link interference mitigation (ILIM) schemes as well as their combinations, is systematically investigated and compared. Besides, the interesting possibility of partial interference cancellation (IC) is also explored. Second,based on the proposed schemes, the joint operation of dynamic TDD together with cell range expansion (CRE) and almost blank subframe (ABS) in HetNets is studied. In this regard, scheduling polices in small cells and an algorithm to derive the appropriate macrocell traffic off-load and ABS duty cycle under dynamic TDD operation are proposed. Moreover, the full IC and the partial IC schemes are investigated for dynamic TDD in HetNets. The user equipment (UE) packet throughput performance of the proposed/discussed schemes is benchmarked using system-level simulations.