Klaus I. Pedersen

A stochastic model of the temporal and azimuthal dispersion seen at the base station in outdoor propagation environments

A simple statistical model of azimuthal and temporal dispersion in mobile radio channels is proposed. The model includes the probability density function (PDF) of the delay and azimuth of the impinging waves as well as their expected power conditioned on the delay and azimuth. The statistical properties are extracted from macrocellular measurements conducted in a variety of urban environments. It is found that in typical urban environments the power azimuth spectrum (PAS) is accurately described by a Laplacian function, while a Gaussian PDF matches the azimuth PDF. Moreover, the power delay spectrum (PDS) and the delay PDF are accurately modeled by an exponential decaying function. In bad urban environments, channel dispersion is better characterized by a multicluster model, where the PAS and PDS are modeled as a sum of Laplacian functions and exponential decaying functions, respectively.

LTE Capacity Compared to the Shannon Bound

In this paper we propose a modification to Shannon capacity bound in order to facilitate accurate benchmarking of UTRAN long term evolution (LTE). The method is generally applicable to wireless communication systems, while we have used LTE air-interface technology as a case study. We introduce an adjusted Shannon capacity formula, where we take into account the system bandwidth efficiency and the SNR efficiency of LTE. Separating these issues, allows for simplified parameter extraction. We show that the bandwidth efficiency can be calculated based on system parameters, while the SNR efficiency is extracted from detailed link level studies including advanced features of MIMO and frequency domain packet scheduling (FDPS). We then use the adjusted Shannon capacity formula combined with G-factor distributions for macro and micro cell scenarios to predict LTE cell spectral efficiency (SE). Such LTE SE predictions are compared to LTE cell SE results generated by system level simulations. The results show an excellent match of less that 5-10% deviation.

A stochastic multiple-input-multiple-output radio channel model for evaluation of space-time coding algorithms

A simple framework for Monte Carlo simulations of a multiple-input-multiple-output radio channel is proposed. The derived model includes the partial correlation between the paths in the channel, as well as fast fading and time dispersion. The only input parameters required for the model are the shape of the power delay spectrum and the spatial correlation functions at the transmit and receive end. Thus, the required parameters are available in the open literature for a large variety of environments. It is furthermore demonstrated that the Shannon capacity of the channel is highly dependent on the considered environment.

Spatial channel characteristics in outdoor environments and their impact on BS antenna system performance

This paper present measurement results obtained with a testbed equipped with an array antenna. The investigations focus on the power azimuth spectrum of the channel in urban and rural areas, for various base station antenna heights. The power azimuth spectrum is well modeled with a Laplacian function. The local azimuth spread is found to range from 1/spl deg/ to 25/spl deg/ depending on the environment and antenna height. The azimuth spread significantly increases as the antenna height is reduced. An analytical expression for the spatial correlation function is derived based on the Laplacian model. Finally, the power azimuth spectrums impact on a conventional beamformer ability to suppress interfering users is investigated.

From antenna spacings to theoretical capacities - guidelines for simulating MIMO systems

Capacity increases promised by multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems mostly depend on the spatial correlation properties of the radio channel. The paper investigates the connection between these properties and the capacity figures. It first derives the correlation coefficient between two antenna elements as a function of their spacing, the power azimuth spectrum (PAS), the azimuth spread (AS) and the mean angle of incidence of the waves, for three different types of PAS, namely uniform, truncated Gaussian and truncated Laplacian. With the help of the established relations, correlated flat-fading MIMO channels are generated, whose capacity performance and effective degrees of freedom (EDOF) are investigated for two power allocation schemes, water-filling and uniform. The impact of channel estimation errors is also evaluated.

Carrier aggregation for LTE-advanced: functionality and performance aspects

Carrier aggregation is one of the key features for LTE-Advanced. By means of CA, users gain access to a total bandwidth of up to 100 MHz in order to meet the IMT-Advanced requirements. The system bandwidth may be contiguous, or composed of several non-contiguous bandwidth chunks that are aggregated. This article presents a summary of the supported CA scenarios as well as an overview of the CA functionality for LTE-Advanced with special emphasis on the basic concept, control mechanisms, and performance aspects. The discussion includes definitions of the new terms primary cell (PCell) and secondary cell (SCell), mechanisms for activation and deactivation of CCs, and the new cross-CC scheduling functionality for improved control channel optimizations. We also demonstrate how CA can be used as an enabler for simple yet effective frequency domain interference management schemes. In particular, interference management is anticipated to provide significant gains in heterogeneous networks, envisioning intrinsically uncoordinated deployments of home base stations.

Autonomous component carrier selection: interference management in local area environments for LTE-advanced

Low-power base stations such as femtocells are one of the candidates for high-data-rate provisioning in local areas, such as residences, apartment complexes, business offices, and outdoor hotspot scenarios. Unfortunately, the benefits are not without new challenges in terms of interference management and efficient system operation. Due to the expected large number of user-deployed cells, centralized network planning becomes impractical, and new scalable alternatives must be sought. In this article we propose a fully distributed and scalable solution to the interference management problem in local areas, basing our study case on LTE-Advanced. We present extensive network simulation results to demonstrate that a simple and robust interference management scheme, called autonomous component carrier selection, allows each cell to select the most attractive frequency configuration; improving the experience of all users and not just the few best ones, while overall cell capacity is not compromised.

Carrier load balancing and packet scheduling for multi-carrier systems

Abstract-In this paper we focus on resource allocation for next generation wireless communication systems with aggregation of multiple Component Carriers (CCs), i.e., how to assign the CCs to each user, and how to multiplex multiple users in each CC. We first investigate two carrier load balancing methods for allocating the CCs to the users- Round Robin (RR) and Mobile Hashing (MH) balancing by means of a simple theoretical formulation, as well as system level simulations. At Layer-2 we propose a simple cross-CC packet scheduling algorithm that improves the coverage performance and the resource allocation fairness among users, as compared to independent scheduling per CC. The Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced is selected for the case study of a multi-carrier system. In such a system, RR provides better performance than MH balancing, and the proposed simple scheduling algorithm is shown to be effective in providing up to 90% coverage gain with no loss of the overall cell throughput, as compared to independent scheduling per CC.

Performance of Uplink Fractional Power Control in UTRAN LTE

UTRAN long term evolution is currently being standardized in 3GPP with the aim of more than twice the capacity over high-speed packet access. The chosen multiple access for uplink is single carrier FDMA, which avoids the intra-cell interference typical of CDMA systems, but it is still sensitive to inter-cell interference. As a result, the role of the power control becomes decisive to provide the required SINR, while controlling at the same time the interference caused to neighboring cells. This is the target of the fractional power control (FPC) algorithm lately approved in 3GPP. This paper evaluates in detail the impact of a FPC scheme on the SINR and interference distributions in order to provide a sub-optimal configuration tuned for both interference- and noise-limited scenarios.

HARQ Aware Frequency Domain Packet Scheduler with Different Degrees of Fairness for the UTRAN Long Term Evolution

In this paper we evaluate the performance of downlink channel dependent scheduling in time and frequency domains. The investigation is based on the 3GPP UTRAN long term evolution (LTE) parameters. A scheduler framework is developed encompassing frequency domain packet scheduling, HARQ management and inter-user fairness control. It is shown that by dividing the packet scheduler into a time-domain and a frequency-domain part the fairness between users can be effectively controlled. Different algorithms are applied in each scheduler part, and the combined performance is evaluated in terms of cell throughput, coverage, and capacity. We show that frequency-domain packet scheduling can provide a gain of around 35% in both throughput and coverage over opportunistic time-domain only scheduling. Furthermore, it is shown that by using an equal throughput scheduler, coverage can be improved by 100% at the expense of a 5% loss in average cell throughput in comparison with the proportional fair scheduler.