Proposed ITU-R Compatible Inter-Site and Inter-Sector Interference Models for LTE-Advanced Networks

Cellular network deployment with three sectors per site and a frequency reuse factor of one is key to supporting high data rate applications in LTE Advanced Networks. However, such configurations result in increased inter-cell interference. In this paper we model the effects of inter-cell interference on an LTE-Advanced network at two carrier frequencies. We consider two urban environments and four cell ranges. The effects of inter-cell interference are separated into inter-site interference and inter-sector interference. A site-specific 3D ray-tracing tool is used to model the communication channel between the base stations (serving and interfering links) and the user equipment terminals. The inter-site interference is first modelled in terms of its dominant interference proportion and then validated using previously reported field measurements recorded in London (U.K.). Secondly, the inter-site and inter-sector interference components are modelled as a function of user equipment relative position from the serving base stations. Our approach is compatible with the standardized ITU-R model and our proposal can easily be added to these international models. Our model requires no system layout for the interferers and reduces the required channel generation time by a factor of 12 compared with the system layout method.