Inter-band carrier aggregation in heterogeneous networks: Design and assessment

Abstract

This paper deals with the performance assessment of the Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced Release 12 physical downlink channel, emphasizing on the Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology and its recent advances, such as the challenging interband non-contiguous solution. By processing the LTE-Advanced waveforms in the time domain (instead of the more common baseband), we describe the underlying system model and the associated simulation setup in detail. The error performance of the system is evaluated under different physical layer parameters and CA scenarios, according to the latest updates of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technical specifications. Our analysis reveals that the Heterogeneous Band (HetBand) non-contiguous CA technology can be efficiently applied to the design of next generation mobile broadband networks, given that the exploitation of both unlicensed and frequency dispersed bands might be a promising solution against the spectrum scarcity.

Spectrum Aggregation Scheme in a Wireless Broadband Data Transceiver System

“…Most investigations of carrier aggregation focus on the application in LTE systems [14]- [17]. Some resource scheduling and management schemes have been proposed for LTE systems in the last several years [18]- [22]. A special simulation platform was developed for a cognitive LTE system [23], and SA is an important technology in the 5G mobile communication system [24].…”

Geçmi̇şten Günümüze Hücresel Haberleşme Teknoloji̇leri̇ni̇n Geli̇şi̇mi̇

“…Bu nedenle IMT-Advanced teknolojileri beklenen veri hızını sağlamak için farklı frekans bantlarının birleştirilmesi yoluna gitmişlerdir. Bu gözlemlere dayanarak LTE-Adv ve Mobil WiMAX standartları IMT-Adv'nin 4G gereklerini karşılama adına planladıkları yol haritalarının en önemli özelliklerinden birisi CA tekniklerini kullanıyor olmasıdır [32], [33]. LTE-Adv.…”

Performance Evaluation of Downlink Non Contiguous Carrier Aggregation in LTE-A

“…The spacing between the center frequencies of the contiguously aggregated CCs is a multiple of 300 KHz to be compatible with the 100 KHz frequency of Release 8/9 and preserving orthogonality of the sub-carriers with 15 KHz spacing. Although this can be a less likely scenario today, but it may be common when new spectrum bands like 3.5 GHz will be allocated in the future in various parts of the world [4]. It is the simplest form of LTE carrier aggregation to implement [10].…”

“…This scenario is very promising for future high data-rate mobile communications due to the inevitable fragmentation of bands, some of that are only 10MHz wide. Concerning the UE, it requires the use of multiple transceivers within the single item, thus introducing new challenges related to cost, performance and power consumption [4]. With this type of aggregation, mobility robustness may potentially be improved by exploiting radio propagation characteristics of different bands [11].…”

“…As compared to non-continuous CA, it is easier to implement resource allocation and management algorithms for continuous CA [12]. However, due to the fact that the spectrum currently allocated is scattered and a continuous 100MHz bandwidth is unlikely to be available for LTEAdvanced system, the non-contiguous CA approach seems to be more practical [4]. From the different cases of the scenario of LTE-Advanced, the following cases are chosen to show the main improvement in the performance of LTE Advanced after increasing the bandwidth.…”