The general definition of a small cell is the low-powered radio access node operating in licensed and unlicensed spectrum with the smaller coverage of ten meters to one or two kilometers, compared to a mobile macro cell with a range of a few tens of kilometers. With the introduction of this new concept, the heterogeneous network (HetNet) constructed with different layers of small cells and large cells can deliver the increased bandwidths, reduced latencies, and higher uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) throughput to end users. Since 2009, the standard evolution of the small cell related topics has been studied in 3GPP (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project) LTE (long-term evolution) and LTE-Advanced. The following sections in this chapter will introduce the standardization progress of LTE and LTE-Advanced in small cells.
[1]
Jeffrey G. Andrews,et al.
Femtocells: Past, Present, and Future
,
2012,
IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.
[2]
Liu Liu,et al.
Search Space Design in Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel for LTE-Advanced
,
2013,
2013 IEEE 77th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring).
[3]
3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (e-utra); Further Advancements for E-utra Physical Layer Aspects (release 9)
,
2022
.
[4]
Yongbin Wei,et al.
A survey on 3GPP heterogeneous networks
,
2011,
IEEE Wireless Communications.
[5]
Jin Yang,et al.
Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN)
,
2017
.
[6]
Sayandev Mukherjee.
UE Coverage in LTE Macro Network with Mixed CSG and Open Access Femto Overlay
,
2011,
2011 IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshops (ICC).
[7]
Wanshi Chen,et al.
Relaying operation in 3GPP LTE: challenges and solutions
,
2012,
IEEE Communications Magazine.