Poisson Cluster Process Based Analysis of HetNets With Correlated User and Base Station Locations

This paper develops a new approach to the modeling and analysis of heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets) that accurately incorporates coupling across the locations of users and base stations, which exists due to the deployment of small cell base stations (SBSs) at the places of high user density (termed user hotspots in this paper). Modeling the locations of the geographical centers of user hotspots as a homogeneous Poisson point process (PPP), we assume that the users and SBSs are clustered around each user hotspot center independently with two different distributions. The macrocell BS locations are modeled by an independent PPP. This model is consistent with the user and SBS configurations considered by 3GPP. Using this model, we study the performance of a typical user in terms of coverage probability and throughput for two association policies: 1) Policy 1, under which a typical user is served by the open-access BS that provides maximum averaged received power and 2) Policy 2, under which the typical user is served by the small cell tier if the maximum averaged received power from the open-access SBSs is greater than a certain power threshold; and macro tier otherwise. A key intermediate step in our analysis is the derivation of distance distributions from a typical user to the open-access and closed-access interfering SBSs. Our analysis demonstrates that as the number of SBSs reusing the same resource block increases, coverage probability decreases, whereas throughput increases. Therefore, contrary to the usual assumption of orthogonal channelization, it is reasonable to assign the same resource block to multiple SBSs in a given cluster as long as the coverage probability remains acceptable. This approach to HetNet modeling and analysis significantly generalizes the state-of-the-art approaches that are based on modeling the locations of BSs and users by independent PPPs.