Performance of different cell selection modes in 3GPP-LTE macro-/femtocell scenarios

Femtocells have become an attractive approach for operators to offer extended services on their licensed UMTS/LTE spectrum. They are typically deployed indoors to improve coverage and provide high data rates. Cellular operators benefit from reduced infrastructure and operational expenses for capacity upgrades and coverage improvements. As a drawback, femtocells may cause interference to other femtocells or to the macrocellular wireless network. The interference in the system strongly depends on the type of cell selection method, which decides if a given mobile station is allowed to get access to a certain macro or femto base station (BS). In this paper various cell selection methods for femto and macro user equipments (UE) together with their benefits and drawbacks are introduced and discussed. We report on the first results obtained by using different cell selection methods in LTE macro-/femtocell deployment scenarios.