Breaking the hierarchical cell structure in WCDMA networks

In building 3G systems operators need to have a long-term vision about the deployment strategy of the network with different cell layers. The number of available carriers may pose restrictions to the full utilization of hierarchical cell structures, where each network layer operates on its own carrier. If a WCDMA network is deployed gradually, a scenario where carrier reuse between different network layers may realize. In this paper different issues of hierarchical cell structures are discussed, and it is examined how WCDMA network performance is affected by reusing carrier frequencies in different cell layers.