Impact of Modeling Tools on Outdoor Small-Cell Deployment Cost in a Realistic Urban Scenario

Mobile operators need to deploy dense LTE-Advanced small-cell networks in the next few years to cope with the growing mobile data traffic demand. Prediction models and mobile network design tools need to radically evolve to allow a proper evaluation, and then design and optimization of cost-efficient heterogeneous networks. This paper introduces a comprehensive solution for cost and performance analysis. A ray-based propagation model and a 3D traffic mapping tool are used to feed a 3D LTE-A simulator. Then, a case study of a North American city addresses the impact of modeling tools on outdoor small-cell deployment costs. The analysis highlights some applicative results: The identification of hotspots within macro-cells enabled by the presented tool shows a significant impact on deployment costs (18% less than with only per-sector information). A 2D modeling approach overestimates macro offload, leading to an under- designed small-cell network that could be prevented thanks to 3D tools. This qualitative comparison is useful to understand the significance of modeling tools for cost and performance analysis of future heterogeneous networks.