LTE-advanced downlink throughput evaluation in the 3G and TV white space bands

To maintain a high quality of service to the increasing number of smartphone users, additional spectrum is required. The TV white space bands provide a good opportunity to achieve this goal. They can be used as standalone spectrum or aggregated with other licensed bands to increase the total available bandwidth. This paper compares the downlink throughput performance of LTE-Advanced in two different frequency bands. It also addresses the impact of smartphone orientation, with results quoted for three different elevation angles. We consider the higher LTE-Advanced band at 2.6 GHz and the TV white space band at 800 MHz. The radio channel is modelled using a state-of-the-art 3D ray-tracing tool combined with measured 3D radiation patterns for the base station and handset antennas. The throughput performance for a large number of base station and mobile terminal locations is investigated in two different UK cities. We use the computationally efficient received bit information rate algorithm to compute packet error rate as a function of channel structure and SNR. The approach reduces simulation run time by a factor of more than 300. Similar average throughput vs SNR results are observed in both frequency bands. However, higher K-factor and total received power levels are observed when the user equipment is tilted to 45^o in elevation. Throughput results show that the efficiency of carrier aggregation between LTE and TVWS bands depends on the cell size and the type of urban environment.