Detection and Protection of Macro-Users in Dominant Area of Co-Channel CSG Cells

Co-channel deployment of Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) home-cells or Home E-UTRAN NodeBs (HeNBs) will create coverage holes for macro connected user that is not part of the CSG. In this paper, we address the problem of detecting the macro-cell coverage hole and protecting the macro-users that are located inside such a coverage hole. To reduce the impact of HeNB interference on the macro-cell performance, the HeNBs can be partially muted on some subframes, leading to Time Domain (TDM) muting. With TDM muting, macro-users in the coverage hole can be protected by scheduling them only on the muted subframes that are free of HeNB interference. Different methods for coverage hole detection are considered, and their performance is evaluated under the downlink transmission of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. These methods are based on user measurements. Recommendations on the coverage hole detection will be provided based on the obtained results.