Outage analysis of integrated mesh LTE femtocell networks

The femtocell - Wi-Fi integration is a promising approach to solve the problem of inter-tier or intra-tier interference in heterogeneous networks. In this paper, multimode femtocell base stations are deployed which form a Wi-Fi mesh network to communicate between themselves while deploying cellular technology (e.g., LTE) for communications with mobile users, thus ensuring ultimately connectivity between mobile users and their macro base stations to improve the network coverage. We propose a tractable model for coverage/outage to evaluate the benefits of such integration in terms of SINR and received signal strength. Our work is based on point processes in two-dimensional plane that models locations of femtocell - Wi-Fi (also referred to as multimode) nodes. The proposed model is more realistic than the classical Poisson point process, as the distribution of points is more homogeneous and it ensures that the nodes are not too close to each other. The derivation of coverage/outage formula allows us to determine operational parameter ranges for the Wi-Fi network to form a mesh network. In addition, it helps in the design of the femtocell network to ensure a suitable coverage for users in terms of SINR and received signal strength.