Successive interference cancellation in downlink heterogeneous cellular networks

Using a multi-tier Poisson model, this paper studies the performance gain of successive interference cancellation (SIC) in the downlink of K-tier heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs). For each tier, a fraction of base stations (BSs) is non-accessible. By using a framework based on the marked path loss process with fading and calculating the equivalent access probability, we analytically characterize the coverage probability, i.e., the probability of successfully connecting to at least one accessible BS, for a typical user equipment with finite or infinite SIC capability. The results show how the performance gain of SIC depends on many system parameters including path loss exponent, coding rate, fading distributions and BS accessibilities and densities. We show for contemporary OFDM-based HCNs, infinite SIC capability is often unnecessary. In fact, under typical system parameters, most of the gain of SIC comes from the ability of canceling only a single non-accessible BS.