Radio Network Planning towards 5G mmWave Standalone Small-Cell Architectures

Abstract

The 5G radio networks have introduced major changes in terms of service requirements and bandwidth allocation compared to cellular networks to date and hence, they have made the fundamental radio planning problem even more complex. In this work, the focus is on providing a generic analysis for this problem with the help of a proper multi-objective optimization algorithm that considers the main constraints of coverage, capacity and cost for high-capacity scenarios that range from dense to ultra-dense mmWave 5G standalone small-cell network deployments. The results produced based on the above analysis demonstrate that the denser the small-cell deployment, the higher the area throughput, and that a sectored microcell configuration can double the throughput for ultra-dense networks compared to dense networks. Furthermore, dense 5G networks can actually have cell radii below 400 m and down to 120 m for the ultra-dense sectored network that also reached spectral efficiency 9.5 bps/Hz/Km2 with no MIMO or beamforming.