Capacity analysis and comparison for cellular systems over different frequency bands

Abstract

Operating frequency bands of the third generation (3G) cellular system and the long-term evolution (LTE) are usually below 3GHz. However, due to the limitation on bandwidth available below 3GHz, the throughput or capacity of 3G and LTE systems cannot be increased easily. This research investigated the feasibility of the application of a wider spectrum in the higher frequency band, such as 6–15GHz band to provide higher capacity for future mobile access. We studied the cumulative distribution of user throughput in cellular communication systems over different frequency bands. In order to evaluate the cellular capacity over different frequency bands, we set up a general cellular simulation model with configurable parameters such as cellular size, user density and frequency reuse factor. We analyzed the capacity of higher frequency communication according to the WINNER II model. The simulation results show that for given transmission environments, higher frequency bands can achieve better system capacity performance.