On modeling the downlink inter-cell interference power in wireless cellular networks

In this paper, we analyse the interference power in a typical wireless cellular network. We provide an analytical approximation for the probability density function of the interference power, which does not depend on the user's position, and which is validated by simulation. The key idea of the approximation results from our observation that the variations of the pathloss between a user and an interfering base station (due to the variations of the user's position within its cell) are negligible in comparison with the multipath fading variations. The results obtained in this paper may be used to greatly simplify the analysis of some network optimization problems (inter-cell interference coordination, capacity optimization…), as well as system level simulations of wireless cellular networks.