A Novel Tractable Framework to Analyse
Heterogeneous Cellular Networks
He Wang and Mark C. Reed
TheAustralian National University
NICTA, Canberra Research Laboratory
Email: He.Wang@anu.edu.au
AbstractHeterogeneous cellular networks consisting of mi-
crocell, picocell, femtocell, distributed antennas and relays co-
deployed in space and frequency with carefully planned tower-
mounted base stations, increase the complexity of the cellular
network structure, which makes a tractable analysis model
difficult to obtain. Since the traditional system-level simulation
suffers from a computational complexity and being not tractable,
recent research focused on using stochastic geometry to develop
new general models for both single tier and heterogeneous
cellular networks. In this paper, we propose a tractable model
for downlink heterogeneous cellular network and based on that,
the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) distribution and
accordingly the coverage (or equivalently outage) probability for
a randomly located mobile user in this network can be derived.
Compared to previous work, this proposed equivalent received
power connectivity model averages out the fading and uses the
long-term pathloss as cell selection criterion, considering more
what would occur in a practical cellular standard implementa-
tion.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Recent decades have witnessed an unprecedented growth
in the numbers of subscribers, terminals, services, and ap-
plications in mobile communications market and a more
flexible deployment model is needed for operators to im-
prove broadband user experience in a ubiquitous and cost-
effective way. Specifically, as the global mobile data traffic
demand increases by up to 26 times in the next five years
[1], conventional macro-cellular networks will not be able
to scale to this large demand. A more complex architecture
consisting of heterogeneous wireless technologies, including
microcell, picocell, femtocell, distributed antennas and relays,
will need to be flexibly co-deployed to most efficiently use the
dimensions of space and frequency [2][5]. These techniques,
as shown in Fig. 1, can provide more scalable means to
the huge demand and enable infrastructure resources to be
economically deployed where needed by inserting smaller,
cheaper, self-configurable BSs and relays in an unplanned,
incremental manner into the existing macro cellular networks.
Due to the increased complexity of the structure for a het-
erogeneous cellular network, there is a challenge in modelling
them [4] to show the coverage, rate and reliability and is the
objective of this paper. Traditionally, Monte Carlo integrations
for cellular networks are performed by placing the base station
on a grid with mobile users either randomly scattered or
placed deterministically, and these complex time-consuming
Pico Pico
Femto
Macro Femto
Pico
Femto
Relay
Fig. 1. Illustration of a multi-tier heterogeneous cellular network consisting
of macro, pico, femtocell base stations and relay nodes.
computer simulations are used extensively to analysis the
system performance [6]. However, tractable expressions for
the signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SINR) are unavailable
in general for a mobile user located randomly in the cell,
thus making more general results which help to efficiently
identify the key design parameters and to understand their ef-
fects nearly impossible. Furthermore, such grid-based models
are especially idealized and not practical for heterogeneous
cellular network deployment [7]. A more tractable Wyner
model, which assumes channel gains from all interfering
BSs to be equal, is commonly used by information theorists
[8]. Nevertheless, the channel gains from the interfering BSs
are constant over the entire cell in Wyner models, which
is particularly inaccurate for future systems with orthogonal
multiple access such as OFDM systems [9] and thereby can
not be used to analyze the outage probability .
Utilizing stochastic geometry to develop a new model to
analysis SINR and accordingly other results, has attracted
much attention recently in communication research commu-
nity [7], [10][15]. Compared with traditional methods like the
Wyner model or grid model, the newly developed approach
models the locations of BSs by a certain distributed point
process and then utilizes the mathematical results in stochastic
geometry [16] to study the average behavior over many spatial
realizations of this network. Intuitively this model is more suit-
able for analyzing heterogeneous network techniques where
the geometry characteristics of user-planned or unplanned
communications nodes are well captured by the stochastic
geometry model. Recent works [7], [13][15] have shown the
network models with BS locations drawn from a Poisson Point
Process are as accurate as the traditional grid models when
compared to the result of an actual 4G network deployment
for both single and multiple tier scenarios, and provide more
tractable analytical tools giving the pessimistic lower bound
on coverage and throughput.
In this paper, we extend the original tractable cellular model
in [7] for downlink heterogeneous cellular network scenario.
Compared with the approach employing maximum signal-to-
interference-ratio (SIR) or SINR connectivity model in [13]
[15], our proposed approach utilizes a new equivalent received
power connectivity model. We propose this model due to the
reason that in practical cellular systems the mobile terminals
perform cell selection/reselection based on the measurement
of the received large-scale pilot channel power (usually over
several seconds) and thus associating mobile users to the base
station with maximum instantaneous SIR (or SINR) is not al-
ways a reasonable assumption in the fast fading circumstance.
Hence we propose the equivalent received power connectivity
model which averages out the fading and considers the long-
term pathloss as cell selection criterion instead. From our
proposed model, the expression for coverage/outage probabil-
ity, or equivalently the complementary cumulative distribution
function (CCDF) of received SINR can be derived. Another
objective of our work is to achieve the coverage probability
under the frequency reuse scheme.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In
Section II notations and system model used in this work are
introduced. Section III presents the simple close-form expres-
sion of the coverage probability for heterogeneous cellular
networks and section IV also extends the result to frequency
reuse scenario. Section V provides numerical results and
conclusions are given in Section VI.
II. S YSTEM M ODEL
A. Heterogeneous Cellular Network Model
A heterogeneous cellular network consisting of K tiers
of macrocell, picocell and/or femtocell networks is assumed
in this analysis, where spatial deployment densities, transmit
powers and supported data rates may be different across tiers.
Specifically, BSs in the i-th tier which are spatially distributed
as a homogeneous Poisson point process (PPP) i of density
i , have the same transmit power Pi and SINR target of Ti in
the Euclidean plane. In other words, a mobile user can obtain
a reliable communication service with a certain data rate from
a BS in the i-th tier only if its downlink SINR with respect
to that BS is greater than Ti .
Consider an independent collection of mobile users, located
according to some independent stationary point process. With-
out any loss of generality we assume that the mobile user under
analysis is located at the origin.
The standard power loss propagation model is used with
path loss exponent > 2. Including the random channel
effects such as fading and shadowing, we assume that the
typical mobile user experiences Rayleigh fading from the
serving BS, which is denoted by the random variable h
and follows an exponential distribution with mean 1, i.e.
h exp(1). Hence, the received power at a typical mobile
user located a distance r from its serving BS is Pi hr , if
the tagged BS belongs to the i-th tier. The fading experienced
between all the interfering BSs and the typical mobile user
follows a general statistical distribution g, which could include
fading, shadowing, and any other desired random effects. The
received power from the interfering i-th tier BS located at the
point x is Pi gx kxk , where the elements of {gx } follow the
general statistical distribution g independently.
The noise power is assumed to be additive and constant with
value 2 but no specific distribution is assumed in general. The
SNR = P1 / 2 is defined to be received SNR from the first
tier at a distance r = 1.
B. Equivalent Received Power Connectivity (ERPC) Model
Associating each mobile user with the closest BS forms
the random Voronoi cell tessellation and is appropriate for
a single tier network [7]. In our analysis, we propose a
connectivity model suitable for heterogeneous networks, in
which the effects of different transmit powers and outage
thresholds (corresponding to different supported data rates) as
well as the large-scale path loss, are taken into account.
Defining the equivalent received power from the i-th tier
BS (r from the origin) as P (r) , Pi r /Ti , we assume
the mobile user connects to the BS with maximim equivalent
received power. Specifically, is the selected tier number and
can be given as,
h P (r i
i min,i )
= arg max , (1)
iK Ti
in which K , [1, 2, , K] and rmin,i is the minimum
distance from the i-th tier BSs to the typical mobile user
located at the origin, i.e.,
rmin,i = min kxk. (2)
xi
The random variable q is defined as the maximum equivalent
received power from all BSs,
P (rmin, )
q, . (3)
T
Due to the equivalent received power connectivity (ERPC)
model given above, all the interfering BSs must have a smaller
value of equivalent received power.
One can easily see that the proposed connectivity model
will degrade to selecting the maximum received power through
large-scale path loss only, if all tiers SINR thresholds are
equal, i.e. Ti = T, i K. This new model can be further
degenerated to the original Voronoi cell tessellation if all the
tiers have the same transmit power, i.e. Pi = P, i K.
Applying the connectivity model mentioned above, the
received downlink SINR expression is given as
P h(rmin, )
SINR = , (4)
Iq + 2
where is the selected tier number and Iq is the cumulative
interference from all other BSs (except the -th tier serving
BS for the mobile user at o denoted by bo ), i.e.,
X X
Iq = Pi gx kxk , (5)
iK xi \{bo }
where no intracell interference is included since the orthogonal Remark: It should be noticed that the expectation in (11) is
multiple access within a cell is assumed in our analysis. taken over the R g. Furthermore,
R interferers channel distribution
(a, x) = x ta1 et dt and (x) = 0 tx1 et dt are
III. T RACTABLE M ODEL UNDER ERPC M ODEL
incomplete gamma function and standard gamma function
In this section, we derive the probability of coverage in respectively.
a downlink heterogeneous cellular network where equivalent Proof: The probability of coverage in a K-tier net-
received power connectivity (ERPC) model is implemented in work under equivalent received power connectivity model, i.e.
each tier and open access strategy (having the right to connect pc ({i }, {Pi }, {i }) and also pc for abbreviation, can be given
any tier without any restriction) is assumed for the user under as
research. Specifically, the typical mobile user at the origin is
in the coverage if: pc = P[SINR > T ]
SINR > T , (6) Z h P hr
min,
i
= P > T | q = t fq (t)dt
where the serving BS bo from the -th tier is selected based Iq + 2
Zt>0 h
on proposed equivalent received power connectivity model, i.e. (a)
i
= P h > (Iq + 2 )/q | q = t fq (t)dt
equation (1) and (2).
Zt>0
A. Equivalent Received Power of Serving BS (b) 2 1
= exp( )LIq ( | q = t)fq (t)dt, (12)
The cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the random t>0 t t
variable q can be derived as where (a) is derived according to the definition of the ran-
h P (r dom variable q in (3), (b) follows from the Rayleigh fading
min, )
i
Fq (t) = P t assumption (i.e. h exp(1)), and LIq ( | q) is the Laplace
T
(a) Y
  P 2/ 
i
transform of random variable Iq , the cumulative interference
= exp i when the maximum equivalent received power from all BSs
tTi
iK is denoted by q. Using the definition of the Laplace transform
 X i P 2/  we can get
i 2/
= exp 2/
t , (7)
iK Ti
 Y 
(a) Y 

LIq (s|q) = Ei Egx exp(sPi gx kxk ) | q
where (a) follows that the null probability of a 2-D homoge- iK xi \{bo }
neous Poisson point process with density in an area A is  Z 
(b) Y



exp(A) [16]. Then, the probability density function (pdf) = exp 2i 1
1 Lg (sPi v ) vdv
P
can be given as iK ( T iq )
i

dFq (t) 2 2 1 (c) Y h Pi
2 i sPi
2

fq (t) = = (t
2
) exp(t ), (8) = exp i
dt Ti q Ti
iK
where can be regarded as a constant depending on the 2Ti
2/ h
ii
heterogenous networks properties, i.e., E g 2/ (2/, gTi ) (2/) ,

X i P 2/ (13)
i
= 2/
, (9)
iK Ti where step (a) follows from the i.i.d. distribution of {gx}
B. General Fading for Interference and Main Result and their further independence from the point processes {i }
The following theorem presents our major and most gen- and step (b) follows from the probability generating functional
eral result for coverage probability of heterogeneous cellular (PGFL) of the PPP [16]. The integration limits are from
1

networks. (Pi /Ti q) to in step (b) due to the fact that all interferers
equivalent received power should be positive and not greater
Theorem 1: The coverage probability of a typical randomly than q, i.e. Pi v /Ti q, thus giving v [(Pi /Ti q)1/ , ).
located mobile user in the general heterogeneous cellular By denoting the pdf of g as fg (g) and using the definition
network model provided in Section II is of incomplete and standard gamma functions, step (c) can be
derived just like the similar deduction in [7]. Plugging in s = 1t
2 2
2 1
Z
pc ({i }, {Pi }, {Ti }) = exp t and applying the condition of q = t now give
0 t
 2/ 
1
X h i Pi (Ti , ) i LIq (
2
| q = t) = exp(t )
exp 2/ 2/
dt, (10) t
t iK Ti  2/ 
X h i Pi (Ti , ) i
where (Ti , ) can be expressed as exp 2/ 2/
, (14)
t iK T i
2/ h
2T
i
(Ti , ) = i E g 2/ (2/, gTi ) (2/) . (11) where (Ti , ) has already been given in (11).

 Substituting (14) into (12), we can have as,
2/
i Pi
2 1
Z P
pc = exp( )fq (t)LIq ( | q = t)dt iK 2/
Ti
t>0 t t pc ({i }, {Pi }, {Ti }) = P h 2/
i . (20)
i Pi
2
Z
2 2 iK 2/ 1 + (Ti , )
Ti
= exp( ) t 1
0 t Remark: In this corollary, a remarkably simple and tractable
 2/ 
X h i Pi (Ti , ) i expression for coverage probability is given, and can be
exp 2/ dt, (15)
t Ti
2/ viewed as the extension from the single layer case, where
iK
the coverage probability can be provided by pc (, T ) =
which completes the proof. 1/[1 + (T, )].

C. Rayleigh Fading for Interference Corollary 2: Exponential Fading, No Noise, > 2 and
Ti = T, i K: the probability of coverage pc ({i }, {Pi }, T )
Simplification can be introduced when the interference can be expressed as,
power also follows the exponential distribution, which results
1
the fact that shadowing is neglected and interfering signals pc ({i }, {Pi }, T ) = . (21)
experience Rayleigh fading. The probability of coverage for 1 + (T, )
this special case is given as Theorem 2. Remark: This is an interesting result since it is exactly
the same as that of the single-tier case in [7]. Furthermore,
Theorem 2: The coverage probability of a typical randomly although a different connectivity model employed (equivalent
located mobile user experiencing exponential interference is received power connectivity model in this paper compared
with maximum SIR connectivity model in [13][15]), we still
2 2
Z
2
pc ({i }, {Pi }, {Ti }) = exp( ) t 1 reach the same result that the coverage probability is not
0 t affected by the number of tiers when the SINR thresholds
 2/ 
X h i Pi
i across tiers are chosen as the same value and the effect of
exp 2/ 2/
1 + (Ti , ) dt, (16)
t Ti thermal noise is neglected.
iK
IV. E XTENSION FOR F REQUENCY R EUSE S CENARIO
where (Ti , ) can be expressed as
Z As mentioned before, our proposed model employing equiv-
2/ 1 alent received power connectivity principle, can be easily
(Ti , ) = Ti du. (17)
2/ 1 + u/2
Ti extended for the frequency reuse scenario. In frequency reuse,
the reuse factor i 1 determines the number of different
Proof: This result can be regarded as a special case of frequency bands used by the i-th tier network, where just one
Theorem 1. The proof tracks the deduction of Theorem 1 band is used per cell.
up until step (a) of (13). Due to the exponential interference
assumption (i.e. gx exp(1)), we can have Theorem 3: If BSs in the i-th tier are randomly allocated

one of i frequency bands, then the coverage probability with
1
Y  Z 
exponentially distributed interference power is


LIq (s|q) = exp 2i 1 vdv ,
P 1
( T iq ) 1 + sPi v
iK
2 2
i
Z
2
(18) p c ({ i }, {Pi }, {T i }, { i }) = exp( ) t 1
0 t
1  2/ 
where the integration limits are still from (Pi /Ti q) to X h i Pi (Ti , ) i


exp 1 + dt. (22)
like in the deduction of (13). Plugging in s = 1t and applying t2/ iK T 2/ i
i
the condition of q = t now give
Proof: Since the typical mobile user at the origin o can
2/
still select the BS with maximum equivalent received power
 i
1 X h i Pi
LIq ( | q = t) = exp 2/ 2/
(Ti , ) , from the complete set of PPP {i }, then the pdf of random
t t Ti
iK
variable q remains the same as (8). Meanwhile, the interfering
(19)
BSs which transmit in the same frequency band construct a
where (Ti , ) can be expressed as equation (17). Substituting thinned version of the original PPP, which have a density of
(19) and unchanged pdf fq (t) into (12) completes the proof. i /i for the i-th tier. Thus, we can easily obtain
 2/ i
1 X h i Pi
We now consider the special case of zero noise and further- LIq ( | q = t) = exp 2/ 2/ (Ti , ) .
t t i T
more the case of zero noise with same SINR thresholds for iK i
all tiers. (23)
Corollary 1: Exponential Fading, No Noise, > 2: the Then substituting (23) and unchanged pdf fq (t) into equation
probability of coverage pc ({i }, {Pi }, {Ti }) can be expressed (12), we can reach the result.
 Coverage Probability for = 3
1
Simulation: PPP w noise
0.9 Simulation: PPP w/o noise
Analysis: PPP w noise
0.8 Analysis: PPP w/o noise
V. N UMERICAL R ESULTS 0.7

Probability of Coverage
In this section, we will present the numerical results com- 0.6

pared with the ones achieved from our analytical models for 0.5

the purpose of model validation and trends demonstration 0.4

under different system parameters where interference powers 0.3
are assumed to follow exponential distribution.
0.2
We firstly validate the tractable model where ERPC model is
0.1
used under different values of path loss exponents. From Fig.
0
2 and Fig. 3, it can be seen that the simulated and analytical 10 5 0 5 10 15 20
SINR Threshold for 1st tier, T1 (dB)
results match reasonably well for all four scenarios in both
figures, as expected. Under the assumption of = 3, the
performance gap for probability coverage between the no- Fig. 2. Probability of coverage for a two-tier heterogeneous cellular network
noise case and the case of SNR = 10 is relatively limited while (K = 2, = 3, P1 = 1000P2 , 2 = 41 = 1, T2 = 1dB), SNR = 10.
this cap is not negligible (around 1dB at T1 = T2 = 1dB) for
the scenario of = 4, where P1 = 1000P2 and 2 = 41 = 1
Coverage Probability for = 4
are assumed in both figures. This can be explained by the 1
Simulation: PPP w noise
fact that smaller path loss exponent will cause the interference 0.9 Simulation: PPP w/o noise
Analysis: PPP w noise
power to decrease more slowly and lead the overall system to 0.8 Analysis: PPP w/o noise
be more interference-limited where thermal noise has a very
0.7
Probability of Coverage

limited effect on the coverage probability.

0.6
Similar trend can be observed in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 where
0.5
different transmit power ratio, P1 = 100P2 , is used. Further-
more, we can conclude that the increased transmit power of 0.4

the second tier can alter the resultant SINR distribution to be 0.3

more favorable for the noise-limited (or equivalently power- 0.2

limited) scenario, which can be demonstrated by the improved 0.1
probability of coverage from 0.1 to 0.2 at T1 = 20dB from
0
the interference-limited scenario of = 3 to the noise-limited 10 5 0 5 10 15 20
SINR Threshold for 1st tier, T1 (dB)
scenario of = 4. According to our papers assumption, the
power of thermal noise is decided by the first tiers SNR value,
i.e. SNR = 10 in these cases, and the changed transmit power Fig. 3. Probability of coverage for a two-tier heterogeneous cellular network
(K = 2, = 4, P1 = 1000P2 , 2 = 41 = 1, T2 = 1dB), SNR = 10.
ratio (from P1 = 1000P2 to P1 = 100P2 ) will cause the
increased second tiers transmit power which can improve the
downlink SINR for mobile users from the second tier BSs and Coverage Probability for = 3
lift the SINR values for these well-conditioned users. However, 1
Simulation: PPP w noise
this method is obviously more effective in the noise-limited 0.9 Simulation: PPP w/o noise
Analysis: PPP w noise
scenario other than the interference-limited one. 0.8 Analysis: PPP w/o noise

In Fig. 6, we compare the scenarios with different density 0.7

Probability of Coverage

of BSs while we fixed the ratio of the second tiers density 0.6
over the first one as 2 = 41 and utilize the noise-limited
0.5
scenario of = 4. It can be observed that the cap between the
0.4
result with and without the thermal noise is more significant
when the BSs density is relatively low, i.e. 2 = 41 = 0.24, 0.3

compared with high density scenario such as 2 = 41 = 1. 0.2

This can be viewed as the discrepancy caused by the inaccurate 0.1

no-noise assumption in noise-limited scenarios. Especially, in 0
10 5 0 5 10 15 20
the case of lower BS density, the overall system is more likely SINR Threshold for 1st tier, T1 (dB)
limited by the noise since the interference power is mitigated
by the longer distance between interfering BSs and the victim
user. And we can conclude that our proposed ERPC model Fig. 4. Probability of coverage for a two-tier heterogeneous cellular network
(K = 2, = 3, P1 = 100P2 , 2 = 41 = 1, T2 = 1dB), SNR = 10.
with the tractable results is accurate and suitable for both the
 Coverage Probability for = 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
1

0.9
Simulation: PPP w noise
Simulation: PPP w/o noise
H. Wang is with the Australian National University and
Analysis: PPP w noise NICTA. M. C. Reed is with with the Australian National
0.8 Analysis: PPP w/o noise
University. NICTA is funded by the Australian Government
0.7
as represented by the Department of Broadband, Communi-
Probability of Coverage

0.6 cations and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research
0.5 Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence program.
0.4
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