IEEE Future Networks: Small Cells and Their Role in Future 5G Networks

In this tutorial, we review the 4G small cell use cases, technology concept, deployment aspects and lessons learnt in the field, paying special attention to inter-cell interference issues and other topics still TBD. Moreover, we discuss the technology evolution of small cells towards 5G, and introduce the concept of ultra-dense networks. We carefully explain how ultra-dense networks are different from those sparse or less dense ones in 4G, and depict their main benefits and challenges. Theoretical and system-level simulation based results are used to shed new light in all these concepts.