Relay node positioning for inter-band carrier aggregation with asymmetrical coverage

Abstract

Relaying and carrier aggregation are two main features for Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) that improve the signal and increase the data rate. In an inter-band carrier aggregation scenario, the use of component carriers with large frequency gaps results in asymmetrical coverage. The asymmetrical coverage leads to the capacity fairness issue, where users at the cell edge always suffer from low capacity. This paper studies the use of relay node to solve the capacity fairness issue due to asymmetrical coverage in inter-band carrier aggregation scenario with two component carrier. The effects of relay position to the capacity of cell edge user is investigated by considering various combinations of the component carrier, heights and transmit power of base station and the relay node. The simulation reveals that the relay node can be placed inside the overlapped coverage region of asymmetrical coverage in order to improve the capacity and show that for average cases the relay node should be placed close to the cell edge user.