To address the need of coverage enhancement in the fifth generation (5G) of wireless cellular telecommunications, while taking into account possible bottlenecks related to deploying fiber based backhaul (e.g., required cost and time), the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) proposed in Release 18 the concept of network-controlled repeaters (NCRs). NCRs enhance previous radio frequency (RF) repeaters by exploring beamforming transmissions controlled by the network through side control information. In this context, this paper introduces the concept of NCR. Furthermore, we present a system level model that allows the performance evaluation of an NCR-assisted network. Finally, we evaluate the network deployment impact on the performance of NCR-assisted networks. As we show, with proper network planning, NCRs can boost the signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the user equipments (UEs) in a poor coverage of a macro base station. Furthermore, celledge UEs and uplink (UL) communications are the ones that benefit the most from the presence of NCRs.
@article{arxiv.2407.02669,
title = {Impact of Network Deployment on the Performance of NCR-assisted Networks},
author = {Gabriel C. M. da Silva and Diego A. Sousa and Victor F. Monteiro and Darlan C. Moreira and Tarcisio F. Maciel and Fco. Rafael M. Lima and Behrooz Makki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.02669},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Paper accepted for publication in the conference proceedings of "19th International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems" (ISWCS)