System level analysis of multi-operator small cell network at 10 GHz

Due to higher cost and spectrum scarcity, it is expected that an efficient use of spectrum in fifth generation (5G) networks will rather rely on sharing than exclusive licenses, especially when higher frequency allocations are considered. In this paper, the performance of a dense indoor multi-operator small cell network at 10 GHz is analyzed. The main goal is to show the benefits obtained at higher carrier frequency due to network densification while mobile network operators are sharing the spectrum. The analysis is assessed through extensive system level simulations. The main performance metrics are user throughput and signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio. Results show that when 10 GHz carrier frequency is used it allows higher network densities while satisfying user throughput requirements. However, when network is sparse lower carrier frequency leads to better performance. When network is dense, on average 2 Mb/s better mean throughput is achieved at 10 GHz when compared to traditional cellular frequency.