Comparison of Various Frequency Reuse Patterns for WiMAX Networks with Adaptive Beamforming

Masood Maqbool, Marceau Coupechoux, Philippe Godlewski

ENST & CNRS LTCI 46, rue Barrault 75013 Paris, France Email: {maqbool, coupechoux, godlewski}@enst.fr compared two different reuse patterns with emphasize on the effect of PermBase. PermBase is an integer used in the permutation formula (Eq.111 [2]) that controls the allocation of subcarriers to a subchannel in the sector of a cell. It implies that same subchannel in two different sectors, using the same frequency band but different PermBase, will comprise of different subcarriers. It is shown that even with dynamic frequency reuse different PermBase scheme results into signicant outage probability. In [10] system simulations have been carried out for WiMAX network using beamforming and Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) for only one type of frequency reuse. Fading or shadowing are not accounted for in the simulations. Authors of [14] have also compared two frequency reuse types using MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) without considering beamforming. Reference [9] analyzes the performance of only two reuse types for beamforming capable WiMAX systems for non line-of-sight (NLOS). Physical abstraction model for SINR computation is not taken into account. Suggested interference coordination technique gives higher values of SINR at the cost of lower resource utilization. In this paper we have investigated six different reuse patterns (as given in [11]) for a WiMAX network. This work is mainly based on [8]. The effect of beamforming has also been studied for each reuse type. In [7] authors have addressed the problem of subcarrier collision through partial loading of subchannels. Here we will show how partial loading of subchannels can reduce the outage probability. Radio coverage and throughput performance for each frequency reuse type would enable an operator to choose any of them depending upon service type and Quality of Service (QoS) to be provided. Rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II gives relative details of IEEE 802.16e OFDMA system. SINR, beamforming, physical abstraction MIC models and simulator details are introduced in section III. Simulation results have been presented in section IV. Finally section V discusses the conclusion of this study. II. S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION The PHY layer of WiMAX is based on OFDM/OFDMA. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) splits the available spectrum into a number of parallel orthogonal narrowband subcarriers. In this way, a frequency selective channel is transformed into several at-fading subchannels.

AbstractIn this paper, we evaluate the performance of a WiMAX network in different frequency reuse scenarios with and without adaptive beaforming technique. We study the possibility of deploying reuse 1 networks. Radio quality in terms of SINR and outage probability on one hand, and throughput on the other hand, are the parameters considered for this analysis. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations, based on effective SINR computation using abstraction model Mean Instantaneous Capacity (MIC), have been performed in downlink. The simulation results show that some frequency reuse schemes with a very good global throughput performance result however into signicant user outage. The improvement in performance due to adaptive beamforming is evaluated. The frequency reuse patterns satisfying the two parameters (outage and throughput) in the best possible way are being suggested (based on simulation results) for WiMAX networks. Keywords: OFDMA, PUSC, IEEE 802.16e, WiMAX, SIN Ref f , MIC, beamforming.

I. I NTRODUCTION WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technology proposed by WiMAX Forum. It is based on IEEE standard 802.16. The standard gives details about the air interface (Physical and MAC layer specications). WiMAX has two types: xed/nomadic and mobile. The former is based on version 802.16-2004 [1] of the standard and the latter is featured by an amendment, 802.16e [2], to the standard. In this paper only mobile WiMAX is discussed. Since WiMAX is intended to offer BWA, cell throughput will be an important issue in a WiMAX cellular network. To achieve high cell throughput, frequency reuse has to be well planned to maximize both the bandwidth utilization and signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). From the point of view of operator, it would be valuable to increase the cell throughput through complete usage of bandwidth in each sector of the cellular network. However, it is not desired to achieve high throughput at the cost of increased outage probability, which is dened as the probability that a user does not reach the minimum SINR level required to connect to a service. Our work could substantiate the trial phase of WiMAX network deployment. Reference [12] analyzes the effect of using a frequency repartitioning scheme and only focuses on non-sectorized cells. In [5], aside from dynamic frequency reuse, case of sectored cells has been taken into account. Authors have

Intersymbol interference (ISI) is reduced because of low symbol rate. The data symbols are transmitted in parallel on each subcarrier. All data symbols, transmitted in parallel at an instant, form one OFDM symbol. In an OFDM based system, resources are allocated using time division multiple access (TDMA) in terms of OFDM symbols. In orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), subcarries are grouped together into multiple subchannels. With OFDMA, resources are allocated in terms of OFDM symbols and subchannels. Hence both the time and frequency multiple access are possible [6].
Fig. 1.

1 1

1 1

1 1

1
+

1 1

1 1

1 1

Frequency Reuse Pattern 1x3x1.

A. Bandwidth IEEE 802.16e offers scalable bandwidth utilization. System bandwidths of 20, 10, 5 and 1.25 MHz are possible with associated FFT sizes of 2048, 1024, 512 and 128 respectively [2]. The OFDMA mode of IEEE 802.16 has been considered in the simulations. Total bandwidth in our simulator has been set to 15 MHz. However, this 15 MHz is further split into three subparts of 5 MHz each. This division is intended to facilitate the proper bandwidth utilization for each reuse type. B. Partial Usage of Subchannels (PUSC) We have considered distributed subcarrier permutation type PUSC in our simulations. In this permutation type, subcarriers are grouped into subchannels using special permutation formulas [2]. These subcarriers are distributed to subchannels in such a way that each subchannel is formed of subcarriers spread throughout the available bandwidth and hence resulting into frequency diversity. The subchannels can be grouped together into three different segments and each segment can be assigned to one sector. C. Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) One of the important features of IEEE 802.16 based network is assignment of MCS type to a user depending upon its channel conditions. We have considered six different MCS types in our simulation model: QPSK-1/2 (the most robust), QPSK-3/4, 16QAM-1/2, 64QAM-2/3 and 64QAM-3/4 (for the best radio conditions). SINR threshold for each MCS type has been referred from [3]. If SINR of a mobile station (MS) is less than the threshold of the most robust MCS, it cannot receive or transmit anything and is said to be in outage. D. Frequency Reuse Patterns The reuse pattern is dened by the expression: Nc x Ns x Nf ( [11]). Where Nc is the number of cells in the network cluster. It determines the inter-cellular frequency reuse. Ns represents the number of sectors in a cell and Nf demonstrates intra-cellular frequency reuse. Example of the highest frequency reuse case 1x3x1 is depicted in Fig.1. As can be seen in the gure, same frequency bandwidth (available bandwidth in the network) is used in every sector of a cell specifying an intra-cellular frequency reuse of one (i.e., Nf = 1). Three sectors in every cell are represented by Ns = 3. Since all the cells are using the same frequency bandwidth, inter-cellular frequency reuse is also one (i.e., Nc = 1).
Fig. 2. Frequency Reuse Pattern 3x1x1.
2 1

1 3 A Cluster of three cells 2 1

A case of non-sectored cell, reuse type 3x1x1, is explained in Fig.2. Available network bandwidth is divided into three distinct but unique parts. Three different digits are present in different cells. Each digit corresponds to one of these distinct bandwidth parts. III. N ETWORK AND I NTERFERENCE M ODEL A. Subcarrier SINR SINR of a subcarrier n is computed by the following formula: SIN Rn =
K Pn,T x an,Sh an,F F d(0) (0) (0)

N0 WSc +

B b=1

K Pn,T x an,Sh an,F F d(b) n (0)

(b)

(b)

(b)

(1)

where Pn,T x is the per subcarrier power, an,Sh and an,F F represent the shadowing (log-normal) and fast fading (Rician) factors for the signal received from serving BS respectively, B is the number of interfering BS, K is the path loss constant, is the path loss exponent and d(0) is the distance between MS and serving BS. The terms with superscript b are related to interfering BS. WSc is the subcarrier frequency spacing, (b) N0 is the thermal noise density and n is equal to 1 if th interfering BS transmits on n subcarrier and 0 otherwise. Its value is determined through collision probabilities of [7] using Bernoullis distribution. B. Effective SINR Slot is the basic resource unit in an IEEE 802.16 based system. A slot in downlink (DL), with distributed subcarrier permutation types: FUSC and PUSC, is either one or two OFDM symbols by one subchannel. In either case it always consists of 48 subcarriers. SIN Ref f is computed over these subcarriers of a slot. The physical abstraction model used for

(0)

1 or 2 symbols

In a slot a SH and a SH

( 0)

(b )

are constant.

such that || 180 , 3dB is the angle associated with half power beamwidth and GF B is the front-to-back power ratio. D. Path Loss Model Line-of-sight (LOS) path loss (P L) model for suburban macro (scenario C1) has been referred from [4]. It is a three slope model described by following expressions: if d 20m; f ree space model C(fc ) + 23.8log10 (d) if 20m < d dBP ; P L(d) = C(fc ) + 40log10 (d/dBP ) if d > dBP +23.8log10 (dBP ) where fc is the carrier frequency in Hz, C(fc ) is the frequency factor given as: 33.2 + 20log10 (fc /2 109 ), dBP is the breakpoint distance computed as: 4hBS hM S c and Sh is the standard deviation of log-normal shadowing. The value of Sh associated with above model is 4 dB for d dBP and is equal to 6 dB beyond dBP . E. Simulator Details The number of total cells in the network is set in a way to keep the same number of interfering BS (i.e., 18) for all reuse types. To include the effect of an innite network, wraparound technique has been employed. A signicant number of snapshots are being carried out for Monte Carlo simulations. Locations of MS in a cell are drawn using uniform random distribution. There are total three MS dropped into a sectorized cell (i.e., one MS per sector) while in case of non-sectorized cell one MS is dropped into the cell during one snapshot. During every snapshot, SIN Ref f of a MS is measured using MIC model. Cell space around BS is divided into twenty rings. Since MS is dropped using uniform random distribution, it may be present in any of these twenty rings during a snapshot. SIN Ref f is averaged over each of these rings and over complete cell as well. The former is used to study the effect of change in the values of SIN Ref f with respect to distance from the BS. If SIN Ref f value of a MS during a snapshot is less than 2.9 dB (threshold value being referred from [3]), it is considered to be in outage. Throughput of a MS during a snapshot, depends upon the MCS used by it. The throughput is averaged over complete cell. Under full load conditions, MS receives interference on all subcarriers of a subchannel (based on frequency reuse type). When partial load conditions are considered, not all subchannels are used in every cell. Hence MS in a cell will not receive interference on all subcarriers of a subchannel from an individual interfering BS. This phenomenon has been explained in [7]. For partial load scenarios we have done simulations with eighty and sixty percent of total subchannels. In all simulation scenarios, one receiving antenna has been considered at MS. The number of transmitting antennas at BS depend upon reuse type and use of beamforming. First we describe the antenna congurations for simulations without beamforming. For reuse types 1x1x1 and 3x1x1 (nonsectorized ones), one omnidirectional antenna is used at each

24 or 48 subcarriers

For one subcarrier, there is a unique value of a FF , a FF

(b )

( 0)

(b )

and

A subcarrier

Fig. 3.

Shadowing and fast fading over a slot.

MS1 Beam steered towards target MS MS2 One of three sectors serving MS2
2 1

BS1

BS2

MS1 is served by BS1 and similarly MS2 is served by BS2 Axis of ULA (Uniform Linear Array) of the sector serving MS2 bore sight

Fig. 4.

Example showing beamforming scenario

this purpose is MIC [11]. For computation of SIN Ref f , lognormal shadowing is drawn randomly for a slot and is same for all subcarriers of a slot. Since subcarriers of a subchannel (hence a slot) are not contiguous, fast fading (following Rice distribution) may be drawn independently for every subcarrier of a slot (Fig.3). C. Beamforming Model The beamforming model considered in our simulation is the delay and sum beamformer (or conventional beamformer) with uniform linear array (ULA). The power radiation pattern for a conventional beamformer is a product of array factor and radiation pattern of a single antenna. The array factor for this power radiation pattern is given as [13]: AF () =
t 1 sin( n2 (cos() cos())) nt sin( 2 (cos() cos()))

(2)

where nt is the number of transmit antennas at BS (with inter-antenna spacing equal to half wavelength), is the look direction (towards which the beam is steered) and is any arbitrary direction. Both these angles are measured with respect to array axis at BS (see Fig.4). The gain of single antenna associated with array factor is given by Eq.3 [11]. G() = Gmax + max 12 3dB
2

, GF B

(3)

where Gmax is the maximum antenna gain in boresight direction, is the angle MS subtends with sector boresight

TABLE I PARAMETERS OF SIMULATIONS [11]. Parameter Carrier frequency fc BS rms tansmit power PT x Total available bandwidth BWT Subcarrier spacing f No. of DL OFDM Symbols NS Thermal noise density N0 One side of hexagonal cell R Height of BS hBS Height of MS hM S Antenna Gain (boresight) Gmax Front-to-back power ratio GF B 3-dB beamwidth 3dB No. of transmitting antennas per sector for beamforming nt Value 2.5 GHz 43 dBm 15 MHz 10.9375 kHz 30 -174 dBm/Hz 1.5 Km 32 m 1.5 m 16 dBi 25 dB 70 8

60 1x1x1 1x1x1 1x3x1 1x3x1 1x3x3 1x3x3 Without Beamforming With Beamforming Without Beamforming With Beamforming Without Beamforming With Beamforming

50

40

Average SINReff [dB]

30

20

10

-10 0

500 Distance [m]

1000

1500

Fig. 5. Avg. SIN Ref f (DL) vs distance for reuse 1x1x1, 1x3x1 and 1x3x3.
70 3x1x1 3x1x1 3x3x1 3x3x1 3x3x3 3x3x3 Without Beamforming With Beamforming Without Beamforming With Beamforming Without Beamforming With Beamforming

BS. On the other hand, for rest of four reuse types (sectorized ones), one directional antenna is used in each sector (hence 3 per BS). With beamforming, eight directional antennas are used in each sector for all the reuse types. Though reuse types, 1x1x1 and 3x1x1, do not have any sectors yet for beamforming cell space is divided into three virtual sectors. In each of these virtual sector, eight directional antennas are being employed for beamforming. Since our purpose is to compare different reuse types, same cell power is used for every reuse type. The same cell power results in different subcarrier power for different reuse types as described by following equation: Pn,T x =
PT x Nf Ns NSc PT x Nc Ns NSc

60

50

Average SINReff [dB]

40

30

20

10

0 0

500 Distance [m]

1000

1500

for sectorized cells; for non-sectorized cells.

Fig. 6. Avg. SIN Ref f (DL) vs distance for reuse 3x1x1, 3x3x1 and 3x3x3.

where NSc is the total number of subcarriers (data+pilot) present in the available bandwidth in the network. Simulation parameters are given in Tab.I. The parameter values are mainly based on [11]. IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS In this section we have presented the simulation results. Average SIN Ref f has been plotted versus distance for all six reuse patterns in Fig.5 and 6. For each type of reuse, two curves have been presented: one without beamforming and other with beamforming. A remarkable difference can be seen between the two. Beamforming not only increases antenna gain (hence the signal strength) in the look direction but also reduces interference because of narrow beamwidth spanning the neighboring BS. Reuse type 3x3x3 has the best performance with respect to average SIN Ref f while reuse type 1x1x1 has the lowest values of SIN Ref f . An Overall improvement in average values of SIN Ref f can be seen because of beamforming. Improvement in case of reuse type 1x1x1 and 3x1x1 is more pronounced than others. These two use omnidirectional antennas for non-beamforming case. However, with beamforming the gain is not only due to array factor but also directional antenna elements. It is to be noted that even with good values of average SIN Ref f at a particular distance, some MS may

attain very low SIN Ref f . To verify this fact it is necessary to measure the probability of outage. Outage probabilities of all reuse patterns with/without beamforming are being presented in Fig.7. All reuse types show an improvement, i.e., the diminution in outage probability. Reuse type 1x3x1 show signicant improvement. Owing to beamforming, its outage probability has been reduced to 0.069. Till now we have talked about radio quality parameters. The other important aspect of network performance evaluation is cell throughput. In Tab.II outage probabilities, cell throughput and average SIN Ref f of all six reuse patterns are put together. The results correspond to full loading of subchannels. The results have been tabulated for both the beamforming and without beamforming cases. Results in Tab.II show that without beamforming only reuse type 3x3x3 has an acceptable value of outage probability. All the remaining types have outage probabilities greater than 5% and even 55% in the worst case. Beamforming technique has improved all three parameters. With beamforming, reuse type 1x3x1 has the best performance in terms of system throughput. As far as radio quality parameters are concerned, reuse 3x3x3 nds its place at the top. Reuse type 3x3x1 show a good compromise between radio quality and system throughput followed by 1x3x3. It can also be noticed that increasing the inter/intra-celluar frequency reuse results in an increase in the value of average SIN Ref f .

0.07

Without Beamforming 0.5 With Beamforming

0.06

0.4

0.05

Probability

Probability
1x3x1 1x3x3 3x1x1 Reuse Type 3x3x1 3x3x3

0.04

0.3

0.03

0.2
0.02

0.1

0.01

1x1x1

100%

80% Subchannel Loading

60%

Fig. 7.

Outage probability with full loading of subchannels.

Fig. 8. Outage probabilities for reuse 1x3x1 with partial loading of subchannels and beamforming.

TABLE II F REQUENCY REUSE COMPARISON TABLE WITH FULL LOADING OF SUBCHANNELS . Reuse Type Average SIN Ref f [dB]
without beamforming with beamforming

Outage Probability
without beamforming with beamforming

Average Throughput (Mbps)

without beamforming with beamforming

quality and throughput parameters. For loaded systems (using beamforming), it has been concluded that reuse type 3x3x1 comes up with the best performance. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors are thankful to Alcatel-Lucent France (R&D department) for its nancial assistance in carrying out this work. R EFERENCES
[1] IEEE Standard for local and metropolitan area networks - Part 16: Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems, 2004. [2] IEEE Standard for local and metropolitan area networks, Part 16: Air Interface for Fixed and Mobile Broadband Wireless Access Systems, Amendment 2: Physical and Medium Access Control Layers for Combined Fixed and Mobile Operation in Licensed Bands and Corrigendum 1, 2005. [3] WiMAX Forum Mobile System Prole 4 Release 1.0 Approved Specication, May 2007. [4] D. Baum et al. IST-2003-507581, D5.4 Final Report on Link and System Level Channel Models, October 2005, https://www.istwinner.org/DeliverableDocuments/D5.4.pdf. [5] H. Jia, Z. Zhang, G. Yu, P. Cheng, and S. Li. On the Performance of IEEE 802.16 OFDMA System under Different Frequency Reuse and Subcarrier Permutation Patterns. In Proc. of IEEE ICC, pages 5720 5725, June 2007. [6] G. Kulkarni, S. Adlakha, and M. Srivastava. Subcarrier Allocation and Bit Loading Algorithms for OFDMA-Based Wireless Networks. In IEEE Trans. on Mobile Computing, December 2005. [7] C. Lengoumbi, P. Godlewski, and P. Martins. Subchannelization Performance for the Downlink of a Multi-Cell OFDMA System. In Proc. of IEEE WiMob, October 2007. [8] M. Maqbool, M. Coupechoux, and P. Godlewski. Comparative Study of Reuse Patterns for WiMAX Cellular Networks. Technical report, ENST (T l com Paris), 2007. ee [9] M. C. Necker. Towards Frequency Reuse 1 Cellular FDM/TDM Systems. In ACM MSWiM, October 2006. [10] R. Pabst, J. Ellenbeck, M. Schinnenburg, and C. Hoymann. System Level Performance of Cellular WiMAX IEEE 802.16 with SDMA-enhanced Medium Access. In Proc. of IEEE WCNC, pages 18201825, March 2007. [11] K. Ramadas and R. Jain. WiMAX System Evaluation Methodology. Technical report, Wimax Forum, January 2007. [12] C. Tarhini and T. Chahed. On Capacity of OFDMA-based IEEE802.16 WiMAX Including Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) and Intercell interference. In Proc. of ICSNC06, page 70, October 2006. [13] D. Tse and P. Viswanath. Fundamentals of Wireless Communications. Cambridge University Press, 2006. [14] F. Wang, A. Ghosh, C. Sankaran, and S. Benes. WiMAX System Performance with Multiple Transmit and Multiple Receive Antennas. In Proc. of IEEE VTC, pages 28072811, April 2007.

1 1 1 3 3 3

x x x x x x

1 3 3 1 3 3

x x x x x x

1 1 3 1 1 3

3.8 4.7 12.1 12.4 13.3 20.1

21.4 15.6 23.6 31.1 24.4 31.9

0.55 0.49 0.06 0.07 0.06 0.003

0.02 0.069 0.006 0.002 0.01 0.0007

5.3 18.8 15.5 5.2 16.8 8.3

24 57.5 26 9.4 26.1 9.5

Reuse 1x3x1 is of great value as far as throughput of a network is concerned. Even though, beamforming has reduced outage probability of this frequency reuse, still outage probability of 0.069 is signicant enough. To reduce it further, we consider the case of partial loading of subchannels. The outage probability with partial loading of subchannels and beamforming are presented in Fig.8. It is clear from this gure that eighty percent of subchannel loading brings the outage probability of reuse type 1x3x1 well under control (less than ve percent) but it is also important to see its effect on available average throughput. The average throughput of this reuse is computed at eighty percent of subchannel loading and is found to be 50.6 Mbps. Even this value of average throughput is greater than that of all other reuse types under full load conditions.

V. C ONCLUSION In this article we have compared six different reuse patterns for WiMAX network. We have shown that without beamforming only reuse type 3x3x3 has acceptable value of outage probability. While using beamforming, while rest of the reuse patterns show acceptable results, network type of reuse 1 with loaded systems (using all available subchannels) will result in signicant system outage. However, method of partial usage of subchannels reduced the outage to acceptable level while still maintaining the average throughput at the highest level. We have shown that by using 80% of total subchannels reuse type 1x3x1 will give good results for both the radio