2017 Volume E100.B Issue 8 Pages 1352-1365
In this paper, we clarify the issues in a metropolitan environment involving overlying frequency bands with various bandwidths and propose a cell selection scheme that improves the communications quality based on user and network characteristics. Different frequency bands with various signal bandwidths will be overlaid on each other in forthcoming fifth-generation (5G) radio access networks. At the same time, services, applications or features of sets of user equipment (UEs) will become more diversified and the requirements for the quality of communications will become more varied. Moreover, in real environments, roads and buildings have irregular constructions. Especially in an urban or metropolitan environment, the complex architecture present in a metropolis directly affects radio propagation. Under these conditions, the communications quality is degraded because cell radio resources are depleted due to many UE connections and the mismatch between service requirements and cell capabilities. The proposed scheme prevents this degradation in communications quality. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is evaluated in an ideal regular deployment and in a non-regular metropolitan environment based on computer simulations. Simulation results show that the average of the time for the proposed scheme from the start of transmission to the completion of reception at the UE is improved by approximately 40% compared to an existing cell selection scheme that is based on the Maximum Signal-to-Interference plus Noise power Ratio (SINR).