This paper deals with the interference control in the uplink (UL) of Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems. Although the multiple access technique allows an almost null intra-cell interference, the system is still sensitive to the inter-cell component caused by neighbouring cells. The UL power control proposed by the 3GPP is a means to reduce this interference. In this sense, user equipments (UE) establish an operation point (open loop power control or OLPC) to compensate the mean path loss and its slow variations. Additionally, this may be fine tuned by specific commands (closed loop). The current paper focuses on the performance of OLPC when deployed in realistic scenarios where heterogeneity is a key feature, both in the deployment of sites and in the concentration of users. The investigation is done in a comparative way, against a classic synthetic and regular scenario. Results indicate that the performance of the OLPC differs from the theoretical environment, due to the difference in the scenario nature. The summation of indoor coverage and guided path-loss results the urban scenario OLPC optimal point to lie in between two limits, one established by the reduced transmitted power fixed by the OLPC and the other by the interferences.

Peer Reviewed