Dynamic Network Densification: Overcoming Spatio-Temporal Variability in Wireless Traffic

Jacek Kibilda, Gustavo de Veciana

Abstract: Network densification, i.e., increasing the density of fixed infrastructure nodes, is the key approach underlying gains in infrastructure-based network capacity and coverage. These gains are a natural result of reducing the distance (and thus improving wireless channels) between end devices and infrastructure and possibly reducing the number of devices per infrastructure node. Unfortunately, wireless traffic demands exhibit high spatio-temporal variability, whence densification may result in deployment of poorly utilized infrastructure resources. One alternative is to leverage the availability of wireless resources whose presence aligns with the mobile traffic demand variations, e.g., high density of vehicles where there is high demand. The promise of such dynamic densification is to both decrease infrastructure costs and deliver improved capacity. This paper proposes a stochastic geometry-based modelling framework to evaluate how the network performance (per user rate superquantiles) depends on the alignment of resources and traffic demands for dynamic network densification.