Estimating the cross-channel gain from a small cell base station to an active macro user is critical in two-tier heterogeneous networks (HetNets). Conventional methods require the backhaul link, which is too complicated to be used in HetNets. In this paper, we propose a new method to simplify the system. We find that by measuring the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and recognizing the modulation level of macro cell's signal, the small cell base station can autonomously obtain the cross-channel gain without using the backhaul link. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method has about 2% estimation error, where the cross-channel gain is usually in the range of −70 dB to −110 dB.
['Xiaoning Huang', 'Liying Li', 'Guodong Zhao', 'Zhi Chen']
Estimating cross-channel gain without using backhaul link in two-tier heterogeneous networks