Universal Intelligent Small Cell for Next Generation Cellular Networks

Exploring innovative cellular architectures to achieve enhanced system capacity and good coverage has become a critical issue towards realizing the next generation of wireless communications. In this context, this paper proposes a novel concept of Universal Intelligent Small Cell (UnISCell) for enabling the densification of the next generation of cellular networks. The proposed novel concept envisions an integrated platform of providing a strong linkage between different stakeholders such as street lighting networks, landline telephone networks and future wireless networks, and is universal in nature being independent of the operating frequency bands and traffic types. The main motivating factors for the proposed small cell concept are the need of public infrastructure re-engineering, and the recent advances in several enabling technologies. First, we highlight the main concepts of the proposed UnISCell platform. Subsequently, we present two deployment scenarios for the proposed UnISCell concept considering infrastructure sharing and service sharing as important aspects. We then describe the key future technologies for enabling the proposed UnISCell concept and present a use case example with the help of numerical results. Finally, we conclude this article by providing some interesting future recommendations.