Abstract
This paper analyzes the performance of hybrid control-access schemes for small cells (such as femtocells) in the context of two-tier overlaid cellular networks. The proposed hybrid access schemes allow for sharing the same downlink resources between the small-cell network and the original macrocell network, and their mode of operations are characterized considering post-processed signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios (SINRs) or preprocessed interference-aware operation. This paper presents a detailed treatment of achieved performance of a desired user that benefits from MIMO arrays configuration through the use of transmit antenna selection (TAS) and maximal ratio combining (MRC) in the presence of Poisson field interference processes on spatial links. Furthermore, based on the interference awareness at the desired user, two TAS approaches are treated, which are the signal-to-noise-based selection and SINR-based selection. The analysis is generalized to address the cases of highly-correlated and un-correlated aggregated interference on different transmit channels. In addition, the effect of delayed TAS due to imperfect feedback and the impact of arbitrary TAS processing are investigated. The analytical results are validated by simulations, to clarify some of the main outcomes herein.