One of the most significant 5G technology enablers will be Device-to-Device (D2D) communications. D2D communications constitute a promising way to improve spectral, energy and latency performance, exploiting the physical proximity of communicating devices and increasing resource utilization. Furthermore, network infrastructure densification has been considered as one of the most substantial methods to increase system performance, taking advantage of base station proximity and spatial reuse of system resources. However, could we improve system performance by leveraging both of these two 5G enabling technologies together in a multi-cell environment? How does spectrum sharing affect performance enhancement? This article investigates the implications of interference, densification and spectrum sharing in D2D performance gain. The in-band D2D approach, where legacy users coexist with potential D2D pairs, is considered in a multi-cell system. Overlay and underlay spectrum sharing approaches are employed in order for the potential D2D pairs to access the spectrum. Given that two of the most critical problems in the D2D concept are mode selection and user scheduling, we jointly address them, aiming at maximizing the total system uplink throughput. Thus, we present a radio resource management mechanism for intra-cell and cross-cell overlay/underlay D2D communications enabled in a multi-cell system. System-level simulations are executed to evaluate the system performance and examine the trends of D2D communication gain for the different spectrum sharing approaches and various densification scenarios. Finally, realworld SDR-based experiments are performed to test and assess D2D communications for overlay and underlay spectrum sharing.
Besides advanced telecommunications techniques, the most prominent evolution of wireless networks is the densification of network deployment. In particular, the increasing access points/users density and reduced cell size significantly enhance spatial reuse, thereby improving network capacity. Nevertheless, does network ultra-densification and over-deployment always boost the performance of wireless networks? Since the distance from transmitters to receivers is greatly reduced in dense networks, signal is more likely to be propagated from long- to short-range region. Without considering short-…
Capable of significantly reducing cell size and enhancing spatial reuse, network densification is shown to be one of the most dominant approaches to expand network capacity. Due to the scarcity of available spectrum resources, nevertheless, the over-deployment of network infrastructures, e.g., cellular base stations (BSs), would strengthen the inter-cell interference as well, thus in turn deteriorating the system performance. On this account, we investigate the performance of downlink cellular networks in terms of user coverage probability (CP) and network spatial throughput (ST), aiming to sh…
Massive multiple-input multiple-output (massive MIMO) and small cell densification are complementary key 5G enablers. Given a fixed number of the entire base-station antennas per unit area, this paper fairly compares (i) to deploy few base stations (BSs) and concentrate many antennas on each of them, i.e. massive MIMO, and (ii) to deploy more BSs equipped with few antennas, i.e. small cell densification. We observe that small cell densification always outperforms for both signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) coverage and energy efficiency (EE), when each BS serves multiple users via L number of …
The most promising approach to enhance network capacity for the next generation of wireless cellular networks (5G) is densification, which benefits from the extensive spatial reuse of the spectrum and the reduced distance between transmitters and receivers. In this paper, we examine the performance of different schedulers in ultra dense small cell deployments. Due to the stronger line of sight (LOS) at low inter-site distances (ISDs), we discuss that the Rician fading channel model is more suitable to study network performance than the Rayleigh one, and model the Rician K factor as a function …
In this paper, we introduce a mathematical framework for analyzing and optimizing multi-operator cellular networks that are allowed to share spectrum licenses and infrastructure elements. The proposed approach exploits stochastic geometry for modeling the locations of cellular base stations and for computing the aggregate average rate. The trade-offs that emerge from sharing spectrum frequencies and cellular base stations are quantified and discussed.
Very recent studies showed that in a fully loaded dense small cell network (SCN), the coverage probability performance will continuously decrease with the network densification. Such new results were captured in IEEE ComSoc Technology News with an alarming title of "Will Densification Be the Death of 5G?". In this paper, we revisit this issue from more practical views of realistic network deployment, such as a finite number of active base stations (BSs) and user equipments (UEs), a decreasing BS transmission power with the network densification, etc. Particularly, in dense SCNs, due to an over…
In this paper, we address the problem of optimal relay placement in a cellular network assuming network densification, with the aim of maximizing cell capacity. In our model, a fraction of radio resources is dedicated to the base-station (BS)/relay nodes (RN) communication. In the remaining resources, BS and RN transmit simultaneously to users. During this phase, the network is densified in the sense that the transmitters density and so network capacity are increased. Intra- and inter-cell interference is taken into account in Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) simple formulas deri…
The crushing demand for wireless data services will soon exceed the capability of the current homogeneous cellular architecture. An emerging solution is to overlay small-cell networks with the macro-cell networks. In this paper, we propose an amplitude space sharing (ASS) method among the macro-cell user and small-cell users. By transmit layer design and data-rate optimization, the signals and interferences are promised to be separable at each receiver and the network sum-rate is maximized. The Han-Koboyashi coding is employed and optimal power allocation is derived for the one small-cell scen…
The 5G system has finally begun commercialization, and now is the time to start discussing the road map for the 6G system. While the 5G system was designed with a focus on discovering new service types for high speed, low-latency, and massive connective services, the evolution of the network interface for 6G should be considered with an eye toward supporting these complicated communication environments. As machine-driven data traffic continues to increase exponentially, 6G must be able to support a series of connection methods that did not previously exist. In departure from base-station-orien…
This paper investigates the extent to which spectrum sharing in mmWave networks with multiple cellular operators is a viable alternative to traditional dedicated spectrum allocation. Specifically, we develop a general mathematical framework by which to characterize the performance gain that can be obtained when spectrum sharing is used, as a function of the underlying beamforming, operator coordination, bandwidth, and infrastructure sharing scenarios. The framework is based on joint beamforming and cell association optimization, with the objective of maximizing the long-term throughput of the …
The highly directional and adaptive antennas used in mmWave communication open up the possibility of uncoordinated sharing of spectrum licenses between commercial cellular operators. There are several advantages to sharing including a reduction in license costs and an increase in spectrum utilization. In this paper, we establish the theoretical feasibility of spectrum license sharing among mmWave cellular operators. We consider a heterogeneous multi-operator system containing multiple independent cellular networks, each owned by an operator. We then compute the SINR and rate distribution for d…
This paper studies cooperative schemes for the inter-cell interference control in orthogonal-frequency-divisionmultiple- access (OFDMA) cellular systems. The downlink transmission in a simplified two-cell system is examined, where both cells simultaneously access the same frequency band using OFDMA. The joint power and subcarrier allocation over the two cells is investigated for maximizing their sum throughput with both centralized and decentralized implementations. Particularly, the decentralized allocation is achieved via a new cooperative interference control approach, whereby the two cells…
To tackle the challenge of providing higher data rates within limited spectral resources we consider the case of multiple operators sharing a common pool of radio resources. Four algorithms are proposed to address co-primary multi-operator radio resource sharing under heterogeneous traffic in both centralized and distributed scenarios. The performance of these algorithms is assessed through extensive system-level simulations for two indoor small cell layouts. It is assumed that the spectral allocations of the small cells are orthogonal to the macro network layer and thus, only the small cell t…
As two major players in terrestrial wireless communications, Wi-Fi systems and cellular networks have different origins and have largely evolved separately. Motivated by the exponentially increasing wireless data demand, cellular networks are evolving towards a heterogeneous and small cell network architecture, wherein small cells are expected to provide very high capacity. However, due to the limited licensed spectrum for cellular networks, any effort to achieve capacity growth through network densification will face the challenge of severe inter-cell interference. In view of this, recent sta…
This paper studies the degrees of freedom of full-duplex multicell networks that share the spectrum among multiple cells in a non-orthogonal setting. In the considered network, we assume that {\em full-duplex} base stations with multiple transmit and receive antennas communicate with multiple single-antenna mobile users. By spectrum sharing among multiple cells and (simultaneously) enabling full-duplex radio, the network can utilize the spectrum more flexibly, but, at the same time, the network is subject to multiple sources of interference compared to a network with separately dedicated bands…
In this paper, we investigate physical-layer security for a heterogeneous cellular network consisting of a macro cell and a small cell in the presence of a passive eavesdropper that intends to tap both the macro-cell and small-cell transmissions. Both the orthogonal spectrum sharing (OSS) and non-orthogonal spectrum sharing (NOSS) are considered for the heterogeneous cellular network. The OSS allows the macro cell and small cell to access a given spectrum band in an orthogonal manner, whereas the NOSS enables them to access the same spectrum simultaneously and mutual interference exits. As a c…
Regulators all around the world have started identifying the portions of the spectrum that will be used for the next generation of cellular networks. A band in the mmWave spectrum will be exploited to increase the available capacity. In response to the very high expected traffic demand, a sharing mechanism may make it possible to use the spectrum more efficiently. In this work, moving within the European and Italian regulatory conditions, we propose the use of Licensed Spectrum Access (LSA) to coordinate sharing among cellular operators. Additionally, we show some preliminary results on our re…
This paper presents a device-to-device (D2D) user selection protocol wherein multiple D2D pairs coexist with a cellular network. In the developed framework, certain D2D users harvest energy and share the spectrum of the cellular users by adopting a hybrid time switching and power splitting protocol. The D2D user which harvests the maximum energy and achieves the desired target rate for the cellular communication is selected to serve as a decode-and-forward (DF) relay for the cellular user. The proposed work analyzes the impact of increase in the number of D2D users on the performance of cellul…
In this paper, spectrum-sharing technology is integrated into cellular systems to improve spectrum efficiency. Macrocell users are primary users (PUs) while those within local cells, e.g., femtocell users, or desiring cost-effective services, e.g., roamers, are identified as secondary users (SUs). The SUs share the spectrum resources of the PUs in a underlay way, thus the transmit power of a secondary is strictly limited by the primary's tolerable interference power. Given such constraints, a cooperative relaying transmission between a SU and the macrocell base station (BS) is necessary. In or…
Spectrum sharing between wireless networks improves the efficiency of spectrum usage, and thereby alleviates spectrum scarcity due to growing demands for wireless broadband access. To improve the usual underutilization of the cellular uplink spectrum, this paper studies spectrum sharing between a cellular uplink and a mobile ad hoc networks. These networks access either all frequency sub-channels or their disjoint sub-sets, called spectrum underlay and spectrum overlay, respectively. Given these spectrum sharing methods, the capacity trade-off between the coexisting networks is analyzed based …
The mobile users on board vehicles often experience low quality of service due to the vehicular penetration effect, especially at the cell edges. The so-called mobile-cells are installed inside public transport vehicles to serve the commuters. On one end, the mobile-cells have a wireless backhaul connection with the nearest base station, and on the other, they connect wirelessly to the in-vehicle users over access links. This paper integrates the mobile-cells within the cellular networks by reusing their sub-channels. Firstly, this paper proposes an algorithm that allows spectrum sharing for a…
One of the many problems faced by current cellular network technology is the under utilization of the dedicated, licensed spectrum of network operators. An emerging paradigm to solve this issue is to allow multiple operators to share some parts of each others' spectrum. Previous works on spectrum sharing have failed to integrate the theoretical insights provided by recent developments in stochastic geometrical approaches to cellular network analysis with the objectives of network resource allocation problems. In this paper, we study the non-orthogonal spectrum assignment with the goal of maxim…
Large-scale mobile edge computing (MEC) systems require scalable solutions to allocate communication and computing resources to the users. In this letter we address this challenge by applying dynamic spectrum sharing among the base stations (BSs), together with local resource allocation in the cells. We show that the network-wide resource allocation can be transformed into a convex optimization problem, and propose a distributed, hierarchical solution with limited information exchange among the BSs. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed solution is superior to other baseline algorith…
Ultra network densification is considered a major trend in the evolution of cellular networks, due to its ability to bring the network closer to the user side and reuse resources to the maximum extent. In this paper we explore spatial resources coordination as a key empowering technology for next generation (5G) ultra-dense networks. We propose an optimization framework for flexibly associating system users with a densely deployed network of access nodes, opting for the exploitation of densification and the control of overhead signaling. Combined with spatial precoding processing strategies, w…
In this article, we consider a cellular network deployment where UAV-to-UAV (U2U) transmit-receive pairs coexist with the uplink (UL) of cellular ground users (GUEs). Our analysis focuses on comparing two spectrum sharing mechanisms: i) overlay, where the available time-frequency resources are split into orthogonal portions for U2U and GUE communications, and ii) underlay, where the same resources may be accessed by both link types, resulting in mutual interference. We evaluate the coverage probability and rate of all links and their interplay to identify the best spectrum sharing mechanism. A…
This paper addresses two fundamental and interrelated issues in device-to-device (D2D) enhanced cellular networks. The first issue is how D2D users should access spectrum, and we consider two choices: overlay (orthogonal spectrum between D2D and cellular UEs) and underlay (non-orthogonal). The second issue is how D2D users should choose between communicating directly or via the base station, a choice that depends on distance between the potential D2D transmitter and receiver. We propose a tractable hybrid network model where the positions of mobiles are modeled by random spatial Poisson point …
The densification and expansion of wireless network pose new challenges on interference management and reducing energy consumption. This paper studies energy-efficient resource management in heterogeneous networks by jointly optimizing cell activation, user association and multicell multiuser channel assignment, according to the long-term average traffic and channel conditions. The proposed framework is built on characterizing the interference coupling by pre-defined interference patterns, and performing resource allocation among these patterns. In this way, the interference fluctuation caused…
In this work we present a case for dynamic spectrum sharing between different operators in systems with carrier aggregation (CA) which is an important feature in 3GPP LTE-A systems. Cross-carrier scheduling and sensing are identified as key enablers for such spectrum sharing in LTE-A. Sensing is classified as Type 1 sensing and Type 2 sensing and the role of each in the system operation is discussed. The more challenging Type 2 sensing which involves sensing the interfering signal in the presence of a desired signal is studied for a single-input single-output system. Energy detection and the m…
With the severe spectrum shortage in conventional cellular bands, the millimeter (mmWave) frequencies, roughly above 10~GHz, have been attracting growing attention for next-generation micro- and pico- cellular wireless networks. A fundamental and open question is how these bands should be used by cellular operators. Cellular spectrum has been traditionally allocated following an exclusive ownership model. However, in this paper we argue that the distinct nature of mmWave communication -- the massive bandwidth degrees of freedom, directional isolation and high susceptibility to blockage -- sugg…
The licensing model for millimeter wave bands has been the subject of considerable debate, with some industry players advocating for unlicensed use and others for traditional geographic area exclusive use licenses. Meanwhile, the massive bandwidth, highly directional antennas, high penetration loss and susceptibility to shadowing in these bands suggest certain advantages to spectrum and infrastructure sharing. However, even when sharing is technically beneficial (as recent research in this area suggests that it is), it may not be profitable. In this paper, both the technical and economic impli…
In this paper, we study an aerial drone base station (DBS) assisted cellular network that consists of a single ground macro base station (MBS), multiple DBSs, and multiple ground terminals (GT). We assume that the MBS transmits to the DBSs and the GTs in the licensed band while the DBSs use a separate unlicensed band (e.g. Wi-Fi) to transmit to the GTs. For the utilization of the DBSs, we propose a cooperative decode--forward (DF) protocol in which multiple DBSs assist the terminals simultaneously while maintaining a predetermined interference level on the coexisting unlicensed band users. For…
Spectrum refarming (SR) refers to a radio resource management technique which allows different generations of cellular networks to operate in the same radio spectrum. In this paper, an underlay SR model is proposed, in which an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) system refarms the spectrum of a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system through intelligently exploiting the interference margin provided by the CDMA system. We investigate the mutual effect of the two systems by evaluating the asymptotic signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the users, based on whic…
The device-to-device (D2D) communication theoretically provides both the cellular traffic offloading and convenient content delivery directly among proximity users. However, in practice, no matter in underlay or overlay mode, the employment of D2D may impair the performance of the cellular links. Therefore, it is important to design a spectrum sharing scheme, under which the performance of both links can be improved simultaneously. In this paper, we consider the cell-edge user (CEU) scenario, where both sides have the demand to improve the quality of experience or service. Therefore, CEUs and …
In this paper, we discuss resource sharing, a key dimension in mmWave network design in which spectrum, access and/or network infrastructure resources can be shared by multiple operators. It is argued that this sharing paradigm will be essential to fully exploit the tremendous amounts of bandwidth and the large number of antenna degrees of freedom available in these bands, and to provide statistical multiplexing to accommodate the highly variable nature of the traffic. In this paper, we investigate and compare various sharing configurations in order to capture the enhanced potential of mmWave …
We investigate the coexistence of underlay spectrum sharing in cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. A primary system with geographically distributed primary access points (P-APs) serves a multitude of primary users (PUs), while a secondary system serves a large number of secondary users (SUs) in the same primary/licensed spectrum by exploiting the underlay spectrum sharing. To mitigate the secondary co-channel interference inflected at PUs, stringent secondary transmit power constraints are defined for the secondary access points (S-APs). A generalized pilots sharin…
Future wireless communication systems are envisioned to share radio frequency (RF) spectrum, with other services such as radars, in order to meet the growing spectrum demands. In this paper, we consider co-channel spectrum sharing between cellular systems and radars. We address the problem of target detection by radars that are subject to shape its waveform in a way that it does not cause interference to cellular systems. We consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar and a MIMO cellular communication system with $\mc K$ base stations (BS). We propose a spectrum sharing algorithm wh…
Cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems are expected to implement advanced cooperative communication techniques to let geographically distributed access points jointly serve user equipments. Building on the \emph{Team Theory}, we design the uplink team minimum mean-squared error (TMMSE) combining under limited data and flexible channel state information (CSI) sharing. Taking into account the effect of both channel estimation errors and pilot contamination, a minimum MSE problem is formulated to derive unidirectional TMMSE, centralized TMMSE and statistical TMMSE co…
This paper proposes a cellular network exploiting millimeter-wave (mmWave) and ultra-densified base stations (BSs) to achieve the far-reaching 5G aim in downlink average rate. The mmWave overlaid network however incurs a pitfall that its ample data rate is only applicable for downlink transmissions due to the implementation difficulty at mobile users, leading to an immense difference between uplink and downlink rates. We therefore turn our attention not only to maximize downlink rate but also to ensure the minimum uplink rate. With this end, we firstly derive the mmWave overlaid ultra-dense ce…
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology(瑞典皇家理工学院电气工程与计算机科学学院);COMELEC Department, Telecom ParisTech(巴黎高科电信学院COMELEC系)
Inter-operator spectrum sharing in millimeter-wave bands has the potential of substantially increasing the spectrum utilization and providing a larger bandwidth to individual user equipment at the expense of increasing inter-operator interference. Unfortunately, traditional model-based spectrum sharing schemes make idealistic assumptions about inter-operator coordination mechanisms in terms of latency and protocol overhead, while being sensitive to missing channel state information. In this paper, we propose hybrid model-based and data-driven multi-operator spectrum sharing mechanisms, which i…
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a promising paradigm to accommodate massive device connections in 5G and beyond. To pave the way for future IoT, the spectrum should be planed in advance. Spectrum sharing is a preferable solution for IoT due to the scarcity of available spectrum resource. In particular, mobile operators are inclined to exploit the existing standards and infrastructures of current cellular networks and deploy IoT within licensed cellular spectrum. Yet, proprietary companies prefer to deploy IoT within unlicensed spectrum to avoid any licence fee. In this paper, we provide a surv…
Competing cellular operators aggressively share infrastructure in many major US markets. If operators also were to share spectrum in next-generation millimeter-wave (mmWave) networks, intra-cellular interference will become correlated with inter-cellular interference. We propose a mathematical framework to model a multi-operator mmWave cellular network with co-located base-stations (BSs). We then characterize the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) distribution for an arbitrary network and derive its coverage probability. To understand how varying the spatial correlation between dif…
We consider the resource allocation problem in cellular networks which support Device-to-Device Communications (D2D). For systems that enable D2D via only orthogonal resource sharing, we propose and analyze two resource allocation policies that guarantee access fairness among all users, while taking advantage of multi-user diversity and local D2D communications, to provide marked improvements over existing cellular-only policies. The first policy, the Cellular Fairness Scheduling (CFS) Policy, provides the simplest D2D extension to existing cellular systems, while the second policy, the D2D Fa…
Sharing the spectrum among multiple operators seems promising in millimeter wave (mmWave) systems. One explanation is the highly directional transmission in mmWave, which reduces the interference caused by one network on the other networks sharing the same resources. In this paper, we model a mmWave cellular system where an operator that primarily owns an exclusive-use license of a certain band can sell a restricted secondary license of the same band to another operator. This secondary network has a restriction on the maximum interference it can cause to the original network. Using stochastic …
Since the first cellular networks were trialled in the 1970s, we have witnessed an incredible wireless revolution. From 1G to 4G, the massive traffic growth has been managed by a combination of wider bandwidths, refined radio interfaces, and network densification, namely increasing the number of antennas per site. Due its cost-efficiency, the latter has contributed the most. Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) is a key 5G technology that uses massive antenna arrays to provide a very high beamforming gain and spatially multiplexing of users, and hence, increases the spectral and energ…
In this paper, an analytical framework is provided to analyze the uplink performance of device-to-device (D2D)-enabled millimeter wave (mmWave) cellular networks with clustered D2D user equipments (UEs). Locations of cellular UEs are modeled as a Poison Point Process (PPP), while locations of potential D2D UEs are modeled as a Poisson Cluster Process (PCP). Signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) outage probabilities are derived for both cellular and D2D links using tools from stochastic geometry. The distinguishing features of mmWave communications such as directional beamforming and h…
This paper reports relative performance of decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying in a multi-antenna cooperative cognitive radio network (CCRN) that supports device-to-device (D2D) communications using spectrum sharing technique in cellular network. In this work, cellular system is considered as primary and internet of things devices (IoDs), engaged in D2D communications, are considered to be secondary system. The devices access the licensed spectrum by means of the cooperation in two-way primary communications. Furthermore, IoDs are energized by harvesting the energy fr…
In a recent work, we studied a novel precoding design for cell-free networks called team minimum mean-square error (TMMSE) precoding, which rigorously generalizes centralized MMSE precoding to distributed operations based on transmitter-specific channel state information (CSI). Despite its flexibility in handling different cooperation regimes at the CSI sharing level, TMMSE precoding assumes network-wide sharing of the data bearing signals, and hence it is inherently not scalable. In this work, inspired by recent advances on scalable cell-free architectures based on user-centric network cluste…
While spectrum at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies is less scarce than at traditional frequencies below 6 GHz, still it is not unlimited, in particular if we consider the requirements from other services using the same band and the need to license mmWave bands to multiple mobile operators. Therefore, an efficient spectrum access scheme is critical to harvest the maximum benefit from emerging mmWave technologies. In this paper, we introduce a new hybrid spectrum access scheme for mmWave networks, where data is aggregated through two mmWave carriers with different characteristics. In particu…
To meet the ever-growing demand for a higher communicating rate and better communication quality, more and more small cells are overlaid under the macro base station (MBS) tier, thus forming the heterogeneous networks. Small cells can ease the load pressure of MBS but lack of the guarantee of performance. On the other hand, cooperation draws more and more attention because of the great potential of small cell densification. Some technologies matured in wired network can also be applied to cellular networks, such as Software-defined networking (SDN). SDN helps simplify the structure of multi-ti…
Recent study predicts that by 2020 up to 50 billion IoT devices will be connected to the Internet, straining the capacity of wireless network that has already been overloaded with data-hungry mobile applications, such as high-definition video streaming and virtual reality(VR)/augmented reality(AR). How to accommodate the demand for both massive scale of IoT devices and high-speed cellular services in the physically limited spectrum without significantly increasing the operational and infrastructure costs is one of the main challenges for operators. In this article, we introduce a new multi-ope…
We consider a cellular network deployment where UAV-to-UAV (U2U) transmit-receive pairs share the same spectrum with the uplink (UL) of cellular ground users (GUEs). For this setup, we focus on analyzing and comparing the performance of two spectrum sharing mechanisms: (i) underlay, where the same time-frequency resources may be accessed by both UAVs and GUEs, resulting in mutual interference, and (ii)overlay, where the available resources are divided into orthogonal portions for U2U and GUE communications. We evaluate the coverage probability and rate of both link types and their interplay to…
The aggressive spatial spectrum reuse (SSR) by network densification using smaller cells has successfully driven the wireless communication industry onward in the past decades. In our future journey toward ultra-dense networks (UDNs), a fundamental question needs to be answered. Is there a limit to SSR? In other words, when we deploy thousands or millions of small cell base stations (BSs) per square kilometer, is activating all BSs on the same time/frequency resource the best strategy? In this paper, we present theoretical analyses to answer such question. In particular, we find that both the …