Area spectral efficiency of cellular mobile radio systems

A general analytical framework quantifying the spectral efficiency of cellular systems with variable-rate transmission is introduced. This efficiency, the area spectral efficiency, defines the sum of the maximum average data rates per unit bandwidth per unit area supported by a cell's base station. Expressions for this efficiency as a function of the reuse distance for the worst and best case interference configurations are derived. Moreover, Monte Carlo simulations are developed to estimate the value of this efficiency for average interference conditions. Both fully loaded and partially loaded cellular systems are investigated. The effect of random user location is taken into account, and the impact of lognormal shadowing and Nakagami multipath fading is also studied.