On the Accuracy of the Wyner Model in Cellular Networks

The Wyner model has been widely used to model and analyze cellular networks due to its simplicity and analytical tractability. Its key aspects include fixed user locations and the deterministic and homogeneous interference intensity. While clearly a significant simplification of a real cellular system, which has random user locations and interference levels that vary by several orders of magnitude over a cell, a common presumption by theorists is that the Wyner model nevertheless captures the essential aspects of cellular interactions. But is this true? To answer this question, we consider both uplink and downlink transmissions, and both outage-based and average-based metrics. For the uplink, for both metrics, we conclude that the Wyner model is in fact quite accurate for systems with a sufficient number of simultaneous users, e.g. CDMA. Conversely, it is broadly inaccurate otherwise. With multicell processing, intracell TDMA is shown to be suboptimal in terms of average throughput, in sharp contrast to predictions using the Wyner model. Turning to the downlink, the Wyner model is highly inaccurate for outage since it depends largely on the user locations. However, for average or sum throughput, the Wyner model serves as an acceptable simplification in certain special cases if the interference parameter is set appropriately.