The articles in this special issue focus on ultra-dense heterogeneous small cell deployment in 5G communications. Among enabling technologies for 5G communication systems and beyond, we are witnessing the explosive growth of ultra-dense heterogeneous deployment of small cells including micro eNBs, pico eNBs, femto eNBs, and remote radio heads (RRHs), driven by the stringent requirements of the fifth generation (5G) such as the increasing data rate, spectrum efficiency, and energy efficiency. The nature of an ultra-dense network, however, poses new challenges, not only in the deployment of massive base stations, but also in the frequent and complicated handovers, complex mobility management, QoE-ensured resource allocation, and inter-cell interference mitigation. These issues have to be carefully addressed to facilitate the successful deployment of ultra-dense heterogeneous networks. Toward this end, this Special Issue is devoted to presenting prominent research outcomes and the state-of-the-art advances in ultra-dense heterogeneous small cell deployment in emerging 5G and beyond.

中文翻译：

---

 客座社论


本期特刊中的文章重点关注 5G 通信中的超密集异构小型蜂窝部署。在 5G 通信系统及其他系统的支持技术中，我们目睹了小型基站超密集异构部署的爆炸式增长，其中包括微型 eNB、微微 eNB、毫微微 eNB 和远程无线电头端 (RRH)，这是由 5G 的严格要求推动的。第五代 (5G)，例如不断提高的数据速率、频谱效率和能源效率。然而，超密集网络的性质带来了新的挑战，不仅在海量基站的部署方面，而且在频繁而复杂的切换、复杂的移动性管理、QoE保证的资源分配和小区间干扰抑制方面都提出了新的挑战。 。必须认真解决这些问题，以促进超密集异构网络的成功部署。为此，本期特刊致力于介绍新兴 5G 及其他领域超密集异构小型蜂窝部署的杰出研究成果和最新进展。