The meta distribution as a new performance metric can provide much more fine-grained information about the individual link reliability, and is of great value for the analysis and design of the future cellular networks. In this paper, we investigate the stochastic geometry based analysis for heterogeneous networks from the perspective on the meta distribution. The comprehensive overview for the fundamental framework of the meta distribution is provided, which involves the concepts of the meta distribution and its related performance metric (e.g., mean local delay and spatial outage capacity) and the efficient calculation methods of the meta distribution. The insights of the meta distribution are also stated by the comparison with standard success probability. The various applications of the meta distribution to heterogeneous networks are summarized and categorized by different types of technologies. Furthermore, some open issues and future work are discussed to promote the development and application of the meta distribution.

元分布作为一种新的性能指标，可以提供有关各个链路可靠性的更多细粒度信息，对于将来的蜂窝网络的分析和设计具有重要的价值。在本文中，我们将从元分布的角度研究基于随机几何的异构网络分析。提供了元分发基本框架的全面概述，其中涉及元分发的概念及其相关性能指标（例如，平均本地延迟和空间中断容量）以及元分发的有效计算方法。通过与标准成功概率进行比较，还可以说明元分布的见解。元分布在异构网络中的各种应用通过不同类型的技术进行了归纳和分类。此外，讨论了一些未解决的问题和未来的工作，以促进元分发的开发和应用。