Distributed Multicell Beamforming Design Approaching Pareto Boundary with Max-Min Fairness

This paper addresses coordinated downlink beamforming optimization in multicell time-division duplex (TDD) systems where a small number of parameters are exchanged between cells but with no data sharing. With the goal to reach the point on the Pareto boundary with max-min rate fairness, we first develop a two-step centralized optimization algorithm to design the joint beamforming vectors. This algorithm can achieve a further sum-rate improvement over the max-min optimal performance, and is shown to guarantee max-min Pareto optimality for scenarios with two base stations (BSs) each serving a single user. To realize a distributed solution with limited intercell communication, we then propose an iterative algorithm by exploiting an approximate uplink-downlink duality, in which only a small number of positive scalars are shared between cells in each iteration. Simulation results show that the proposed distributed solution achieves a fairness rate performance close to the centralized algorithm while it has a better sum-rate performance, and demonstrates a better tradeoff between sum-rate and fairness than the Nash Bargaining solution especially at high signal-to-noise ratio.Comment: 8 figures. To Appear in IEEE Trans. Wireless Communications, 201

Coordinated Multicast Beamforming in Multicell Networks

We study physical layer multicasting in multicell networks where each base station, equipped with multiple antennas, transmits a common message using a single beamformer to multiple users in the same cell. We investigate two coordinated beamforming designs: the quality-of-service (QoS) beamforming and the max-min SINR (signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio) beamforming. The goal of the QoS beamforming is to minimize the total power consumption while guaranteeing that received SINR at each user is above a predetermined threshold. We present a necessary condition for the optimization problem to be feasible. Then, based on the decomposition theory, we propose a novel decentralized algorithm to implement the coordinated beamforming with limited information sharing among different base stations. The algorithm is guaranteed to converge and in most cases it converges to the optimal solution. The max-min SINR (MMS) beamforming is to maximize the minimum received SINR among all users under per-base station power constraints. We show that the MMS problem and a weighted peak-power minimization (WPPM) problem are inverse problems. Based on this inversion relationship, we then propose an efficient algorithm to solve the MMS problem in an approximate manner. Simulation results demonstrate significant advantages of the proposed multicast beamforming algorithms over conventional multicasting schemes.Comment: 10pages, 9 figure

Joint Beamforming and Power Control in Coordinated Multicell: Max-Min Duality, Effective Network and Large System Transition

This paper studies joint beamforming and power control in a coordinated multicell downlink system that serves multiple users per cell to maximize the minimum weighted signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio. The optimal solution and distributed algorithm with geometrically fast convergence rate are derived by employing the nonlinear Perron-Frobenius theory and the multicell network duality. The iterative algorithm, though operating in a distributed manner, still requires instantaneous power update within the coordinated cluster through the backhaul. The backhaul information exchange and message passing may become prohibitive with increasing number of transmit antennas and increasing number of users. In order to derive asymptotically optimal solution, random matrix theory is leveraged to design a distributed algorithm that only requires statistical information. The advantage of our approach is that there is no instantaneous power update through backhaul. Moreover, by using nonlinear Perron-Frobenius theory and random matrix theory, an effective primal network and an effective dual network are proposed to characterize and interpret the asymptotic solution.Comment: Some typos in the version publised in the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications are correcte

Optimality Properties, Distributed Strategies, and Measurement-Based Evaluation of Coordinated Multicell OFDMA Transmission

The throughput of multicell systems is inherently limited by interference and the available communication resources. Coordinated resource allocation is the key to efficient performance, but the demand on backhaul signaling and computational resources grows rapidly with number of cells, terminals, and subcarriers. To handle this, we propose a novel multicell framework with dynamic cooperation clusters where each terminal is jointly served by a small set of base stations. Each base station coordinates interference to neighboring terminals only, thus limiting backhaul signalling and making the framework scalable. This framework can describe anything from interference channels to ideal joint multicell transmission. The resource allocation (i.e., precoding and scheduling) is formulated as an optimization problem (P1) with performance described by arbitrary monotonic functions of the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratios (SINRs) and arbitrary linear power constraints. Although (P1) is non-convex and difficult to solve optimally, we are able to prove: 1) Optimality of single-stream beamforming; 2) Conditions for full power usage; and 3) A precoding parametrization based on a few parameters between zero and one. These optimality properties are used to propose low-complexity strategies: both a centralized scheme and a distributed version that only requires local channel knowledge and processing. We evaluate the performance on measured multicell channels and observe that the proposed strategies achieve close-to-optimal performance among centralized and distributed solutions, respectively. In addition, we show that multicell interference coordination can give substantial improvements in sum performance, but that joint transmission is very sensitive to synchronization errors and that some terminals can experience performance degradations.Comment: Published in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 15 pages, 7 figures. This version corrects typos related to Eq. (4) and Eq. (28

Interference pricing mechanism for downlink multicell coordinated beamforming

We consider the downlink coordinated beamforming problem in a cellular network in which the base stations (BSs) are equipped with multiple antennas and each user is equipped with a single antenna. The BSs cooperate in sharing their local interference information, and they aim to maximize the sum-rate of the users in the network. A decentralized interference pricing beamforming (IPBF) algorithm is proposed to identify the coordinated beamformer, where a BS is penalized according to the interference it creates to its peers. We show that the decentralized pricing mechanism converges to an interference equilibrium, which is a KKT point of the sum-rate maximization problem. The proofs rely on the identification of rank-1 solutions of each BSs' interference-penalized rate maximization problem. Numerical results show that the proposed iterative mechanism reduces significantly the exchanged information with respect to other state-of-the-art beamforming algorithms with very little sum-rate loss. The version of the algorithm that limits the coordination to a cluster of base stations (IPBF-L) is shown to have very small sum-rate loss with respect to the full coordinated algorithm with much less backhaul information exchange.The work was partially supported by NSF grant CCF-1017982 and SICCNALS project (TEC2011-28219). The work of A. García was partially supported by NSF grant CCF-1017982. A. García-Armada’s work has been partially funded by research projects COMONSENS (CSD2008-00010) and GRE3N (TEC2011-29006-C03-02)Publicad

Energy Efficient Coordinated Beamforming for Multi-cell MISO Systems

In this paper, we investigate the optimal energy efficient coordinated beamforming in multi-cell multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems with $K$ multiple-antenna base stations (BS) and $K$ single-antenna mobile stations (MS), where each BS sends information to its own intended MS with cooperatively designed transmit beamforming. We assume single user detection at the MS by treating the interference as noise. By taking into account a realistic power model at the BS, we characterize the Pareto boundary of the achievable energy efficiency (EE) region of the $K$ links, where the EE of each link is defined as the achievable data rate at the MS divided by the total power consumption at the BS. Since the EE of each link is non-cancave (which is a non-concave function over an affine function), characterizing this boundary is difficult. To meet this challenge, we relate this multi-cell MISO system to cognitive radio (CR) MISO channels by applying the concept of interference temperature (IT), and accordingly transform the EE boundary characterization problem into a set of fractional concave programming problems. Then, we apply the fractional concave programming technique to solve these fractional concave problems, and correspondingly give a parametrization for the EE boundary in terms of IT levels. Based on this characterization, we further present a decentralized algorithm to implement the multi-cell coordinated beamforming, which is shown by simulations to achieve the EE Pareto boundary.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to be presented in IEEE GLOBECOM 201