Base station cooperation in MIMO-aided multi-user multi-cell systems employing distributed probabilistic data association based soft reception

Inter-cell co-channel interference (CCI) mitigation is investigated in the context of cellular systems relying on dense frequency reuse. A distributed Base Station (BS) cooperation aided soft reception scheme using the Probabilistic Data Association (PDA) algorithm and Soft Combining (SC) is proposed for the uplink of multi-user multi-cell MIMO systems. The realistic hexagonal cellular model relying on unity Frequency Reuse (FR) is considered, where both the BSs and the Mobile Stations (MSs) are equipped with multiple antennas. Local cooperation based message passing is used instead of a global message passing chain for the sake of reducing the backhaul traffic. The PDA algorithm is employed as a low complexity solution for producing soft information, which facilitates the employment of SC at the individual BSs in order to generate the final soft decision metric. Our simulations and analysis demonstrate that despite its low additional complexity and backhaul traffic, the proposed distributed PDA-aided reception scheme significantly outperforms the conventional non-cooperative bench markers

Linear Precoding in Cooperative MIMO Cellular Networks with Limited Coordination Clusters

In a cooperative multiple-antenna downlink cellular network, maximization of a concave function of user rates is considered. A new linear precoding technique called soft interference nulling (SIN) is proposed, which performs at least as well as zero-forcing (ZF) beamforming. All base stations share channel state information, but each user's message is only routed to those that participate in the user's coordination cluster. SIN precoding is particularly useful when clusters of limited sizes overlap in the network, in which case traditional techniques such as dirty paper coding or ZF do not directly apply. The SIN precoder is computed by solving a sequence of convex optimization problems. SIN under partial network coordination can outperform ZF under full network coordination at moderate SNRs. Under overlapping coordination clusters, SIN precoding achieves considerably higher throughput compared to myopic ZF, especially when the clusters are large.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Scaling up MIMO: Opportunities and Challenges with Very Large Arrays

This paper surveys recent advances in the area of very large MIMO systems. With very large MIMO, we think of systems that use antenna arrays with an order of magnitude more elements than in systems being built today, say a hundred antennas or more. Very large MIMO entails an unprecedented number of antennas simultaneously serving a much smaller number of terminals. The disparity in number emerges as a desirable operating condition and a practical one as well. The number of terminals that can be simultaneously served is limited, not by the number of antennas, but rather by our inability to acquire channel-state information for an unlimited number of terminals. Larger numbers of terminals can always be accommodated by combining very large MIMO technology with conventional time- and frequency-division multiplexing via OFDM. Very large MIMO arrays is a new research field both in communication theory, propagation, and electronics and represents a paradigm shift in the way of thinking both with regards to theory, systems and implementation. The ultimate vision of very large MIMO systems is that the antenna array would consist of small active antenna units, plugged into an (optical) fieldbus.Comment: Accepted for publication in the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, October 201