Spectrum Sharing in mmWave Cellular Networks via Cell Association, Coordination, and Beamforming

This paper investigates the extent to which spectrum sharing in mmWave networks with multiple cellular operators is a viable alternative to traditional dedicated spectrum allocation. Specifically, we develop a general mathematical framework by which to characterize the performance gain that can be obtained when spectrum sharing is used, as a function of the underlying beamforming, operator coordination, bandwidth, and infrastructure sharing scenarios. The framework is based on joint beamforming and cell association optimization, with the objective of maximizing the long-term throughput of the users. Our asymptotic and non-asymptotic performance analyses reveal five key points: (1) spectrum sharing with light on-demand intra- and inter-operator coordination is feasible, especially at higher mmWave frequencies (for example, 73 GHz), (2) directional communications at the user equipment substantially alleviate the potential disadvantages of spectrum sharing (such as higher multiuser interference), (3) large numbers of antenna elements can reduce the need for coordination and simplify the implementation of spectrum sharing, (4) while inter-operator coordination can be neglected in the large-antenna regime, intra-operator coordination can still bring gains by balancing the network load, and (5) critical control signals among base stations, operators, and user equipment should be protected from the adverse effects of spectrum sharing, for example by means of exclusive resource allocation. The results of this paper, and their extensions obtained by relaxing some ideal assumptions, can provide important insights for future standardization and spectrum policy.Comment: 15 pages. To appear in IEEE JSAC Special Issue on Spectrum Sharing and Aggregation for Future Wireless Network

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

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

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