Clustering with multiple receiving antennas in downlink FDD CoMP systems

Abstract

Inter-cell interference in downlink cellular networks can be managed by coordination among the base stations (BSs). Constraints on the backhaul throughput make full coordination still challenging and typically clusters of BSs are organized to serve the user equipments (UEs). Joint precoding within each cluster is designed to deal with intra-cluster interference. Moreover, inter-cluster interference (ICI) can be reduced by implementing dynamic clustering, i.e., by changing BS clusters over time to provide more fairness among the UEs. In this work we assume that UEs are equipped with multiple antennas and use an interference rejection combiner to suppress the ICI not managed by precoders at transmitter side. In this framework, we develop an algorithm that dynamically organizes clusters and schedules UEs in each cluster by requiring a channel state information at the transmitter which is independent of the number of receiving antennas. Simulations provide two main results: a) a considerable improvement is achieved by adding antennas at the UE and b) the gain of dynamic clustering over static clustering sensibly decreases by equipping the UEs with more antennas.