Evaluation of user throughput for MU-MIMO coordinated wireless networks

Interference management is essential toward improving spectral efficiency in wireless networks. During the last decade inter-antenna interference management via multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) transmission has attracted attention for its capability to enhance link spectral efficiency. In a cellular environment, however, inter-cell interference imposes another limit on link spectral efficiency and for MIMO transmission in particular only a marginal portion of the expected gains is obtained. In this paper, as a candidate solution to reduce inter-cell interference and consequently enhance the gains achieved by MIMO, we investigate a coordinated wireless network where multiple base stations are connected to a central station that multiuser (MU)-MIMO precodes ongoing simultaneous transmissions from all coordinated base stations. Specifically, our main goal is to clarify the impact of coordination on spectral efficiency and evaluate user throughput with and without transmit power optimization, for both a hotspot scenario where all base stations can be coordinated (full coordination) and a cellular scenario where only the base stations grouped under the same cluster are coordinated (partial coordination).