Two key traits of 5G cellular networks are much higher base station (BS) densities - especially in the case of low-power BSs - and the use of massive MIMO at these BSs. This paper explores how massive MIMO can be used to jointly maximize the offloading gains and minimize the interference challenges arising from adding small cells. We consider two interference management approaches: joint transmission (JT) with local precoding, where users are served simultaneously by multiple BSs without requiring channel state information exchanges among cooperating BSs, and resource blanking, where some macro BS resources are left blank to reduce the interference in the small cell downlink. A key advantage offered by massive MIMO is channel hardening, which enables to predict instantaneous rates a priori. This allows us to develop a unified framework, where resource allocation is cast as a network utility maximization (NUM) problem, and to demonstrate large gains in cell-edge rates based on the NUM solution. We propose an efficient dual subgradient based algorithm, which converges towards the NUM solution. A scheduling scheme is also proposed to approach the NUM solution. Simulations illustrate more than 2x rate gain for 10th percentile users vs. an optimal association without interference management.
@cite_38: 
@cite_14: Coordinated multi-point (CoMP) has been selected as a key technology feature of LTE-Advanced, as it enables the exploitation of inter-cell interference in order to significantly increase spectral efficiency, especially at the cell-edge. While first field trials on CoMP schemes have delivered the proof-of-concept and shown that a moderate extent of theoretically predicated CoMP gains can indeed be achieved in practical systems, the implementation of these schemes has revealed many practical challenges. One central question is, for example, how small cooperation clusters can be extracted from large cellular systems, such that major portions of potential CoMP gains can be obtained at minimum signaling overhead. This paper deals with static clustering concepts, and shows that both in a hexagonal cell layout and under a realistic deployment and signal propagation scenario, static clustering concepts can perform close to optimal UE-specific clustering, while being easy to use and requiring negligible signaling overhead.
@cite_22: 3GPP has completed a study on coordinated multipoint transmission and reception techniques to facilitate cooperative communications across multiple transmission and reception points (e.g., cells) for the LTE-Advanced system. In CoMP operation, multiple points coordinate with each other in such a way that the transmission signals from to other points do not incur serious interference or even can be exploited as a meaningful signal. The goal of the study is to evaluate the potential performance benefits of CoMP techniques and the implementation aspects including the complexity of the standards support for CoMP. This article discusses some of the deployment scenarios in which CoMP techniques will likely be most beneficial and provides an overview of CoMP schemes that might be supported in LTE-Advanced given the modern silicon DSP technologies and backhaul designs available today. In addition, practical implementation and operational challenges are discussed. We also assess the performance benefits of CoMP in these deployment scenarios with traffic varying from low to high load.
@cite_33: This paper proposes a new class of online policies for scheduling in input-buffered crossbar switches. Given an initial configuration of packets at the input buffers, these policies drain all packets in the system in the minimal amount of time provided that there are no further arrivals. These policies are also throughput optimal for a large class of arrival processes which satisfy strong-law of large numbers. We show that it is possible for policies in our class to be throughput optimal even if they are not constrained to be maximal in every time slot. Most algorithms for switch scheduling take an edge based approach; in contrast, we focus on scheduling (a large enough set of) the most congested ports. This alternate approach allows for lower-complexity algorithms, and also requires a non-standard technique to prove throughput-optimality. One algorithm in our class, Maximum Vertex-weighted Matching (MVM) has worst-case complexity similar to Max-size Matching, and in simulations shows slightly better delay performance than Max-(edge)weighted-Matching (MWM).
@cite_41: This paper presents an overview of the theory and currently known techniques for multi-cell MIMO (multiple input multiple output) cooperation in wireless networks. In dense networks where interference emerges as the key capacity-limiting factor, multi-cell cooperation can dramatically improve the system performance. Remarkably, such techniques literally exploit inter-cell interference by allowing the user data to be jointly processed by several interfering base stations, thus mimicking the benefits of a large virtual MIMO array. Multi-cell MIMO cooperation concepts are examined from different perspectives, including an examination of the fundamental information-theoretic limits, a review of the coding and signal processing algorithmic developments, and, going beyond that, consideration of very practical issues related to scalability and system-level integration. A few promising and quite fundamental research avenues are also suggested.
@cite_3: We consider the interference management problem in a multicell MIMO heterogeneous network. Within each cell there is a large number of distributed micro pico base stations (BSs) that can be potentially coordinated for joint transmission. To reduce coordination overhead, we consider user-centric BS clustering so that each user is served by only a small number of (potentially overlapping) BSs. Thus, given the channel state information, our objective is to jointly design the BS clustering and the linear beamformers for all BSs in the network. In this paper, we formulate this problem from a sparse optimization perspective, and propose an efficient algorithm that is based on iteratively solving a sequence of group LASSO problems. A novel feature of the proposed algorithm is that it performs BS clustering and beamformer design jointly rather than separately as is done in the existing approaches for partial coordinated transmission. Moreover, the cluster size can be controlled by adjusting a single penalty parameter in the nonsmooth regularized utility function. The convergence of the proposed algorithm (to a stationary solution) is guaranteed, and its effectiveness is demonstrated via extensive simulation.
@cite_24: In this paper, we address the problem of designing a joint scheduling and power control algorithm in a downlink coordinated multi-point (CoMP) cluster supporting CoMP joint transmission. The objective is to maximize the cell-edge throughput under per-point power constraints. By an analytical derivation, binary power control is proved to be the optimal solution for any given selected user group. Utilizing this analytical result, a centralized and a semi-distributed version of joint user selection and power control algorithms are proposed. Compared to algorithms without considering joint transmission and algorithms without considering power control, simulation results show that the proposed algorithms achieve a good trade-off between joint transmission and interference coordination, which helps to improve the cell-edge performance.
@cite_23: When the joint processing technique is applied in the coordinated multipoint (CoMP) downlink transmission, the user data for each mobile station needs to be shared among multiple base stations (BSs) via backhaul. If the number of users is large, this data exchange can lead to a huge backhaul signaling overhead. In this paper, we consider a multi-cell CoMP network with multi-antenna BSs and single antenna users. The problem that involves the joint design of transmit beamformers and user data allocation at BSs to minimize the backhaul user data transfer is addressed, which is subject to given quality-of-service and per-BS power constraints. We show that this problem can be cast into an l0-norm minimization problem, which is NP-hard. Inspired by recent results in compressive sensing, we propose two algorithms to tackle it. The first algorithm is based on reweighted l1-norm minimization, which solves a series of convex l0-norm minimization problems. In the second algorithm, we first solve the l2-norm relaxation of the joint clustering and beamforming problem and then iteratively remove the links that correspond to the smallest transmit power. The second algorithm enjoys a faster solution speed and can also be implemented in a semi-distributed manner under certain assumptions. Simulations show that both algorithms can significantly reduce the user data transfer in the backhaul.
@cite_46: This article presents an elaborate coordination technique among multiple cell sites called coordinated multipoint transmission and reception in the Third Generation Partnership Project for LTE-Advanced. After addressing major radio access techniques in the LTE Release 8 specifications, system requirements and applied radio access techniques that satisfy the requirements for LTE-Advanced are described including CoMP transmission and reception. Then CoMP transmission and reception schemes and the related radio interface, which were agreed upon or are currently being discussed in the 3GPP, are presented. Finally, system-level simulation evaluations show that the CoMP transmission and reception schemes have a significant effect in terms of improving the cell edge user throughput based on LTE-Advanced simulation conditions.
@cite_51: Consider a downlink MIMO heterogeneous wireless network with multiple cells, each containing many mobile users and a number of base stations with varying capabilities. A central task in the management of such a network is to assign each user to a base station and design a linear transmit strategy to ensure a satisfactory level of network performance. In this work, we propose a formulation for the joint base station assignment and linear transceiver design problem based on the maximization of a system wide utility. We first establish the NP-hardness of the resulting optimization problem for a large family of α-fairness utility functions. Then, we propose an efficient algorithm to approximately solve this problem for a variety of different utility functions. Our numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithm can achieve significantly higher levels of system throughput and user fairness than what is possible by optimizing the precoders alone.
@cite_17: 
. MIMO techniques also provide the option of serving a user at high rates from multiple BSs -- referred to as coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP), which is proposed as one of the core features in LTE-Advanced @cite_41 @cite_46 @cite_22 . The set of BSs that cooperatively serve the same user is referred in this paper as a . Paper @cite_14 studies how to determine the BS clusters, while @cite_24 @cite_23 @cite_33 @cite_38 @cite_3 @cite_51 @cite_17 investigate jointly optimized designs involving some of the following aspects: BS cluster selection, beamforming (e.g., coordinated beamforming and joint transmissions), user scheduling and power allocation. In studies such as @cite_38 @cite_3 @cite_51 @cite_17 , the complexity of proposed algorithms can become prohibitive as number of antennas increases. On the other hand, an efficient suboptimal precoder for the single-cell scenario with large antenna arrays is proposed in @cite_38 .