An overview of cooperative communications

TLDR

Cooperative communications, now a key feature of 3GPP LTE‑Advanced, fundamentally alter wireless link abstraction and promise significant advantages for communication networks. The paper proposes joint processing policies to demonstrate the Group Cell (CoMP) concept. The authors review cooperative techniques—including relay, DAS, multicell coordination, and CoMP—and propose joint processing policies to transform traditional cellular systems into cooperative ones. A trial network implementation and performance evaluation of the Group Cell (CoMP) concept are reported.

Abstract

Cooperative communications have recently been migrated to one of state-of-the-art features of 3GPP LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). Cooperative communications fundamentally change the abstraction of a wireless link and offer significant potential advantages for wireless communication networks. This article visits cooperative techniques, such as relay, distributed antennas systems (DAS), multicell coordination, Group Cell, Coordinated Multiple Point transmission and reception (CoMP), those turn the traditional cellular system into a cooperative system. In particular, we propose several joint processing policies to demonstrate the Group Cell (CoMP) concept. Results of a trial network implementation and a performance evaluation of the concept are also reported.