Advances in smart antennas - Network coordination for spectrally efficient communications in cellular systems

TLDR

The article investigates network coordination to achieve spectrally efficient communications in cellular downlink systems. Network coordination combines base antennas into a single array, allowing mobiles to receive from nearby stations while antenna outputs are optimized to reduce out‑of‑cell interference and boost downlink capacity. Mitigating out‑of‑cell interference enables high‑SNR operation and substantial spectral efficiency gains from multiple antennas.

Abstract

In this article we consider network coordination as a means to provide spectrally efficient communications in cellular downlink systems. When network coordination is employed, all base antennas act together as a single network antenna array, and each mobile may receive useful signals from nearby base stations. Furthermore, the antenna outputs are chosen in ways to minimize the out-of-cell interference, and hence to increase the downlink system capacity. When the out-of-cell interference is mitigated, the links can operate in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime. This enables the cellular network to enjoy the great spectral efficiency improvement associated with using multiple antennas