Low-Complexity Base Station Cooperation For Mmwave Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we study the problem of base station (BS) cooperation in millimeter wave multi- tier heterogeneous cellular networks. In contrast to conventional approaches, where a number of BSs jointly transmit data to a user, we investigate a low-complexity technique that enables the selection of a single BS for transmission. Specifically, a single BS that provides the highest instantaneous signal-to-interference-plus- noise ratio is selected, among the strongest BSs from each tier. By using stochastic geometry tools, we derive closed-form expressions for the coverage probability and the diversity gain of the system by taking into account spatial randomness and blockage effects. Our results show that the proposed scheme achieves full diversity and is appropriate for networks with strict computation constraints. In addition, we study the case where users employ successive interference cancellation (SIC) to further boost the achieved performance; SIC allows the mitigation of strong interference terms from the received signal. The impact of SIC on the coverage probability of the system is studied and closed-form expressions are provided.