Distributed Long-Term Base Station Clustering in Cellular Networks Using Coalition Formation

Interference alignment (IA) is a promising technique for interference mitigation in multicell networks due to its ability to completely cancel the intercell interference through linear precoding and receive filtering. In small networks, the amount of required channel state information (CSI) is modest and IA is, therefore, typically applied jointly over all base stations. In large networks, where the channel coherence time is short in comparison to the time needed to obtain the required CSI, base station clustering must be applied however. We model such clustered multicell networks as a set of coalitions, where CSI acquisition and IA precoding are performed independently within each coalition. We develop a long-term throughput model, which includes both CSI acquisition overhead and the level of interference mitigation ability as a function of the coalition structure. Given the throughput model, we formulate a coalitional game where the involved base stations are the rational players. Allowing for individual deviations by the players, we formulate a distributed coalition formation algorithm with low complexity and low communication overhead that leads to an individually stable coalition structure. The dynamic clustering is performed using only long-term CSI, but we also provide a robust short-term precoding algorithm, which accounts for the intercoalition interference when spectrum sharing is applied between coalitions. Numerical simulations show that the distributed coalition formation is generally able to reach long-term sum throughputs within 10% of the global optimum.