Coordinated multi-point transmission in heterogeneous networks: A distributed antenna system approach

With the frequency reuse approaching one and the networks becoming more and more heterogeneous, cooperative multi-point MIMO has become a key candidate technology in the design of future wireless networks and is nowadays an active research topic in the academia and the industry. In 3GPP LTE-Adv. Rel. 11, a new study item on Coordinated Multi-Point transmission and reception (commonly denoted as CoMP) has been initiated in December 2010 and is expected to be one of the major features of Rel. 11. A particularly interesting deployment scenario is the distributed antenna system (DAS) where cooperative transmission is applied between distributed transmission points belonging to a common cell. In this paper, we discuss the pros and cons of distributed antenna systems versus classical heterogeneous networks like picocells, the appropriate cooperative schemes and the design challenges. We confirm the benefits of such technology through system level performance evaluations compliant with LTE-Adv.