Information Exchange Limits in Cooperative MIMO Networks

Concurrent presence of inter-cell and intra-cell interferences constitutes a major impediment to reliable downlink transmission in multi-cell multiuser networks. Harnessing such interferences largely hinges on two levels of information exchange in the network: one from the users to the base-stations (feedback) and the other one among the base-stations (cooperation). We demonstrate that exchanging a finite number of bits across the network, in the form of feedback and cooperation, is adequate for achieving the optimal capacity scaling. We also show that the average level of information exchange is independent of the number of users in the network. This level of information exchange is considerably less than that required by the existing coordination strategies which necessitate exchanging infinite bits across the network for achieving the optimal sum-rate capacity scaling. The results provided rely on a constructive proof.