Multiuser Diversity for Antenna Optimal Combining in Interference-Limited Systems

This letter explores the benefit of exploiting multiuser diversity for improving the performance of antenna optimum combining in the interference-limited cellular system. The asymptotic achievable rate is derived to assess this improvement as well as to reveal the interaction of multiuser diversity and optimum combining. For the overloaded case where the number of antennas is insufficient to suppress all the impact of interferers, it is shown that multiuser diversity considerably improves the achievable rate. For the underloaded case where the number of interferers is smaller than that of antennas, multiuser diversity can also provide additional rate increments so that it is possible to use a fewer number of antennas for optimum combining without sacrificing the system achievable rate.