Intra eNB UL CoMP: Concepts, performance and field trial results

The LTE network is usually deployed with adjacent cells using the same frequency band, which significantly improves the frequency utilization efficiency. However, the cell-edge users may suffer throughput loss due to severe inter-cell interference (ICI). With the rapid grow of user terminals in LTE networks, ICI levels are rising and ICI becoming the dominant factor of the network capacity. Coordinated multi-point processing is regarded as an effective method to solve the problem of ICI and improve the cell edge throughput. This article shows the principal feasibility of advanced ICI mitigation techniques which offer high potential to improve end-user uplink throughputs.