Joint uplink-downlink cell associations for interference networks with local connectivity

We study information theoretic models of interference networks that consist of K Base Station (BS) - Mobile Terminal (MT) pairs. Each BS is connected to the MT carrying the same index as well as L following MTs, where the connectivity parameter L ≥ 1. We fix the value of L and study large networks as K goes to infinity. We assume that each MT can be associated with N_c BSs, and these associations are determined by a cloud-based controller that has a global view of the network. An MT has to be associated with a BS, in order for the BS to transmit its message in the downlink, or decode its message in the uplink. In previous work, the cell associations that maximize the average uplink-downlink per user degrees of freedom (puDoF) were identified for the case when L = 1. Further, when only the downlink is considered, the problem was settled for all values of L when we are restricted to use only zero-forcing interference cancellation schemes. In this work, we first propose puDoF inner bounds for arbitrary values of L when only the uplink is considered, and characterize the uplink puDoF value when only zero-forcing schemes are allowed and N_c ≥ L/2. We then introduce new achievable average uplink-downlink puDoF values, and conjecture that the new scheme is optimal for all values of L, when we restrict our attention to zero-forcing schemes.