Joint Clustering of Users and Resources for Multi-Cell VMIMO-SC-FDMA Uplink Systems

In this paper, we investigate the joint clustering of users and resources based on minimum mean square error-ordered successive interference cancellation (MMSE-OSIC) equalization for multi-cell single carrier-frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) uplink systems. To exploit the properties of the MMSE-OSIC equalization, we formulate the dynamic user grouping and resource allocation as a clustering problem, where resources are divided into several clusters and users are assigned into different clusters. Furthermore, we develop a new efficient K-means type algorithm named iterative K-groups clustering algorithm (IKG_OSIC) to solve the optimization problem. By making use of the MMSE-OSIC results, IKG_OSIC algorithm largely reduces the computation complexity of the joint resource allocation problem. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves good tradeoff between the performance and complexity and has better system throughput than the existing algorithms for virtual multiple-input multiple-output single carrier-frequency division multiple access (VMIMO-SC-FDMA) uplink systems.