Capacity analysis for distributed antenna systems using cooperative transmission schemes in fading channels

Wireless systems equipped with distributed antennas can provide enhanced data throughput as well as improved signal quality when appropriate cooperative transmission schemes among antennas are employed. In this paper, the performance of distributed antenna systems (DAS) under the influence of Rayleigh fading and log-normal shadowing effects is investigated for different cooperation strategies, and corresponding statistical distributions for both the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) and the capacity are presented. Specifically, the ergodic capacity per remote antenna (RA) is determined when n RAs cooperatively transmit the desired signal to the target receiver, which is compared with the non-cooperative single-antenna transmission (SAT) case. Using the results, a preferable mode of operation for given geographic locations of the receiver is determined. We further propose to perform an adaptive operation between the cooperative and non-cooperative modes under the capacity maximization criteria, and quantify exact amounts of capacity gain over individual transmission modes.