On layered transmission in flat-fading clustered cooperative cellular architectures

The uplink of a two-dimensional Wyner-type cellular network is considered in a flat-fading environment. Thereby, a single parameter α ϵ (0, 1] controls the intercell interference in the system, assumed to exist only between adjacent cells. A rate splitting (“Layered”) strategy inspired by Han and Kobayashi (1981) is proposed in conjunction with clustered cooperative multicell processing. The induced nonconvex average throughput optimization problem is simplified by showing that the setting is equivalent to a certain multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiple access channel (MAC). The problem falls within the framework of Complementary Geometric Programs, for which an approximate solution can be efficiently derived. Particularizing to Rayleigh fading, significant performance enhancement is demonstrated, and the proposed scheme is shown to obtain the maximum achievable degrees of freedom.