BS-Cooperative Scheduler for a Multi-Site Single-User MIMO Cellular System

Multi-site MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) is a key technology that will enable next generation cellular networks to achieve high throughput in cell-edge areas. However, a multi-site single-user MIMO system is subject to performance degradation in terms of overall system throughput due to the expense of additional assignments of radio resources to cell edge user equipment. This paper presents a scheduling scheme for a multi-site single-user MIMO cellular system. The proposed scheduling scheme aims to maintain overall system throughput while improving cell-edge user throughput. The proposed scheme employs two policies with respect to the assignment of radio resource to the user equipment with a multi-site connection in order to achieve the aim. One is to control the opportunities for radio resource assignment to user equipment with a multi-site connection. The other policy governs the decision as to whether or not the user equipment operates with a multi-site connection. The simulation results show that the proposed scheduler maintains system throughput while improving cell-edge user throughput.