Downlink MIMO Block Diagonalization in the Presence of Other-Cell Interference

Block diagonalization is one approach for linear preceding in the multiple-input multiple-output broadcast channel that sends multiple interference free data streams to different users in the same cell. Unfortunately, block diagonalization neglects other cell interference, which limits the performance of users at the edge of the cell. This paper presents an OCI-aware enhancement to block diagonalization that uses a whitening filter for interference suppression at the receiver and a novel precoder using the interference-plus-noise covariance matrix for each user at the transmitter. For complex Gaussian matrix channels, the asymptotic sum rate of the proposed system is analyzed under a large antenna assumption for isotropic inputs and compared to conventional block diagonalization.