Base station cluster patterns for semi-static multi-cell cooperation in irregular network topologies

This paper proposes a clustering strategy for semi-static mul-ticell cooperation. Semi-static multicell cooperation exploits multiple predefined base station (BS) cluster patterns for improving cell-edge user throughput. The proposed clustering guarantees that every user communicates with their two closest BSs, so that users are protected from the dominant interferer. The key idea of the proposed clustering is to use the 2nd-order Voronoi region to form BS clusters. Each of the formed BS clusters is mapped into a particular cluster pattern by exploiting the edge-coloring in graph theory. Through simulations, the performance is compared to that of other conventional strategies. Our major finding is that the proposed clustering provides performance gains for cell-edge users compared to that of the conventional strategies.