Base Station Cooperation for Power Minimization in the Downlink: Large System Analysis

This work focuses on the downlink of a large-scale multi-cell multi-user MIMO system in which L base stations (BSs) of N antennas each communicate with KL single-antenna user equipments. We consider the design of the linear precoder that minimizes the total power consumption while ensuring target user rates. Two configurations with different degrees of cooperation among BSs are considered: the coordinated beamforming scheme (only channel state information is shared between BSs) and the coordinated multipoint MIMO technology (channel state and data cooperation). The analysis is conducted assuming that N and K grow large with a non trivial ratio K/N and imperfect channel state information is available at the BSs. In both configurations, tools of random matrix theory are used to compute, often in closed form, deterministic approximations for: the parameters of the optimal precoder; the powers needed to ensure target rates; and the total transmit power. These results are instrumental to get further insights into the structure of the optimal precoder and also to reduce the complexity of its implementation in large-scale networks. Numerical results are used to validate the asymptotic analysis in the finite system regime and to make comparisons among the two different configurations.