Utility as a user selection criterion for coordinated multi-point systems

Coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission and reception techniques have been proposed to combat inter-cell interference in cellular systems and, hence, to increase the data rates. Due to the overhead introduced, not all users may be served with CoMP. In this paper, we focus on how to select users for joint processing CoMP under limited backhaul capacity. The evaluated user selection schemes take user experience into account, quantified by the utility of Internet application types. We propose a heuristic algorithm utility based user selection that has low computational complexity. Utility based user selection and maximize utility, which maximizes the sum utilities, are compared to maximize rate, which maximizes the sum data rates. A range of traffic mixes and user locations are evaluated. The simulation results indicate that resources required for CoMP are more efficiently used if the user selection is based on utility rather than on maximizing the total data rate. If utility is taken into account a higher total utility can in many cases be achieved for the same limited backhaul capacity.