Scaling results on the sum capacity of cellular networks with MIMO links

Abstract

Scaling results for the sum capacity of the multiple access, uplink channel are provided for a flat-fading environment, with multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) links, when there is interference from other cells. The classical MIMO scaling regime is considered in which the number of antennas per user and per base station grow large together. Utilizing the known characterizations of the limiting eigenvalue distributions of large random matrices, the asymptotic behavior of the sum capacity of the system is characterized for an architecture in which the base stations cooperate in the joint decoding process of all users (macrodiversity). This asymptotic sum capacity is compared with that of the conventional scenario in which the base stations only decode the users in their cells. For the case of base station cooperation, an interesting "resource pooling" phenomenon is observed: in some cases, the limiting performance of a macrodiversity multiuser network has the same asymptotic behavior as that of a single-user MIMO link with an equivalent amount of pooled received power. This resource pooling phenomenon allows us to derive an elegant closed-form expression for the sum capacity of a new version of Wyner's classical model of a cellular network, in which MIMO links are incorporated into the model.