Coordinated Multi-Point in Cellular Networks: From Theoretical Gains to Realistic Solutions and Their Potentials

Spectral efficiency of cellular networks is impaired by inter-cell interference which is avoided in current systems by under-utilizing the time/frequency/spatial degrees of freedom. An alternative solution for combating inter-cell interference in future cellular networks is the coordination and joint signal processing of multiple base stations, referred to Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP). The great potential of CoMP for cellular networks has been verified by theoretical research. However, its introduction into cellular communication standards has turned out to be everything but smooth. This tutorial will span the bridge from theoretical gains to practical solutions in a conceptual framework that includes all important physical and MAC layer aspects. The performance of these solutions is verified by a mix of system simulations and measurements in a large urban cellular test bed. The significance of the solutions is demonstrated by a comparison with 3GPP/LTE Release 11.

 
Biographies

Tommy Svensson
is Associate Professor in Communication Systems at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. He has participated in the EU FP6 WINNER and WINNER II projects, which contributed substantially to 3GPP LTE development, as well as in the CELTIC WINNER+ project, the recently completed EU FP7 ARTIST4G project, and the emerging EU FP7 METIS project targeting solutions for the year 2020. He is also the initiator of a Swedish-Chinese project on IMT-Advanced and Beyond, involved in a national academic collaboration project on future wireless access. He has been leading a recently completed project on microwave backhauling in collaboration with national industry, and this research will continue in the emerging CELTIC+ MUSIC project focusing on small cell backhauling. His main expertise is in design and analysis of physical layer algorithms, multiple access schemes, coordinated multipoint schemes, as well as moving relays for wireless access and wireless backhaul networks, but he also has industrial experience of higher layer design for wireless communication systems. He has co-authored two books and more than 70 journal and conference papers. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, chairman of the awards winning IEEE Sweden VT/COM/IT chapter, and coordinator of the Communication Engineering Master’s Program at Chalmers.

Mikael Sternad
is Professor of Automatic Control at Uppsala University and received a PhD degree from Uppsala University in the same field in 1987. With a background in robust and adaptive estimation, control and filtering, he has lead of the national Swedish projects Wireless IP and is at present leading the Dynamic Multipoint Wireless Access framework project funded by the Swedish Research Council. He has participated in the EU WINNER, WINNER II and ARTIST4G integrated projects, contributing to channel prediction and estimation, adaptive transmission, design of robust linear precoders, deployment concepts, multiple access techniques/concepts, MAC layer design and overall system design. Mikael Sternad has authored around 130 papers, 6 book chapters and 10 patents.

Wolfgang Zirwas
received his diploma degree in communication technologies in 1987 from technical university of Munich. In 1987 he started at Siemens Munich central research lab for communication. Since 1996 he has been involved – partly as project manager - in BMB+F and EU funded projects like ATMmobil, COVERAGE, 3GET, Scalenet, WINNER, ARTIST4G, etc. including topics like e.g. multihop, MIMO, cooperative antennas and OFDM. End 2004 he was project manager for the world record achieving 1Gbit/s MIMO OFDM Experimental mobile radio system extended in 2007 to a virtual MIMO demonstration. From 2006 to 2007 he joined 3GPP LTE Release 8 MIMO standardization meetings. Since 2010 he developed an interference mitigation framework for ARTIST4G resulting in a best paper award at FuNeMs 2012 for ‘Interference Avoidance Techniques for Improving Ubiquitous User Experience’, by N. GRESSET, H. HALBAUER, J. KOPPENBORG, W. ZIRWAS, H. KHANFIR. He is – beside many Journals and conference papers - co-author of four books. He received the Siemens and NSN ‘Inventor of the year’ award in 1997, 2007, 2008 and 2009. He was TCP of several conferences like European Wireless, PIMRC or WDN-CN2012 and is Editor of the Scientific World Journal.

Michael Grieger
received his Dipl.-Ing. from DHBW Stuttgart in 2005 and his M.Sc. from the Technische Universität Dresden in March 2009. In 2008, funded by the Herbert Quandt/ALTANA foundation, he studied at CTU, Prague. During his Master's thesis, he conducted research in Prof. John Cioffi's group at Stanford University on multi-cell signal processing, which continues to be his major research focus today as a PhD student supervised by Prof. Fettweis at the Vodafone Chair Mobile Communications Systems in Dresden. An aspect of his research is the comparison of information theoretic results to those of the “real world” using field trials. Michael Grieger led the work package on lab and field trial measurements in the integrated EU project ARTIST4G.