Chance-constrained robust beamforming for multi-cell coordinated downlink

This paper considers robust multi-cell coordinated beamforming (MCBF) design for downlink wireless systems, in the presence of channel state information (CSI) errors. By assuming that the CSI errors are complex Gaussian distributed, we formulate a chance-constrained robust MCBF design problem which guarantees that the mobile stations can achieve the desired signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) requirements with a high probability. A convex approximation method, based on semidefinite relaxation and tractable probability approximation formulations, is proposed. The goal is to solve the convex approximation formulation in a distributed manner, with only a small amount of information exchange between base stations. To this end, we develop a distributed implementation by applying a convex optimization method, called weighted variable-penalty alternating direction method of multipliers (WVP-ADMM), which is numerically more stable and can converge faster than the standard ADMM method. Simulation results are presented to examine the chance-constrained robust MCBF design and the proposed distributed implementation algorithm.