Performance upper bounds for coordinated beam selection in LTE-Advanced

Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) transmission techniques have been considered as tools to improve cell-edge and average data throughput for LTE-Advanced. First investigations of CoMP techniques in homogeneous hexagonal macro layouts have shown that interference coordination needs to involve dominant interferers to allow significant gain. Therefore, in the present paper the application of CoMP in a heterogeneous network is considered where a planned macro deployment coexists with randomly placed femtocells resulting in a scenario where dominant interference can potentially be mitigated more effectively. The impacts of a heterogeneous layout on the interference characteristics in the downlink are evaluated by simulation and an assessment of gains achieved through coordination is provided.