Optimal scheduling in MU-MIMO uplink cellular networks

In this paper, the optimal scheduling problem is studied in multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) single-hop uplink cellular networks. An optimization framework is developed to compute the optimal max-min throughput and the optimal scheduling of the users. The optimization problem is found to be a very complex linear program. The optimization problem is solved for several medium size cellular networks using an optimization tool. The numerical results show that MU-MIMO technique provides a significant throughput gain over SU-MIMO technique. To avoid the complexity of computation and implementation, a user grouping based simple scheduling algorithm is also proposed for MU-MIMO cellular networks. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated and found to be very efficient.