Utility of joint processing schemes

Joint processing between base stations has been shown as an efficient technique to mitigate inter-cell interference and increase data rates, in particular at the cell edges. In this paper, we evaluate the utility of Internet applications in a joint processing enabled cluster of base stations. Utility is used to quantify system performance as experienced by the end user. In particular, the utility of three joint processing schemes for the downlink is characterized and compared within the cluster area. The qualitative results indicate that joint processing can significantly improve the utility of hard real-time and adaptive applications. For elastic applications, joint processing is not worthwhile, since almost as high utility is achieved also with conventional single base station assignment.