Cooperative Multicell ARQ - Packet Error Rate and Throughput Analysis

Future cellular systems such as LTE-Advanced systems offer improved coverage, system throughput, and cell-edge throughput through the effective use of coordinated multi-point processing (CoMP). In this paper, we propose cooperative multicell automatic repeat request (ARQ), which exploits both the cooperation among base stations via backhaul links and ARQ. First, it involves minimal change in the physical-layer and MAC specifications of the mobile to BS connection. Second, spatial diversity is captured with efficient use of bandwidth resource as long as the backhaul links are available. We study three protocols, where BSs cooperate with different multicell processing: opportunistic decode-and-forward, amplify-and-forward, and compress-and-forward. We derive their respective average packet error rates and throughput. The obtained results show that cooperative multicell ARQ protocols are promising in terms of average packet error rate and throughput compared to the conventional ARQ. The parameters that effect the performance of each protocol include the operating SNRs of the main link and backhaul link, the number of neighboring BSs, and the network topology.