Distributed CoMP set selection for heterogenous networks

Cooperative MultiPoint mode of operation in 4G cellular networks can be employed to enable the cooperation between access points for improving the quality of service level for low capacity users. To benefit from CoMP operation, the network has to determine (i) the users (UEs) to be supported by CoMP mode, and (ii) the set of CoMP access points for each CoMP UE. In this paper, we propose a distributed CoMP set selection scheme for cellular heterogenous networks (HetNets) where each access point can exchange information only with their neighbors. Therefore, any CoMP decision at an access point is based on the feedback information from the neighbor stations. The message sent to a neighbor station include information related to the UEs for which cooperation is requested from that station. Upon the exchange of CoMP request messages, by combining the local information and the information from the CoMP messages, each station evaluates the potential gains for each UE due to CoMP operation and performs a final decision on the requests originated from itself and its neighbor stations. Simulation indicate that both coverage gain and throughput gains can be obtain by the proposed distributed scheme.