Interference management through CoMP in 3GPP LTE-advanced networks

Intercell interference management has become a critical issue for future cellular mobile systems. Coordinated multipoint transmission/reception, or CoMP, is an effective way of managing intercell interference, and has been regarded as a key technology of LTE-Advanced. This article first provides an overview of downlink CoMP techniques specified in 3GPP LTE Rel-11, which mainly focuses on transmission schemes, channel state information reporting, interference measurement, and reference signal design. Then uplink CoMP is discussed in brief as most of the coordination gain can be achieved by implementation with little standardization support. Evaluation results are provided to show the efficiency of CoMP. The challenges as well as possible solutions for future CoMP standardization are also discussed.