Capacity analysis of the clustered network MIMO with overlap

In this paper, we analysis the capacity of the clustered network multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with overlap. We firstly propose a strategy for clustering base stations (BSs) for the analysis tractability. With an assumption of a large number of transmit and receive antennas, an analytical expression of the ergodic capacity using random matrix theorems is derived. In particular, we develop an asymptotic capacity in low signal to noise ratio (SNR) regime. Based on that, we suggest that the number of overlapping degree of freedom (ODOF) is larger than ⌈B/6⌉ for the sake of the capacity increment, where B refers to the total number of BSs in the multicell network. We show through numerical examples that the analytical results match the simulation results even when the number of antennas is small.