On the impact of uplink power control in network MIMO systems with MMSE and SIC receivers

Network multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems are built around a broadband backbone network that allows for the fast communication of channel state information (CSI) as well as user data between different base stations. Previous works have shown that multicell channel adaptive (opportunistic) power control can minimize the sum power or maximize the sum rate when the backbone is used for the exchange of CSI in network MIMO systems. In this work we investigate the gains of multicell opportunistic power control under per user fairness constraints when both CSI and user data are shared between multiple sites. We find that multicell opportunistic power control working in concert with uplink joint signal detection is an efficient means both for the capacity and the power control problems that not only minimizes sum power or maximizes overall capacity, but is also able to provide arbitrary level of fairness.