A Novel Massive MIMO Precoding Scheme for Next Generation Heterogeneous Networks

Heterogeneous network (HetNet) is a promising technology to improve the capacity of future generations of cellular network, in which a mobile station can be served by multiple base stations (BSs) with different scales of coverage range, including short range low power nodes (LPNs). In HetNet, a major challenge is how to provide guaranteed quality-of-service (QoS) for all users. To address this issue, we investigate a practical scenario in which the massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is adopted by the cooperation of one macro-cell BS and several LPNs. Furthermore, we provide a lightweight channel state information (CSI) acquisition scheme for the implementation. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the signal-to-interference-and noise ratio (SINR) of intended users in LPNs covered with small cells can be significantly increased by this proposed massive MIMO precoding scheme, whereas oppressing the impact on neighboring victim users.