Large system analysis of base station cooperation for power minimization

This paper focuses on a large-scale multi-cell multi-user MIMO system in which L base stations (BSS) of N antennas each communicate with K single-antenna user equipments. We consider the design of the linear precoder that minimizes the total power consumption while ensuring target user rates. Three configurations with different degrees of cooperation among BSS are considered: the coordinated beamforming scheme (only channel state information is shared among BSS), the coordinated multipoint MIMO processing technology or network MIMO (channel state and data cooperation), and a single-cell beamforming scheme (only local channel state information is used for beamforming, while channel state cooperation is needed for power allocation). The analysis is conducted assuming that N and K grow large with a non trivial ratio K/N, and imperfect channel state information (modeled by the generic Gauss-Markov formulation form) is available at the BSS. Tools of random matrix theory are used to compute, in explicit form, deterministic approximations for: i) the parameters of the optimal precoder; ii) the powers needed to ensure target rates; and iii) the total transmit power. These results are instrumental to get further insight into the structure of the optimal precoders and also to reduce the implementation complexity in large-scale networks. Numerical results are used to validate the asymptotic analysis in the finite system regime and to make comparisons among the different configurations.