Low-complexity resource allocation and its application to distributed antenna systems [Coordinated and Distributed MIMO]

The aim of this tutorial article is to present low-complexity resource allocation approaches that rely on chunks of subcarriers for downlink distributed antenna systems. The chunk-based resource allocation approach is first introduced for single-antenna base stations with the consideration of guaranteeing an average bit error rate constraint per chunk and is compared to subcarrier-based allocation. How it can be combined with maximal ratio transmission and zero-forcing beamforming for base stations with many antennas is then described. Finally, we discuss how the techniques can be applied to DASs. It is shown that in typical wireless environments chunk based resource allocation coupled with MRT and ZFB in the DAS can reduce the complexity of resource allocation significantly at the cost of negligible performance loss compared to subcarrier-based allocation.