High diversity downlink two-cell coordination with low backhaul load

In this study, the authors present a novel low backhaul load cooperative transmission framework for the two-cell multiple-input–single-output systems. In this framework, the neighbouring two base stations (BSs) take turns to transmit data in two consecutive slots. In each slot, only one BS is active, transmitting the preprocessed data symbols of both its own serving user and the cooperative user in neighbouring cell, and sharing its preprocessed data symbols to the other cooperative BS for next transmission. Linear constellation spreading is utilised for preprocessing which helps the system to exploit the macro-diversity without reducing the multiplexing gain. Besides, zero-forcing beamforming is applied in each transmission slot so as to cancel the multiuser interference. In this way, the inter-cell links become beneficial rather than detrimental. Pairwise error probability analysis demonstrates that the multi-cell spatial diversity gain can be achieved for each data stream. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results confirm that the proposed scheme outperforms the existing relevant strategies with less channel estimation overhead. It is shown that because of the higher diversity order it achieved, the proposed scheme can significantly improve the error performance in a distributed manner while maintaining the same multiplexing gain.