Low-Complexity Base Station Selection Scheme in mmWave Cellular Networks

In this paper, we study the performance of next-generation cellular networks in the context of a low-complexity base station (BS) selection scheme. In contrast to existing BS cooperation approaches, where multiple BSs jointly transmit to the user, by using our proposed low-complexity technique, a user communicates with the BS that provides the maximum signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio from a set formed according to a pre-selection policy. We consider three pre-selection policies based on: 1) the Euclidean distance; 2) the averaged received power; and 3) a random selection. Moreover, we consider the case where the users have the ability to employ the successive interference cancellation (SIC) scheme. Despite its high computational complexity, SIC can potentially decode and remove strong interfering signals from the aggregate received signal, which can significantly boost the user’s performance. By using stochastic geometry tools, analytical expressions for the coverage performance are derived for each policy, by taking into account spatial randomness and blockage effects. Our proposed technique provides low computational and implementation complexity due to the two-level selection scheme. Furthermore, we show that our proposed scheme does not lose in diversity compared with existing cooperation techniques and that all policies can benefit by the employment of the SIC scheme.