Fair Allocation of Backhaul Resources in Multi-Cell MIMO Co-operative Networks

In this paper the problem of allocating the limited backhaul bandwidth among users in Multi-cell MIMO cooperative networks is considered. We approach the problem from both the sum-rate and fairness perspectives. First, we show that there are many allocations that can provide near maximum sumrate while varying significantly in fairness, which is assessed through the mean versus variance criteria. Second, Two novel schemes that achieve near maximum sum-rate while offering fair allocation of the backhaul bandwidth among users are proposed: the Equal Signal-to-Interference ratio (SIR) and the Equal Interference schemes. Simulation results show that, for the same mean rate among users, the proposed schemes can achieve more fairness when compared to the conventional scheme, which gives all users the same share of bandwidth. Moreover, we show that the Equal SIR scheme can achieve zero variance among users in a wide range of backhaul bandwidths while keeping very close to maximum sum rate. This is the most fair solution that can be used in Multi-cell MIMO in that range of backhaul bandwidths.