Uplink performance of multi-antenna cellular networks with co-operative base stations and user-centric clustering

We consider a user-centric co-operative cellular network, where base stations close to a mobile co-operate to detect its signal using a (joint) linear minimum-mean-square-error receiver. The base stations, which have multiple antennas, and mobiles are modeled as independent Poisson Point Processes to avoid dependence on specific node locations. Combining stochastic geometry and infinite random matrix theory, we derive a simple expression for the spectral efficiency of this complex system as the number of antennas grows large. This expression is verified by Monte Carlo simulations which support its utility for even a moderate number of antennas. This result reveals the influence of tangible system parameters such as mobile and base-station densities, number of antennas per base station, and number of co-operating base stations on achievable spectral efficiencies. For instance, we find that for a given base station density and a constraint on the total number of co-operating antennas, all co-operating antennas should be located at a single base station. On the other hand, in our asymptotic regime, for the same number of co-operating antennas, if the network is limited by the area density of antennas, then the number of co-operating base stations should be increased with fewer antennas per base station. Index Terms Cellular Networks, MIMO, Antenna Arrays, Stochastic Geometry, Poisson Point Process