Analysis of Clustered Multi-Antenna Small Cells with Intra-Cluster Interference Cancellation

This paper analyzes the performance of a clustered small cell network, where the base stations (BSs) are equipped with multiple antennas and the network topology is modeled as Matern cluster process (MCP). For such a clustered multi-antenna network, serious intra-cluster interference is a main bottleneck of the system performance. Utilizing the intra-cluster coordinated beamforming scheme is an effective approach for the intra-cluster interference cancellation. From this, we firstly derive an approximate expression for the users’ average data rate based on stochastic geometry, and then we discuss the optimal number of the maximum degrees of freedom (DoF) used for coordinated beamforming at the BS, which maximize the average data rate. Simulation results confirm the accuracy of our derivations and also present the performance with the intra-cluster interference cancellation is much better than that with no intra-cluster interference cancellation.