Beamforming and scheduling in a cellular OFDM system

Abstract

This paper presents a system proposal for the downlink of cellular communication network which is based on the MIMO-OFDM transmission technique. The core idea is the combination of a self-organized beamforming approach with opportunistic scheduling algorithms. In the considered system, different beams are formed and grouped together. The space-time-frequency resources are then allocated to MTs by intelligent scheduling methods such that mobile terminals are assigned resources when a high instantaneous SINR is observed. Beside a fixed beamforming technique, an adaptive use of beams is also pursued. The performance of the system proposal is quantitatively assessed in terms of system throughput.