Hierarchical cooperative framework in multi-cell heterogeneous network

In this work, we consider a heterogeneous network consisting of several macro BSs (base stations) and pico BSs. In cellular networks, current trend indicates the deployment density of pico BSs becoming larger, and Inter-site Distance becoming smaller than before. The cooperation among the macro and pico BSs should cause the attention of the researchers under this new circumstance. We propose a hierarchical cooperative framework in heterogeneous network to support the cooperative transmission by different BSs. The proposed cooperation among macro and pico BSs at resource block level is based on OFDMA downlink transmission system. By means of system level simulation, we compare the non-cooperative and cooperative scheme. We find that the cooperative transmission scheme based on hierarchical cooperative framework provides satisfactory system throughput gains compared with non-cooperative scheme.