A coordinated multipoint scheduler for packet loss reduction

Coordinated multipoint (CoMP) is a base station (BS) cooperation technique to boost the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of cell-edge users in future generation wireless networks. We propose a fixed weight CoMP downlink scheduler to reduce the packet loss probability (PLP) due to buffer overflow in BSs with finite queues. The CoMP scheduler selects a single BS to serve the associated cell-edge user with the largest weighted SNR. To meet PLP targets, we develop a simple strategy to design the packet transmission time and the scheduling weights of each BS. The network design capitalizes on our new closed-form expression for the PLP that relates three key network parameters: packet arrival rate, packet transmission time, and probability that each BS is scheduled. We compare the proposed fixed weight scheduler with an adaptive weight scheduler that requires instantaneous packet delay information. We show via analysis and simulation that the fixed weight scheduler can achieve a comparable PLP to the adaptive weight scheduler, while reducing communication overheads for the BSs.