Performance analysis of ultra-dense networks with MRC reception and successive interference cancellation under rate-limited backhaul

Ultra-dense network (UDN) is one of candidate technologies for next generation cellular networks. In this paper, we explore performance limits of cooperative UDN with maximal ratio-combining detection under limited-capacity backhaul links. More concretely, based on the imperfect estimation, lower bounds of the average per-user rate are derived for maximal ratio-combining detection with and without successive interference cancellation scheme when the number of Base stations (BSs) in the network goes to infinite. Then we discuss how the average per-user rate is impacted by the number of cooperative BSs and the backhaul capacity. Our results show that there is an optimal number of cooperative BSs in the UDN to achieve the best performance in low signal-to-noise-ratio region. Simulations demonstrate that our asymptotic rate bounds are tight when the number of BSs is large. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.