Evaluation of Interference Cancellation Architectures for Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

With the increasing data throughput requirements, the cellular network needs to move from homogeneous to heterogeneous system. In fact, the coexistence of different types of base stations with different capabilities such as femto/pico base stations as well as relays and macro base stations in random placements should improve the coverage and the spectral effciency of the cellular networks. However, the complexity of inter-cell interference management will grow drastically and traditional interference voidance/mitigation approaches need to be revised. Approaching this problem at the user equipment (UE), is of great interest since it can rely on little coordination among base stations. The work presented in this thesis focuses on a downlink interference cancellation at the UE and shows that such an intelligent receiver can bring its promised benefitt only if the base stations get involved in the interference cancellation, specically in the channel estimation process. The limitations of this approach are evaluated and depending on the surrounding base stations two solutions are proposed and discussed.