The proliferation of internet-connected mobile devices will continue to drive growth in data traffic in an exponential fashion, forcing network operators to dramatically increase the capacity of their networks. To do this cost-effectively, a paradigm shift in cellular network infrastructure deployment is occurring away from traditional (expensive) high-power tower-mounted base stations and towards heterogeneous elements. Examples of heterogeneous elements include microcells, picocells, femtocells, and distributed antenna systems (remote radio heads), which are distinguished by their transmit powers/coverage areas, physical size, backhaul, and propagation characteristics. This shift presents many opportunities for capacity improvement, and many new challenges to co-existence and network management. This article discusses new theoretical models for understanding the heterogeneous cellular networks of tomorrow, and the practical constraints and challenges that operators must tackle in order for these networks to reach their potential.

The use of channel feedback from receiver to transmitter is standard in wireline communications. While knowledge of the channel at the transmitter would produce similar benefits for wireless communications as well, the generation of reliable channel feedback is complicated by the rapid time variations of the channel for mobile applications. The purpose of this correspondence is to provide an information-theoretic perspective on optimum transmitter strategies, and the gains obtained by employing them, for systems with transmit antenna arrays and imperfect channel feedback. The spatial channel, given the feedback, is modeled as a complex Gaussian random vector. Two extreme cases are considered: mean feedback, in which the channel side information resides in the mean of the distribution, with the covariance modeled as white, and covariance feedback, in which the channel is assumed to be varying too rapidly to track its mean, so that the mean is set to zero, and the information regarding the relative geometry of the propagation paths is captured by a nonwhite covariance matrix. In both cases, the optimum transmission strategies, maximizing the information transfer rate, are determined as a solution to simple numerical optimization problems. For both feedback models, our numerical results indicate that, when there is a moderate disparity between the strengths of different paths from the transmitter to the receiver, it is nearly optimal to employ the simple beamforming strategy of transmitting all available power in the direction which the feedback indicates is the strongest.

The problem of collaborative spectrum sensing by a group of unlicensed devices is considered in this paper. The problem is placed in the specific setting of identifying available TV channels for use by the unlicensed devices. The system model and analysis developed in the paper are applicable to a number of more general dynamic spectrum sharing scenarios. Through analysis and simulations, it is shown in the paper that collaboration among nodes leads to more efficient spectrum utilization from a system-level point of view, while decreasing computational complexity of detection algorithms at the individual sensing nodes.

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