On the Impact of Backhaul Channel Reliability on Cooperative Wireless Networks

Paper in proceeding, 2013

We study the effect of unreliable backhaul links on the performance of Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) techniques. CoMP has emerged as a powerful scheme to mitigate co-channel interference. Economically viable deployment of Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) will require the use of lower-performance backhaul options, e.g. non-line-of-sight microwave links. Motivated by HetNets, a backhauling model is introduced, by assigning Link Failure Probability (LFP) to backhaul links, for the cooperative clusters. In this paper we analyze the centralized and semi-distributed CoMP architectures. We investigate the probability of deficient backhaul links reducing quality of service, by impeding transmission. By valuating the average sum rate of users within a CoMP cluster, we show how backhaul link reliability affects the performance of the cooperative cluster. We conclude, that the performance gains offered by CoMP quickly diminish, as the unreliability of the backhaul links grows.