Multiuser detection for the uplink of clustered 5G systems with universal frequency reuse

With 5G (Fifth generation) cellular communications, systems have to be able to cope with a massive increase of mobile devices and services and simultaneously improve the system's spectral efficiency, as well as dealing with high interference levels. Base Station (BS) cooperation architectures jointly with block transmission techniques, such as OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) for the downlink and SC-FDE (Single-Carrier with Frequency-Domain Equalization) for the uplink, are proven to be suitable for broadband wireless transmission systems. In BS cooperation systems MTs (Mobile Terminals) in adjacent cells share the same physical channel allowing the reducing of the frequency reuse and improving the spectral efficiency of cellular systems. In this paper we present a set of multiuser detection techniques for the uplink transmission in clustered architectures based on the C-RAN (Centralized-Radio Access Network) concept. We consider BS cooperation systems employing a universal frequency reuse approach. Our performance results demonstrate that by employing clustered techniques for the detection procedure it is possible to reduce substantially the signal processing complexity and the side information that must be transmitted by the backhaul structure.