Coverage and capacity enhancement in multiuser MIMO systems with scheduling

Recent studies have revealed that the capacity improvement resulting from an open-loop multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) spatial multiplexing system may come at the sacrifice of reducing link reliability. The tradeoff of antenna multiplexing gain against antenna diversity gain may lead to smaller cell coverage sizes. In this paper, we propose a scheduling scheme, called the strongest-weakest-normalized-subchannel-first (SWNSF) scheduling, to replenish the diversity-deficient MIMO system with multiuser diversity. Our analysis and results indicate that the SWNSF scheduling can significantly increase both cell coverage and system capacity requiring only limited amount of feedback.