Joint User Association and Resource Allocation for Multi-Stream Carrier Aggregation and Coordinated Multi-Point Enabled MIMO Networks

In this letter, we consider a multi-stream carrier aggregation and coordinated multi-point enabled multi-input multi-output network, where each user can simultaneously associate with multiple base stations and aggregate multiple component carriers (CCs) to achieve wideband data transmission with a high signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio. To maximize the downlink system throughput, the user association, frequency resource allocation including both CC and resource block (RB) assignment, and power control are jointly optimized under the constraints of the maximum CC and RB aggregation capabilities and the minimum rate requirement for each user. To solve the formulated problem, we propose a particle swarm optimization based hierarchical matching game algorithm. Specifically, a hierarchical matching game with externalities is established to determine the joint user association and frequency resource allocation. Moreover, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed to optimize the power control under the determined joint user association and frequency resource allocation strategy. We further prove the stability of the proposed hierarchical matching game. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme.