SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISTRIBUTED OPEN-LOOP MULTI-USER CO-OPERATIVE MULTI-POINT (CoMP) SCHEDULING AND TRANSMISSION

A network device comprising:

• a wireless interface;
• a processor operatively coupled to the wireless interface;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium operatively coupled to the processor, the computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming comprising instructions to:
• schedule a first data transmission for a first user equipment (UE) in a first transmission tier, the first transmission tier being in a first time-frequency resource and having predefined modulation and coding;
• schedule a second data transmission for a second UE in a second transmission tier, the second transmission tier having adaptive modulation and coding adapted based on channel quality indicator (CQI) feedback information, the second transmission tiers being in a second time-frequency resource that at least partially overlaps the first time-frequency resource;
• transmit, via the wireless interface, the first data transmission in the first transmission tier according to the scheduling for the first UE;
• transmit, via the wireless interface, the second data transmission in the second transmission tier according to the scheduling for the second UE.

A user equipment (UE) comprising:

• a wireless interface;
• a processor operatively coupled to the wireless interface;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium operatively coupled to the processor, the computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming comprising instructions to:
• receive, via the wireless interface, transmissions in at least one of a first transmission tier and a second transmission tier, the first transmission tier being in a first time-frequency resource and having predefined modulation and coding, and the second transmission tier being in a second time-frequency resource that at least partially overlaps the first time-frequency resource;
• from the received transmissions, jointly detect transmissions in the first transmission tier from at least one network node using the predefined modulation and coding of the at least one network node in the first transmission tier, treating transmissions in the second transmission tier as interference.