  In this paper the problem of allocating the limited backhaul bandwidth among
users in Multi-cell MIMO cooperative networks is considered. We approach the
problem from both the sum-rate and fairness perspectives. First, we show that
there are many allocations that can provide near maximum sumrate while varying
significantly in fairness, which is assessed through the mean versus variance
criteria. Second, Two novel schemes that achieve near maximum sum-rate while
offering fair allocation of the backhaul bandwidth among users are proposed:
the Equal Signal-to-Interference ratio (SIR) and the Equal Interference
schemes. Simulation results show that, for the same mean rate among users, the
proposed schemes can achieve more fairness when compared to the conventional
scheme, which gives all users the same share of bandwidth. Moreover, we show
that the Equal SIR scheme can achieve zero variance among users in a wide range
of backhaul bandwidths while keeping very close to maximum sum rate. This is
the most fair solution that can be used in Multi-cell MIMO in that range of
backhaul bandwidths.
