  This paper addresses coordinated downlink beamforming optimization in
multicell time-division duplex (TDD) systems where a small number of parameters
are exchanged between cells but with no data sharing. With the goal to reach
the point on the Pareto boundary with max-min rate fairness, we first develop a
two-step centralized optimization algorithm to design the joint beamforming
vectors. This algorithm can achieve a further sum-rate improvement over the
max-min optimal performance, and is shown to guarantee max-min Pareto
optimality for scenarios with two base stations (BSs) each serving a single
user. To realize a distributed solution with limited intercell communication,
we then propose an iterative algorithm by exploiting an approximate
uplink-downlink duality, in which only a small number of positive scalars are
shared between cells in each iteration. Simulation results show that the
proposed distributed solution achieves a fairness rate performance close to the
centralized algorithm while it has a better sum-rate performance, and
demonstrates a better tradeoff between sum-rate and fairness than the Nash
Bargaining solution especially at high signal-to-noise ratio.
