With the advent of new sophisticated terminals and bandwidth-demanding services, system designers are pushed towards the challenge of enhancing system spectral efficiency and providing homogeneous coverage for cellular networks. Although next generation standards are already considering mature enabling technologies (like multiple-input multiple-output, MIMO, or full frequency reuse planning), more efficient wireless technologies and novel deployment concepts are needed to deal with the demanding traffic growth expected in the near future. In this regard, we investigate how to take advantage of two promising transmission technologies and deployments: coordinated multipoint and heterogeneous networks (where base stations, relay stations and femto access points can coexist).