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For future wireless communications, Cell-free Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (CF-mMIMO) systems and Non-orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) schemes are considered potential candidates to meet the greater coverage and capacity demands. Nevertheless, a traditional CF-mMIMO system faces scalability issues and poses numerous challenges in handling the expanding number of user equipment and ensuring their dependable connectivity, particularly in larger geographical areas. To address this challenge, a user-centric (UC) approach is implemented in a CF-mMIMO system, wherein a designated subset of access points (APs) serves a specific number of users from the entire pool of available APs. To implement a NOMA aided CF-mMIMO system, users must be grouped using a suitable clustering scheme to achieve greater spectral efficiency (SE), sum-rate, and reduced bit error rate (BER). For efficient user clustering, unsupervised machine learning (ML) algorithms, such as k-means, k-means++, and improved k-means++ are employed. In this paper, a multiuser NOMA aided CF-mMIMO system with a UC approach is investigated and closed-form expressions for intra-cluster interference and SINR are derived and the performance of the proposed system is analyzed in terms of achievable sum-rate and BER. The proposed system with the UC approach and three ML algorithms namely k-means, k-means++, and improved k-means++ demonstrate 12%, 10%, and 17% higher achievable sum-rate as compared to the NUC approach with same ML algorithms respectively. Similarly, the proposed system with UC and ML approaches exhibits 52%, 55% and 61% improved achievable sum-rate respectively, as compared to far pairing, random pairing, and close pairing schemes. Moreover, the system model is validated through the conformity of the theoretically derived bit error rate with the simulation results for a three-user scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Everything is leading to an increasingly connected intelligent digital world. Envisaged sixth-generation wireless networks require new solutions and technologies due to stringent network requirements. The benefits of cell-free massive MIMO (CF-mMIMO) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) have brought substantial attention to these approaches as potential technologies for future networks. In CF-mMIMO, numerous distributed access points are linked to a central processing unit, which allocates the same time-frequency resources to a smaller group of users. On the other hand, NOMA can support more users than its orthogonal counterparts by utilizing non-orthogonal resource allocation. This paper provides a comprehensive review and survey of NOMA-aided CF-mMIMO (CF-mMIMO-NOMA). Specifically, we present a comprehensive review of massive MIMO, CF-mMIMO, and NOMA. We then present a state-of-the-art research review of CF-mMIMO-NOMA. Finally, we discuss the challenges and potential of combining CF-mMIMO-NOMA with other enabling technologies to enhance performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate a long-term power minimization problem of cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. To address this issue and to ensure the system queue stability, we formulate a dynamic optimization problem aiming to minimize the average total power cost in a time-varying system under imperfect channel conditions. The problem is then converted into a real-time weighted sum rate maximization problem for each time slot using the Lyapunov optimization technique. We employ approximation techniques to design robust sparse beamforming, which enables energy savings of the network and mitigates channel uncertainty. By applying direct fractional programming (DFP) and alternating optimization, we can obtain a locally optimal solution. Our DFP-based algorithm minimizes the average total power consumption of the network while satisfying the quality of service requirements for each user. Simulation results demonstrate the rapid convergence of the proposed algorithm and illustrate the tradeoff between average network power consumption and queue latency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pilot contamination due to pilot reuse seriously mitigates the performance of the cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In this paper, we propose a joint pilot assignment scheme that employs user clustering and graph coloring (UC-GC) to reduce pilot contamination. The proposed method consists of two steps: firstly, we utilize AP selection to classify all users; secondly, we assign pilots to users with more severe pilot contamination using the graph coloring algorithm and then assign pilots to the remaining users. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms existing pilot assignment schemes and significantly improves throughout with low complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mmWave cell‐free massive MIMO (CFmMIMO), combining the advantages of wide bandwidth in the mmWave frequency band and the high‐ and uniform‐spectral efficiency of CFmMIMO, has recently emerged as one of the enabling technologies for 6G. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for energy‐efficient mmWave CFmMIMO systems that uses low‐resolution digital–analog converters (DACs) and phase shifters (PSs) to introduce low‐complexity hybrid precoding. Additionally, we propose a heuristic pilot allocation scheme that makes the best effort to slash some interference from copilot users. The simulation results show that the proposed hybrid precoding and pilot allocation scheme outperforms the existing schemes. Furthermore, we reveal the relationship between the energy and spectral efficiencies for the proposed mmWave CFmMIMO system by modeling the whole network power consumption and observe that the introduction of low‐resolution DACs and PSs is effective in increasing the energy efficiency by compromising the spectral efficiency and the network power consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) systems are an alternative topology for mMIMO deployment, wherein a large number of access points are distributed over the coverage area to jointly serve users. Linear precoding methods such as zero-forcing are sufficient to achieve near-optimal performance in mMIMO systems. However, a key challenge in implementing these precoders can be a channel matrix inversion operation, which results in significant computational complexity in systems with large-scale antenna arrays. Hence, instead of direct matrix inversion, we examine several iterative methods to calculate the precoding matrix in a cell-free mMIMO system. We investigate their computational complexity and convergence rate in the presence of small- and large-scale fading and spatial correlation between antennas. Notably, we demonstrate that some iterative methods previously proposed for conventional (co-located) mMIMO do not always converge for cell-free mMIMO. Our main focus is the hyper-power iterative inversion method, which can be applied to both matrix inverses and pseudoinverses with guaranteed convergence; its factorized version also reduces its computational complexity. Although the hyper-power method does not reduce the complexity compared to direct matrix inversion, it converges quickly with high accuracy and strong numerical stability, and is conducive to parallel computation. These qualities make it a good candidate for matrix inversion in cell-free mMIMO system precoders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with multi-antenna access points and user equipments (UEs) over Weichselberger Rician fading channels with random phase-shifts. More specifically, we investigate the uplink spectral efficiency (SE) for two pragmatic processing schemes: 1) the fully centralized processing scheme with global minimum mean square error (MMSE) or maximum ratio (MR) combining; 2) the large-scale fading decoding (LSFD) scheme with local MMSE or MR combining. To improve the system SE performance, we propose a practical uplink precoding scheme based on only the eigenbasis of the UE-side correlation matrices. Moreover, we derive novel closed-form SE expressions for characterizing the LSFD scheme with the MR combining. Numerical results validate the accuracy of our derived expressions and show that the proposed precoding scheme can significantly improve the SE performance compared with the scenario without any precoding scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CFmMIMO) aims to provide uniform quality of service (QoS) for all users, and can be used in small-area scenarios such as indoor industrial networks. This paper studies the CFmMIMO system for indoor industrial scenarios. Firstly, an access point (AP) grouping based hierarchical network topology is proposed. Based on this, we propose an effective AP selection method. To reduce pilot contamination, a pilot assignment scheme based on inspection robot (IR) location is proposed. Considering the high reliability requirement of industrial data transmission, the power control and backhaul combining are jointly optimized to maximize the minimum signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). The scalability of the proposed CFmMIMO system is analyzed, and a scalable power control method is proposed. The simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the AP selection method, pilot assignment scheme, and the joint optimization algorithm for power control and backhaul combining. Moreover, the impact of network scale and network load on system performance is evaluated and analyzed in the simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the secrecy performance of the one-bit cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output system in the presence of multiple non-colluding eavesdroppers (Eves), considering that access points (APs) are deployed with one-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs), or only one of them, or ideally infinite-resolution ones. Based on Bussgang decomposition theory and the introduction of maximum ratio transmission, artificial noise (AN) technologies, we derive closed-form expressions for achievable rates of legitimate users and upper-bound expressions for ergodic leakage information rates of Eves. We use the achievable secrecy rate to evaluate network security performance. Through theoretical analysis and numerical results under the four cases at APs , whether the resolution of ADCs or DACs is one-bit or not, we evaluate the effect of the number of APs or Eves, the number of APs' or Eves' antennas, the downlink transmit power, and the power fraction into signal symbols or AN symbols on the secrecy performance, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fifth generation (5G) of telecommunications networks is currently commercially deployed. One of their core enabling technologies is cellular Massive Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (M-MIMO) systems. However, future wireless networks are expected to serve a very large number of devices and the current MIMO networks are not scalable, highlighting the need for novel solutions. At this moment, Cell-free Massive MIMO (CF M-MIMO) technology seems to be the most promising idea in this direction. Despite their appealing characteristics, CF M-MIMO systems face their own challenges, such as power allocation and channel estimation. Deep Learning (DL) has been successfully employed to a wide range of problems in many different research areas, including wireless communications. In this paper, a review of the state-of-the-art DL methods applied to CF M-MIMO communications systems is provided. In addition, the basic characteristics of Cell-free networks are introduced, along with the presentation of the most commonly used DL models. Finally, future research directions are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Spectral efficiency (SE) is one of the eminent requirements in 5G mobile networks. Cell‐free (CF) massive MIMO is deemed a key technology to provide substantial SE in 5G compared with the cellular and small cell approaches. Most of the prior studies have been focusing on the access points (APs) uniform distribution to assess the SE performance. However, 5G networks are typically dense, irregularly distributed, and mostly constrained by channel impairments. Therefore, considering a uniform distribution of APs is unrealistic. This paper considers a practical network distribution by taking into account the irregular and adaptive APs distribution based on the Poisson point process approach and over the Rician fading channels. Therein, the downlink (DL) SE of CF massive MIMO system is accurately investigated bearing in mind the AP's irregular distribution and fast channel variation for both perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI) cases. The simulation results have shown that the DL SE of the CF massive MIMO system is considerably affected when considering the irregular deployment of APs compared with the uniform distribution, especially when the phase noise effect is tense. The SE gain performance is reduced by 37.9% in the DL transmissions, compared with the uniform model. Besides, the results have proven that the DL SE gain is remarkably improved when the APs are largely distributed within the network. However, the gained DL SE is affected when increasing the user's density and length of the uplink training period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we investigate hybrid analog–digital beamforming (HBF) architectures for uplink cell-free (CF) millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. We first propose two HBF schemes, namely, decentralized HBF (D-HBF) and semi-centralized HBF (SC-HBF). In the former, both the digital and analog beamformers are generated independently at each AP based on the local channel state information (CSI). In contrast, in the latter, only the digital beamformer is obtained locally at the access point (AP), whereas the analog beamforming matrix is generated at the central processing unit (CPU) based on the global CSI received from all APs. We show that the analog beamformers generated in these two HBF schemes provide approximately the same achievable rates despite the lower complexity of D-HBF and its lack of CSI requirement. Furthermore, to reduce the power consumption, we propose a novel adaptive radio frequency (RF) chain-activation (ARFA) scheme, which dynamically activates/deactivates RF chains and their connected analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and phase shifters (PSs) at the APs based on the CSI. For the activation of RF chains, low-complexity algorithms are proposed, which can achieve significant improvement in energy efficiency (EE) with only a marginal loss in the total achievable rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) and cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) are two promising technologies for realizing beyond-fifth generation (5G) networks. In this paper, we study the uplink spectral efficiency (SE) of a practical spatially correlated RISs-aided CF massive MIMO system over Rician fading channels. Specifically, we derive the closed-form expression for characterizing the uplink SE of the system, which shows that increasing the number of RIS elements can improve the system performance. Moreover, the results unveil that the spatial correlation of RIS has a significant impact on the system while leading to the best performance gain at a half wavelength spacing. Finally, the accuracy of our analytical results are verified by Monte-Carlo simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A network-assisted full-duplex (NAFD) system based on a cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) framework has been proposed to satisfy the demands of higher data transmission rates and efficient communication. However, pilot contamination may occur due to the reuse of pilot sequences in a massive MIMO. With this consideration, we raise an asynchronous channel estimation method based on an uplink and downlink time-shifting pilot-sending scheme, which is able to avoid pilot sequence reuse when obtaining channel state information (CSI), while the data signals could be transmitted simultaneously at the same frequency. The transmission processes of the proposed method above are divided into three phases, including pilot phase, estimation phase, and data phase, in chronological order. When the uplink is in pilot phase, the corresponding downlink is in data phase and vice versa. After the channel state information estimation, both uplinks and downlinks are in data phase. The maximum ratio combination (MRC) receiver and the maximum ratio transmission (MRT) precoding are adopted in the uplink and downlink. The closed-form expressions are derived based on large-scale random matrix theory. We compared our asymptotic results with practical results in simulation, and find that they are well matched. Moreover, the proposed method is superior to the normal time-division duplex (TDD) system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, model-free power control approaches have been developed to achieve the near-optimal performance of cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) with affordable computational complexity. In particular, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is one of such promising techniques for realizing effective power control. In this paper, we propose a model-free method adopting the deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm (DDPG) with feedforward neural networks (NNs) to solve the downlink max-min power control problem in CF massive MIMO systems. Our result shows that compared with the conventional convex optimization algorithm, the proposed DDPG method can effectively strike a performance-complexity trade-off obtaining 1,000 times faster implementation speed and approximately the same achievable user rate as the optimal solution produced by conventional numerical convex optimization solvers, thereby offering effective power control implementations for large-scale systems. Finally, we extend the DDPG algorithm to both the max-sum and the max-product power control problems, while achieving better performance than that achieved by the conventional deep learning algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cellular communication systems, it is conventional to assume the absence of a line of sight (LoS) path between the users and theirassociated access points (APs). This assumption however becomes questionable in the context of recent developments in the direction of cell-free (CF) massive MIMO systems. In the CF massive MIMO, the AP density is assumed to be comparable with the user density, which increases probability of existence of an LoS path between the users and their associated APs. In this paper, we analyze the performance of an uplink CF massive MIMO system, with a probabilistic LoS channel model. Here, we first derive the effective statistics of this channel model, and argue that their behaviour is fundamentally different from that of the conventional rich scattering channels. Utilizing these statistics, we next compare the rates achievable by CF massive MIMO systems, under both stream-wise and joint decoding at the central processing unit. Following this, we also discuss the centralized MMSE based data detection to obtain a complexity/ performance trade-off. Finally, using detailed Monte-Carlo simulations, we validate our analytical results, and evaluate the performance of the three data detection schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary design goal of the cell-free (CF) massive MIMO architecture is to provide uniformly good coverage to all the user equipments (UEs) connected to the network. However, it has been found that this requirement may not be satisfied in case the channels between the access points (APs) and the UEs are mixed LoS/NLoS. In this paper, we try to address this issue via the use of appropriate power control in both the uplink and downlink of a CF massive MIMO system under mixed LoS/NLoS channels. We find that simplistic power control techniques, such as channel inversion-based power control perform sub-optimally as compared to exhaustive search based max–min power control. As a consequence, we propose a particle swarm algorithm (PSA) based power control algorithm to optimize the performance of the system under study. We then use numerical simulations to evaluate the performance of the proposed PSA based solution and show that it results in a significant improvement in the fairness of the underlying system while incurring a lower computational complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cell-free massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system is an attractive network model that is in the spotlight in 5G and future communication systems. Despite numerous advantages, the cell-free massive MIMO system has a problem in that it is difficult to operate in reality due to its vast amount of calculation. The user-centric cell-free massive MIMO model has a more feasible and scalable benefit than the cell-free massive MIMO model. However, this model has the disadvantage that as the number of users in the area increases, there are users who do not receive the service. In this paper, the proposed scheme creates connections for unserved users under a user-centric scheme without additional access point (AP) installation and disconnection for existing users. A downlink user-centric cell-free massive MIMO system model in which the APs are connected to the central processing unit (CPU) and the APs and users are geographically distributed is considered. First, the downlink spectral efficiency formula is derived and applied to the user-centric cell-free massive MIMO system. Then, the proposed scheme and power control algorithm are applied to the derived formula. The simulation results show that the unserved users within the area disappear by using the proposed scheme, while the bit error rate (BER) performance and sum rate improve compared to the existing scheme. In addition, it is shown that the proposed scheme works well even with a very large number of users in the area, and a significant service performance improvement for the worst 10% of users and the overall improvement of per-user throughput for the bottom 70% of users are ensured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) are considered promising techniques to satisfy the demands for high spectrum efficiency and massive connectivity in future wireless communication. In this paper, a novel framework to realize transmission in cell-free massive MIMO-NOMA system with deep integration between MIMO and NOMA is proposed. A new method is developed to divide users into different groups according to their equivalent path loss, and then "group-level successive interference cancellation" (GSIC) is used to cancel the inter-group interference when demodulating the users. Based on the new framework, a rigorous closed-form expression of the achievable sum rate in uplink cell-free massive MIMO-NOMA system is derived. In addition, a parallel iterative method is used to obtain the best power control scheme. Simulations show that the proposed scheme can effectively reduce the total power consumption and outperforms the orthogonal multiple access (OMA) transmission and traditional SIC-NOMA schemes based on user clustering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the secure transmission in downlink cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems in the presence of an active multi-antenna eavesdropper (Eve) over Rician fading channels, assuming that each access point (AP) possesses multiple antennas which are connected with low-resolution digital-to-analog converters (DACs). Closed-form expressions of the achievable secrecy rate relied on the additive quantization noise model are derived. Based on these analytical results, we quantify the impacts of key system parameters, such as the antenna array number, DAC resolution, Rician $\mathcal K$ -factor, and balance factor between data and artificial noise power on secrecy enhancement. Several interesting insights are attained by assuming that Eve can or cannot perfectly remove inter-mobile-terminal interference. Moreover, we also propose a power control algorithm that maximizes the achievable secrecy rate, which can be represented as a series of second-order-cone programs for which efficient solvers exist. All the theoretical analyses and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are corroborated by simulation experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, uplink transmission of a cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CF-mMIMO) system coexisting with device-to-device (D2D) communication links is investigated, under the assumption that access points (APs) are equipped with low resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). Lower bounds of achievable rates for both D2D users (DUEs) and CF-mMIMO users (CFUEs) are derived in closed-form, with perfect and imperfect channel state information. Next, in order to reduce pilot contamination, greedy and graph coloring-based pilot allocation algorithms are proposed and analyzed for the considered scenario. Furthermore, to control interference and improve the performance, two power control strategies are designed and their complexity and convergence are also discussed. The first power control strategy aims at maximizing CFUEs’ sum spectral efficiency (SE) subject to quality of service constraints on DUEs, while the second one maximizes the weighted product of CFUEs’ and DUEs’ signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratios (SINRs). Numerical results show that the proposed pilot and power allocations bring a considerable improvement to the network SE. Also, it is revealed that the activation of D2D links has a positive effect on the system throughput, i.e. the network offloading ensured by the D2D links overcomes the increased interference brought by D2D communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud-based cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CFmMIMO) technology, which exploits a large number of distributed antennas to cooperatively serve multiple users, constitutes an appealing technique for B5G/6G wireless communications. However, the distributed nature of cloud-based CFmMIMO imposes great challenges in analyzing the error probability bounds, and very few efforts have so far been paid to optimize the detector design. In this paper, we try to add a stroke to this blank by analyzing the symbol error rate (SER) and design near-optimal detection algorithms. Specifically, considering non-identical large-scale coefficients and channel estimation errors, we first leverage the pairwise error probability to derive an asymptotic SER bound for uplink cloud-based CFmMIMO systems, which is verified by simulation results. Furthermore, motivated by the concepts of successive interference cancellation (SIC) and error correction mechanism (ECM), we design two distinct types of near-optimal detectors for cloud-based CFmMIMO systems and analyze their complexity and convergence performance. Finally, extensive simulation results show that our proposed SIC and ECM based detectors outperform conventional matched filtering (MF) and minimum mean squred error (MMSE) counterparts. In particular, the MMSE-SIC and MMSE-ECM detectors approach the derived asymptotic bound, and the MF-ECM detector strikes a balance between the SER and complexity in ultra CFmMIMO scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) employs a large number of distributed access points (APs) to serve a small number of user equipments (UEs) via the same time/frequency resource. Due to the strong macro diversity gain, cell-free massive MIMO can considerably improve the achievable sum-rate compared to conventional cellular massive MIMO. However, the performance of cell-free massive MIMO is upper limited by inter-user interference (IUI) when employing simple maximum ratio combining (MRC) at receivers. To harness IUI, the expanded compute-and-forward (ECF) framework is adopted. In particular, we propose power control algorithms for the parallel computation and successive computation in the ECF framework, respectively, to exploit the performance gain and then improve the system performance. Furthermore, we propose an AP selection scheme and the application of different decoding orders for the successive computation. Finally, numerical results demonstrate that ECF frameworks outperform the conventional CF and MRC frameworks in terms of achievable sum-rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free massive MIMO is one of the key technologies for future wireless communications, in which users are simultaneously and jointly served by all access points (APs). In this paper, we investigate the minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimation of effective channel coefficients in cell-free massive MIMO systems with massive connectivity. To facilitate the theoretical analysis, only single measurement vector (SMV) based MMSE estimation is considered in this paper, i.e., the MMSE estimation is performed based on the received pilot signals at each AP separately. Inspired by the decoupling principle of replica symmetric postulated MMSE estimation of sparse signal vectors with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) non-zero components, we develop the corresponding decoupling principle for the SMV based MMSE estimation of sparse signal vectors with independent and non-identically distributed (i.n.i.d.) non-zero components, which plays a key role in the theoretical analysis of SMV based MMSE estimation of the effective channel coefficients in cell-free massive MIMO systems with massive connectivity. Subsequently, based on the obtained decoupling principle of MMSE estimation, likelihood ratio test and the optimal fusion rule, we perform user activity detection based on the received pilot signals at only one AP, or cooperation among the entire set of APs for centralized or distributed detection. Via theoretical analysis, we show that the error probabilities of both centralized and distributed detection tend to zero when the number of APs tends to infinity while the asymptotic ratio between the number of users and pilots is kept constant. We also investigate the asymptotic behavior of oracle estimation in cell-free massive MIMO systems with massive connectivity via random matrix theory. Moreover, in order to demonstrate the potential performance loss of SMV based MMSE estimation, which does not employ the correlation between the received pilot signals at different APs, the multiple measurement vector (MMV) based MMSE estimation, i.e., joint MMSE estimation with pilot signals from all APs, is analyzed via numerical results. Numerical analysis shows that the theoretical analyze with our decoupling principle for the SMV based MMSE estimation of sparse signal vectors with i.n.i.d. non-zero components matches well with the numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) provides more uniform spectral efficiency (SE) for users (UEs) than cellular technology. The main challenge to achieve the benefits of cell-free massive MIMO is to realize signal processing in a scalable way. In this paper, we consider scalable full-pilot zero-forcing (FZF), partial FZF (PFZF), protective weak PFZF (PWPFZF), and local regularized ZF (LRZF) combining by exploiting channel statistics. We derive closed-form expressions of the uplink SE for FZF, PFZF, and PWPFZF combining with large-scale fading decoding over independent Rayleigh fading channels, taking channel estimation errors and pilot contamination into account. Moreover, we investigate the impact of the number of pilot sequences, antennas per AP, and APs on the performance. Numerical results show that LRZF provides the highest SE. However, PWPFZF is preferable when the number of pilot sequences is large and the number of antennas per AP is small. The reason is that PWPFZF has lower computational complexity and the SE expression can be computed in closed-form. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of PWPFZF combining with fractional power control and the numerical results show that it improves the performance of weak UEs and realizes uniformly good service for all UEs in a scalable fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of max-min power control for downlink cell-free (CF) massive MIMO systems. Under the bisection framework, solving this problem amounts to solving a sequence of convex conic feasibility checking problems (CCFCP). Unfortunately, the problem size of the CCFCP of the CF massive MIMO system grows rapidly as the number of users and access points (AP) increases. Existing feasibility checking methods become computationally intractable even when the system consists of only a moderate number of users and APs. To address this limitation, we propose to reformulate the CCFCP as a two-set feasibility problem, which is then solved by the averaged alternating reflection (AAR) algorithm. The proposed method outperforms existing methods significantly in terms of computational efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the coexistence of underlay spectrum sharing in cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. A primary system with geographically distributed primary access points (P-APs) serves a multitude of primary users (PUs), while a secondary system serves a large number of secondary users (SUs) in the same primary/licensed spectrum by exploiting the underlay spectrum sharing. To mitigate the secondary co-channel interference inflected at PUs, stringent secondary transmit power constraints are defined for the secondary access points (S-APs). A generalized pilots sharing scheme is used to locally estimate the uplink channels at P-APs/S-APs, and thereby, conjugate precoders are adopted to serve PUs/SUs in the same time-frequency resource element. Moreover, the effect of a user-centric AP clustering scheme is investigated by assigning a suitable set of APs to a particular user. The impact of estimated downlink (DL) channels at PUs/SUs via DL pilots beamformed by P-APs/S-APs is investigated. The achievable primary/secondary rates at PUs/SUs are derived for the statistical DL and estimated DL CSI cases. User-fairness for PUs/SUs is achieved by designing efficient transmit power control policies based on a multi-objective optimization problem formulation of joint underlay spectrum sharing and max-min criteria. The proposed orthogonal multiple-access based analytical framework is also extended to facilitate non-orthogonal multiple-access. Our analysis and numerical results manifest that the primary/secondary performance of underlay spectrum sharing can be boosted by virtue of the average reduction of transmit powers/path-losses, uniform coverage/service, and macro-diversity gains, which are inherent to distributed transmissions/receptions of cell-free massive MIMO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the secrecy performance of the Cell-Free massive multiple-input multiple-output network with finite resolution analog-to-digital converters at the access points (APs) and users in presence of an active eavesdropper. Using the additive quantization noise model, the uplink minimum mean squared error channel estimation and downlink data precoding are respectively operated. Specifically, the lower bound on the achievable ergodic rate and upper bound for the information leakage to the eavesdropper are theoretically derived in details. Thereby, the closed-form expression for the achievable ergodic secrecy rate is accordingly obtained with respect to the number of APs, number of each APs antenna, number of users, pilot and data transmission power and quantization bits, etc. In addition, the asymptotic approximation for the ergodic secrecy rate has been presented. Moreover, the path-following power control algorithm has been proposed aiming at maximizing the secrecy rate subject to both power and achievable rate constraints. Finally, extensive simulations are provided to corroborate the theoretical analytical results and the validity of the proposed power allocation scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is considered as a promising technology for satisfying higher rate requirement of users in beyond-5G networks. This paper investigates the impact of phase noise on the performance of cell-free MIMO systems which employ a large number of multi-antenna access points (APs). For both downlink and uplink transmissions, we derive the tractable closed-form achievable rate expressions when signal detection with channel state information (CSI) and channel distribution information (CDI), respectively, by utilizing the extended deterministic equivalence method in random matrix theory. The closed-form achievable rate expressions provide efficient evaluation for the impact of phase noise on system performance. The analytical results indicate that the phase noise influences the power of the desired signal, the beamforming uncertainty gain, and the inter-user interference increment caused by the pilot contamination. In addition, the special cases that only APs have phase noise and only users have phase noise are discussed. It is found that the impact of phase noise at users is more severe than that at APs. Besides, we discuss the system performance at low and high SNR regimes. It demonstrates that the phase noise is the major limitation of the system performance in high SNR regime while it can be neglected in low SNR regime. Furthermore, we formulate the max-min power control problem for both downlink and uplink transmissions to guarantee the users’ fairness and prove that the downlink max-min problem is a quasi-concave problem while the uplink max-min problem is a geometric programming (GP) problem. Then, the phase noise-aware max-min power control schemes for both downlink and uplink transmissions are proposed to ensure the users’ fairness. Finally, numerical results are provided to validate the analytical results and the proposed phase noise-aware power control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is a promising solution to provide uniform good performance for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications. In this paper, we propose the UAV communication with wireless power transfer (WPT) aided CF massive MIMO systems, where the harvested energy (HE) from the downlink WPT is used to support both uplink data and pilot transmission. We derive novel closed-form downlink HE and uplink spectral efficiency (SE) expressions that take hardware impairments of UAV into account. UAV communications with current small cell (SC) and cellular massive MIMO enabled WPT systems are also considered for comparison. It is significant to show that CF massive MIMO achieves two and five times higher 95%-likely uplink SE than the ones of SC and cellular massive MIMO, respectively. Besides, the large-scale fading decoding receiver cooperation can reduce the interference of the terrestrial user. Moreover, the maximum SE can be achieved by changing the time-splitting fraction. We prove that the optimal time-splitting fraction for maximum SE is determined by the number of antennas, altitude and hardware quality factor of UAVs. Furthermore, we propose three UAV trajectory design schemes to improve the SE. It is interesting that the angle search scheme performs best than both AP search and line path schemes. Finally, simulation results are presented to validate the accuracy of our expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Cell‐free mMIMO (massive multiple input multiple output) is slated to be beyond 5G (B5G) wireless technology, given the attractive features it offers, higher spectral efficiency, higher‐energy efficiency, and superior spatial diversity. However, large numbers of long cables between each access point (AP) and central processing unit (CPU) (front haul requirements) mar its practical adoption. Radio stripe is one such architecture of cell‐free mMIMO suitable for practical deployment. In this work, we derive the closed‐form expression of probability of outage in the uplink of Cell‐Free mMIMO System Based on Radio Stripe (CFMMSBRS) and coverage probability in the downlink of CFMMSBRS, respectively. We employ, Welch–Satterthwaite approximation for accurate approximation of sum of independent gamma random variables with different shape and rate parameter. Results indicate that both outage and coverage achieved good performance especially when numbers of APs L in radio stripe network are greater than numbers of user equipments (UEs) K in the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the secure transmission in a cell-free massive MIMO system with imperfect radio frequency (RF) chains and low-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs) at both access points (APs) and legitimate users, where an active eavesdropper attempts to wiretap the confidential data. The Gaussian RF impairment model (GRFIM) and additive quantization noise model (AQNM) are used to evaluate the impacts of the RF impairments and low resolution ADCs/DACs, respectively. The analytical results of the linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) channel estimation show that there is nonzero floor on the estimation error with respect to the RF impairments, ADC/DAC precision and the pilot power of the eavesdropper which is different from the conventional case with perfect transceiver. Then, a tractable closed-form expression for the ergodic secrecy rate is obtained with respect to key system parameters, such as the antenna number per AP, the AP number, user number, quality factors of the ADC/DAC and the RF chain, pilot signal power of the eavesdropper, etc. Moreover, a compensation algorithm between the imperfect RF components and the inexpensive coarse ADCs/DACs is also presented. Finally, numerical results are provided to illustrate the efficiency of the achieved expressions and the devised algorithm, and show the effects of RF impairments and low resolution ADC/DAC on the secrecy performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pilot contamination resulting from pilot reuse seriously restricts the communication performance of the cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) networks. To deal with this problem, an efficient pilot assignment scheme using a weighted graphic framework is proposed in this correspondence paper. Specifically, a novel metric is first introduced for capturing the severity of potential mutual pilot contamination in cell-free topology. On this basis, the weighted pilot contamination graph is constructed to depict the dynamic interference relationship corresponding to the network. Then, the pilot assignment optimization is mapped to the Max k-Cut problem, and a heuristic algorithm is exploited to realize pilot decontamination. Numerical simulation results reveal the superior performance of the proposed scheme, which is capable of achieving a significant improvement in throughput with low complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is a promising architecture for next generation wireless systems by deploying a very large number of distributed access points (APs), which simultaneously serve a smaller number of user equipments (UEs) over the same time-frequency resources. It guarantees uniformly good service at high spectral efficiency with simple linear precoding techniques and max-min power control. In this article, we propose a new joint maximum-ratio and zero-forcing (JMRZF) precoding scheme, where part of APs are combined to perform centralized zero-forcing (ZF), while other APs apply simple maximum-ratio transmission (MRT). Our proposed precoder offers an adaptable trade-off between the spectral efficiency and front-haul signalling overhead. A corresponding AP subset selection scheme is also proposed which is based on large-scale fading coefficients. A closed-form expression for the achievable spectral efficiency of our proposed scheme is derived, which represents a generalized result including both fully distributed MRT and fully centralized ZF cases. Based on this closed-form expression, max-min power control is formulated and solved via the second order cone and first order methods. The former can obtain the global optimal solution, but its computational complexity is very high. On the other hand, the latter technique is sub-optimal, yet, it has very low computational complexity. Hence, it is suitable for large-scale cell-free massive MIMO systems with hundreds or thousands of APs and users. Numerical results show that our proposed JMRZF scheme can substantially outperform the local precoding schemes, even when a small part of APs are combined to deploy ZF and is implementable even when each AP has very few antennas. In addition, it is shown that our max-min power controls improves the spectral efficiency significantly, compared to the uniform power control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to meet the demand for increasing number of users, higher data rates, and stringent quality-of-service (QoS) in the beyond fifth-generation (B5G) networks? Cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is considered as a promising solution, in which many wireless access points cooperate to jointly serve the users by exploiting coherent signal processing. However, there are still many unsolved practical issues in cell-free massive MIMO systems, whereof scalable massive access implementation is one of the most vital. In this paper, we propose a new framework for structured massive access in cell-free massive MIMO systems, which comprises one initial access algorithm, a partial large-scale fading decoding (P-LSFD) strategy, two pilot assignment schemes, and one fractional power control policy. New closed-form spectral efficiency (SE) expressions with maximum ratio (MR) combining are derived. The simulation results show that our proposed framework provides high SE when using local partial minimum mean-square error (LP-MMSE) and MR combining. Specifically, the proposed initial access algorithm and pilot assignment schemes outperform their corresponding benchmarks, P-LSFD achieves scalability with a negligible performance loss compared to the conventional optimal large-scale fading decoding (LSFD), and scalable fractional power control provides a controllable trade-off between user fairness and the average SE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies massive access in cell-free massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO)-based Internet of Things and solves the challenging active user detection (AUD) and channel estimation (CE) problems. For the uplink transmission, we propose an advanced frame structure design to reduce the access latency. Moreover, by considering the cooperation of all access points (APs), we investigate two processing paradigms at the receiver for massive access: cloud computing and edge computing. For cloud computing, all APs are connected to a centralized processing unit (CPU), and the signals received at all APs are centrally processed at the CPU. While for edge computing, the central processing is offloaded to part of APs equipped with distributed processing units, so that the AUD and CE can be performed in a distributed processing strategy. Furthermore, by leveraging the structured sparsity of the channel matrix, we develop a structured sparsity-based generalized approximated message passing (SS-GAMP) algorithm for reliable joint AUD and CE, where the quantization accuracy of the processed signals is taken into account. Based on the SS-GAMP algorithm, a successive interference cancellation-based AUD and CE scheme is further developed under two paradigms for reduced access latency. Simulation results validate the superiority of the proposed approach over the state-of-the-art baseline schemes. Besides, the results reveal that the edge computing can achieve the similar massive access performance as the cloud computing, and the edge computing is capable of alleviating the burden on CPU, having a faster access response, and supporting more flexible AP cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers short-term power constrained cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scenarios where a large set of multi-antenna access points (APs) provide service to a group of single-antenna mobile stations (MSs) on a spatially correlated multipath environment. Based on a probabilistic approach, the spatially correlated propagation links are modeled using either Ricean or Rayleigh fading channel models that combine a deterministic line-of-sight (LOS) propagation path with a small-scale fading caused by non-line-of-sight (NLOS) multipath propagation. Assuming the use of minimum mean square error (MMSE) channel estimates, closed-form expressions for the downlink (DL) achievable spectral efficiency of a cellfree massive MIMO network with short-term power constraints (i.e., a vector normalized conjugate beamformer (NCB)) are derived and benchmarked against that provided by the conventional cell-free massive MIMO network with long-term power constraints (i.e., the conventional conjugate beamforming (CB)). These expressions, encompassing the effects of spatial antenna correlation, Ricean/Rayleigh fading and pilot contamination, are then used to derive both pragmatic and optimal max-min peruser power allocation strategies and to gain theoretical insight on the performance advantage provided by the use of short-term power constraints instead of the conventional long-term power constrained approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper is concerned with the proportional fairness (PF) of the spectral efficiency (SE) maximization of uplinks in a cell‐free (CF) massive multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) system in which a large number of single‐antenna access points (APs) connected to a central processing unit (CPU) serve many single‐antenna users. To detect the user signals, the APs use matched filters based on the local channel state information while the CPU deploys receiver filters based on knowledge of channel statistics. We devise the maximization problem of the SE PF, which maximizes the sum of the logarithm of the achievable user rates, as a jointly nonconvex optimization problem of receiver filter coefficients and user power allocation subject to user power constraints. To handle the challenges associated with the nonconvexity of the formulated design problem, we develop an iterative algorithm by alternatively finding optimal filter coefficients at the CPU and transmit powers at the users. While the filter coefficient design is formulated as a generalized eigenvalue problem, the power allocation problem is addressed by a gradient projection (GP) approach. Simulation results show that the SE PF maximization not only offers approximately the achievable sum rates as compared to the sum‐rate maximization but also provides an improved trade‐off between the user rate fairness and the achievable sum rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) comprises a large number of distributed single antenna access points (APs) connected to a network controller through backhaul. Each user is served by neighbouring APs simultaneously. Cell-free Massive MIMO provides decent throughput and coverage improvement as compared to a small-cell. Yet, channel state information (CSI) estimation is still a bottleneck in massive MIMO systems. In this paper, we propose an estimation method that does not need channel statistics or any historical assumption. We use the received pilots at the APs to provide CSI with mitigated co-pilot interference. The received signal is used to estimate the time of arrival (TOA) of signals from different paths, and, subsequently, signals that travel long distances are filtered out. The results show noticeable enhancement over LS estimation if the estimate of TOA is accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deploying a large number of distributed access points (AP)s to serve a smaller number of users is one of the promising network architectures for future wireless communication systems. Such network architecture can be operated as a distributed massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or as a small-cell (SC) system to satisfy the anticipated high rate requirements for beyond-5G networks. However, in a practical scenario with non-ideal hardware components and high-velocity users, the network experiences an inevitable performance degradation. This paper aims at analyzing the network performance under the operation of distributed massive MIMO and SC systems, taking into account the impairments of real and dynamic systems. Considering multiple-antennas APs, we derive novel closed-form expressions for the downlink (DL) spectral efficiency of both systems. We reveal that limiting the number of served users per AP in distributed massive MIMO systems leads to a corresponding loss in the performance, especially under max-min power control. Besides, despite the SC system provides the largest per-user average DL rate under the deployment of ideal APs, distributed massive MIMO systems become superior in the presence of non-ideal APs. Notably, while increasing the number of deployed non-ideal APs can reduce the introduced loss in distributed massive MIMO systems, this leads to an extra performance loss in SC systems. Finally, we show that the presence of high-velocity users is more harsh in SC systems. In addition, our results show that the SC system operation is more suitable for low-velocity users, however, it is better to operate networks with high velocities users under the distributed massive MIMO systems operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system where its access points (APs) and users are equipped with multiple antennas. Two transmission protocols are considered. In the first transmission protocol, there are no downlink pilots, while in the second transmission protocol, downlink pilots are proposed in order to improve the system performance. In both transmission protocols, the users use the minimum mean-squared error-based successive interference cancellation (MMSE-SIC) scheme to detect the desired signals. For the analysis, we first derive a general spectral efficiency formula with arbitrary side information at the users. Then analytical expressions for the spectral efficiency of different transmission protocols are derived. To improve the spectral efficiency (SE) of the system, max-min fairness power control (PC) is applied for the first protocol by using the closed-form expression of its SE. Due to the computation complexity of deriving the closed-form performance expression of SE for the second protocol, we apply the optimal power coefficients of the first protocol to the second protocol. Numerical results show that two protocols combining with multi-antenna users are prerequisites to achieve the sub-optimal SE regardless of the number of user in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple antenna technologies have attracted much research interest for several decades and have gradually made their way into mainstream communication systems. Two main benefits are adaptive beamforming gains and spatial multiplexing, leading to high data rates per user and per cell, especially when large antenna arrays are adopted. Since multiple antenna technology has become a key component of the fifth-generation (5G) networks, it is time for the research community to look for new multiple antenna technologies to meet the immensely higher data rate, reliability, and traffic demands in the beyond 5G era. Radically new approaches are required to achieve orders-of-magnitude improvements in these metrics. There will be large technical challenges, many of which are yet to be identified. In this paper, we survey three new multiple antenna technologies that can play key roles in beyond 5G networks: cell-free massive MIMO, beamspace massive MIMO, and intelligent reflecting surfaces. For each of these technologies, we present the fundamental motivation, key characteristics, recent technical progresses, and provide our perspectives for future research directions. The paper is not meant to be a survey/tutorial of a mature subject, but rather serve as a catalyst to encourage more research and experiments in these multiple antenna technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of hardware impairments on the achievable performance of cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with four low-complexity receiver cooperation among the multiple antennas access points (APs), included large scale fading decoding (LSFD), simple LSFD, simple centralized decoding and small cell. Taking into account the joint hardware impairment (HI) effects brought by both APs and user equipments, we derive closed-form expressions for uplink spectral efficiency (SE) of CF massive MIMO systems. It is found that LSFD can achieve the largest SE. Furthermore, a novel hardware-quality scaling law is presented to reveal the relationship between the number of antennas and HI. Based on these results, we provide important insights into the practical impact of HI. For example, the impact of HI at the APs vanishes as the number of APs grows. Finally, numerical results validate our derived results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-free massive MIMO communications is an emerging network technology for 5G wireless communications wherein distributed multi-antenna access points (APs) serve many users simultaneously. Most prior work on cell-free massive MIMO systems assume time-division duplexing mode, although frequency-division duplexing (FDD) systems dominate current wireless standards. The key challenges in FDD massive MIMO systems are channel-state information (CSI) acquisition and feedback overhead. To address these challenges, we exploit the so-called angle reciprocity of multipath components in the uplink and downlink, so that the required CSI acquisition overhead scales only with the number of served users, and not the number of AP antennas nor APs. We propose a low complexity multipath component estimation technique and present linear angle-of-arrival (AoA)-based beamforming/combining schemes for FDD-based cell-free massive MIMO systems. We analyze the performance of these schemes by deriving closed-form expressions for the mean-square-error of the estimated multipath components, as well as expressions for the uplink and downlink spectral efficiency. Using semi-definite programming, we solve a max-min power allocation problem that maximizes the minimum user rate under per-user power constraints. Furthermore, we present a user-centric (UC) AP selection scheme in which each user chooses a subset of APs to improve the overall energy efficiency of the system. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed multipath component estimation technique outperforms conventional subspace-based and gradient-descent based techniques. We also show that the proposed beamforming and combining techniques along with the proposed power control scheme substantially enhance the spectral and energy efficiencies with an adequate number of antennas at the APs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider a cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system which is composed of a large number of access points (APs) and a much smaller number of users. Each AP obtains the channel estimate from the uplink pilot and apply maximum ratio transmission in the downlink communication. Under the assumptions that the channels between the APs and users are Rician fading and the number of users is larger than that of orthogonal pilots, we derive the closed-form expression for the downlink achievable rate. Then, in order to maximize the achievable rate, we propose pilot allocation and power control algorithms for cell-free massive MIMO. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can achieve good system performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the achievable downlink spectral efficiency of cell-free massive multiple input multiple output (CF-mMIMO) systems, accounting for the effects of channel aging (caused by user mobility) and pilot contamination. We consider two cases, one where user equipments (UEs) rely on downlink pilots beamformed by the access points (APs) to estimate downlink channel, and another where UEs utilize statistical channel state information (CSI) for data decoding. For comparison, we also consider cellular mMIMO and derive its achievable spectral efficiency with channel aging and pilot contamination in the above two cases. Our results show that, in CF-mMIMO, downlink training is preferable over statistical CSI when the length of the data sequence is chosen optimally to maximize the spectral efficiency. In cellular mMIMO, however, either one of the two schemes may be better depending on whether user fairness or sum spectral efficiency is prioritized. Furthermore, the CF-mMIMO system generally outperforms cellular mMIMO even after accounting for the effects of channel aging and pilot contamination. Through numerical results, we illustrate the effect of various system parameters such as the maximum user velocity, uplink/downlink pilot lengths, data duration, network densification, and provide interesting insights into the key differences between cell-free and cellular mMIMO systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems along with millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands is indeed one of most promising technological enablers of the envisioned wireless Gbit/s experience. However, both massive antennas at access points and large bandwidth at mmWave induce high computational complexity to exploit an accurate estimation of channel state information. Considering the sparse mmWave channel matrix as a natural image, we propose a practical and accurate channel estimation framework based on the fast and flexible denoising convolutional neural network (FFDNet). In contrast to previous deep learning based channel estimation methods, FFDNet is suitable a wide range of signal-to-noise ratio levels with a flexible noise level map as the input. More specifically, we provide a comprehensive investigation to optimize the FFDNet based channel estimator. Extensive simulation results validate that the training speed of FFDNet is faster than state-of-the-art channel estimators without sacrificing normalized mean square error performance, which makes FFDNet as an practical channel estimator for cell-free mmWave massive MIMO systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are introduced as one of the key-enablers for 5G beyond networks due to their low cost and flexible deployment, and mobility degrees-of-freedom. Moreover, low sensitivity to blockage and uncorrelated channels in distributed multiple-input multiple-output (D-MIMO) systems, and their extension which is called cell-free massive MIMO, have made them an attractive research field. The location and number of access points (APs) in D-MIMO systems highly influence the system performance in terms of energy and spectral efficiency that can be handled by UAVs mobility and flexible deployment. In this paper, joint power allocation, and 3D trajectory design in a D-MIMO system for a downlink scenario where multiple UAVs serve as mobile APs (MbAPs) is investigated. Contrary to the existing works in multi-mobile base stations, we introduce space-division multiple access (SDMA) for the online trajectory design as a multi-access technology which does not suffer from the non-casual channel property in traditional trajectory designs. In the proposed design, the smallest user's ergodic rate lower bound is maximised by jointly optimising MbAPs' 3D trajectory and transmit power. The block coordinate descent (BCD) algorithm is deployed to break the main problem into two sub-problems and iteratively optimise over the two. Considering the non-convex nature of both of sub-problems, successive convex approximation is also exploited. For performance analysis, complexity and convergence property of the proposed algorithm are investigated. Finally, numerical results validate the improved performance of the proposed system in a practical scenario, where users can connect and disconnect to and from the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]