On the Achievable User Number of the Downlinks in Cellular-Based Machine-to-Machine Communications

In cellular-based machine-to-machine (M2M) networks, supporting large number of machine-type communications (MTC) users (devices) has become a critical challenge in both the uplink and downlink channels. In this paper, we focus on the downlink beamforming using zero-forcing dirty paper coding (DPC). In order to characterize the system's ability of user admission, we consider the achievable user number, which is defined as the number of users whose signal-to-interference plus-noise ratios exceed a target threshold. Due to the complexity of the optimal scheme, we propose two algorithms with random user scheduling and greedy user scheduling in maximizing the achievable user number by dynamical power assignment. Using the joint distribution of effective channel gains, we derive the achievable user number of both the scheduling schemes. An upper bound on the achievable user number of the greedy scheme is then derived which is shown to be tight when there are a large number of users. From numerical results, we show that both of the schemes enjoy a linear increase in the achievable user number as the number of transmitter antennas increases. The performance of the greedy scheduling scheme is close to the optimal scheduling scheme.