Iterative Access Point Selection, MMSE Precoding and Power Allocation for Cell-Free Networks

Abstract: In this work, we propose iterative access point (AP) selection (APS), linear minimum mean-square error (MMSE) precoding and power allocation techniques for Cell-Free Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. We consider the downlink channel with single-antenna users and multiple-antenna APs. We derive sum-rate expressions for the proposed iterative APS techniques followed by MMSE precoding and optimal, adaptive, and uniform power allocation schemes. Simulations show that the proposed approach outperforms existing conjugate beamforming (CB) and zero-forcing (ZF) schemes and that performance remains excellent with APS, in the presence of perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI).