Uplink-Downlink Duality and Precoding Strategies with Partial CSI in Cell-Free Wireless Networks

Abstract: We consider a scalable user-centric wireless network with dynamic cluster formation as defined by Bj\"ornsson and Sanguinetti. After having shown the importance of dominant channel subspace information for uplink (UL) pilot decontamination and having examined different UL combining schemes in our previous work, here we investigate precoding strategies for the downlink (DL). Distributed scalable DL precoding and power allocation methods are evaluated for different antenna distributions, user densities and UL pilot dimensions. We compare distributed power allocation methods to a scheme based on a particular form of UL-DL duality which is computable by a central processor based on the available partial channel state information. The new duality method achieves almost symmetric "optimistic ergodic rates" for UL and DL while saving considerable computational complexity since the UL combining vectors are reused as DL precoders.