Access Point Selection for Cell-free Massive MIMO Over Rician Fading Channels

Abstract

we study the uplink performance of a cell-free massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) system. The channel is modeled as a rician fading channel that includes line-of-sight and scattering components, and the phase of the line-of-sight is uniformly distributed. In order to relieve the fronthaul burden and the computational complexity of the system, an access point selection scheme is researched. In addition, we derive the uplink spectral efficiency expression of the system with rician fading propagation taking into account the proposed access point selection. Numerical results show that the access point selection scheme reduces the fronthaul pressure in a cell-free massive MIMO system, and the spectral efficiency is only slightly reduced.