Cell-Free Massive MIMO Meets OTFS Modulation

Abstract

We provide the first-ever performance evaluation of orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation in cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. To investigate the trade-off between performance and overhead, we apply embedded pilot-aided and superimposed pilot-based channel estimation methods. We then derive a closed-form expression for the individual user downlink and uplink spectral efficiencies (SEs) as a function of the numbers of APs, users and delay-Doppler domain channel estimate parameters. Based on these analytical results, we also present new scaling laws that the AP’s and user’s transmit power should satisfy, to sustain a desirable quality of service. It is found that when the number of APs, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_{a}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , grows without bound, we can reduce the transmit power of each user and AP proportionally to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1/M_{a}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1/M_{a}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , respectively, during the uplink and downlink phases. We compare the OTFS performance with that of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) at high-mobility conditions. Our findings reveal that, OTFS modulation with embedded pilot-based channel estimation provides up to 20-fold gain over the OFDM counterpart in terms of 95%-likely per-user downlink SE. Finally, with superimposed pilot-based channel estimation, the increase in the uplink sum SE is more pronounced when the channel delay spread is increased.