Soft Pilot Reuse and Multicell Block Diagonalization Precoding for Massive MIMO Systems

Abstract

The users at cell edge of a massive multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) system suffer from severe pilot contamination (PC), which leads to poor quality of service (QoS). To enhance the QoS for these edge users, soft pilot reuse (SPR) combined with multicell block diagonalization (MBD) precoding is proposed. Specifically, the users are divided into two groups according to their large-scale fading coefficients, which are referred to as the center users, who only suffer from modest PC, and the edge users, who suffer from severe PC. Based on this distinction, the SPR scheme is proposed for improving the QoS for the edge users, whereby a cell-center pilot group is reused for all cell-center users in all cells, whereas a cell-edge pilot group is applied for the edge users in the adjacent cells. By extending the classical block diagonalization precoding to a multicell scenario, the MBD precoding scheme projects the downlink transmit signal onto the null space of the subspace spanned by the intercell channels of the edge users in adjacent cells. Thus, the intercell interference contaminating the edge users' signals in the adjacent cells can be efficiently mitigated, and hence, the QoS of these edge users can be further enhanced. Our theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that both the uplink and downlink rates of the edge users are significantly improved, albeit at the cost of the slightly decreased rate of center users.