Random vs structured pilot assignment in cell-free massive MIMO wireless networks

Attarifar, Masoud; Abbasfar, Aliazam; Lozano Solsona, Angel

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICCW.2018.8403508

Random vs structured pilot assignment in cell-free massive MIMO wireless networks

Citation

Attarifar M, Abbasfar A, Lozano A. Random vs structured pilot assignment in cell-free massive MIMO wireless networks. In: 54th IEEE International Conference on Communications; 2018 May 20-24; Kansas City, USA. New Jersey: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; 2018. [6 p.]. DOI: 10.1109/ICCW.2018.8403508

Abstract

This paper addresses the performance improvement that structured pilot assignment policies can bring about, relative to a random pilot assignment, in cell-free massive MIMO wireless networks. It is shown that structured policies can deliver a multiple-fold reduction in the pilot overhead required to keep pilot contamination at some acceptably low level. While the implementation of the structured policies considered in the paper might require some degree of centralized control, their performance also captures what distributed nonrandom pilot assignment schemes (e.g., greedy or collision-detecting algorithms) can hope to approach.