A Scalable and Energy-Efficient IoT System Supported by Cell-Free Massive MIMO

An Internet-of-Things (IoT) system supports a massive number of IoT devices wirelessly. We show how to use cell-free (CF) massive multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) to provide a scalable and energy-efficient IoT system. We employ optimal linear estimation with random pilots to acquire channel state information (CSI) for MIMO precoding and decoding. In the uplink (UL), we employ optimal linear decoder and utilize random matrix (RM) theory to obtain two accurate signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) approximations involving only large-scale fading coefficients. We derive several max–min type power control algorithms based on both exact SINR expression and RM approximations. Next we consider the power control problem for downlink (DL) transmission. To avoid solving a time-consuming quasiconcave problem that requires repeat tests for the feasibility of a second-order cone programming (SOCP) problem, we develop a neural network (NN) aided power control algorithm that results in 30 times reduction in computation time. This power control algorithm leads to scalable CF Massive MIMO networks in which the amount of computations conducted by each access point (AP) does not depend on the number of network APs. Both UL and DL power control algorithms allow visibly improve the system spectral efficiency (SE) and, more importantly, lead to multifold improvements in energy efficiency (EE), which is crucial for IoT networks.