Correlation Based User Grouping and Resource Allocation in Uplink Massive MIMO Systems

User grouping and resource allocation can significantly improve the performance of massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems. Correlation based user grouping is a low-complexity method to avoid users of high inter user interference (IUI) reusing same time-frequency resource. However, it is seldom proposed in uplink massive MIMO systems. In this paper, a correlation based uplink user scheduling algorithm is proposed. In the algorithm, channel correlation combining with transmit power is utilized to estimate IUI, and RB number of a user is considered combining with the uplink power control process in LTE-A. Proportional fairness (PF) is also utilized in our algorithm to ensure user fairness. Analysis and simulation results show that the complexity of our algorithm is effectively reduced with acceptable loss of performance.