Deploying Dense Networks for Maximal Energy Efficiency: Small Cells Meet Massive MIMO

摘要: What would a cellular network designed for maximal energy efficiency look like? To answer this fundamental question, tools from stochastic geometry are used in paper to model future networks and obtain new lower bound on the average uplink spectral efficiency. This enables us formulate tractable (EE) maximization problem solve it analytically with respect density of base stations (BSs), transmit power levels, number BS antennas users per cell, pilot reuse factor. The closed-form expressions obtained general EE framework provide valuable insights interplay between optimization variables, hardware characteristics, propagation environment. Small cells proved give high EE, but improvement saturates quickly density. Interestingly, is achieved by also equipping BSs multiple operate “massive MIMO” fashion, where array gain coherent detection mitigates interference multiplexing many reduces cost user.