When Cell-Free Massive MIMO Meets OTFS Modulation: The Downlink Case
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We provide a performance evaluation of orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation in cell-free massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) systems. By leveraging the inherent sparsity of the delay-Doppler (DD) representation of time-varying channels, we apply the embedded pilot-aided channel estimation method with reduced guard intervals and derive the minimum mean-square error estimate of the channel gains from received uplink pilots at the access points (APs). Each AP applies conjugate beamforming to transmit data to the users. We derive a closed-form expression for the individual user downlink throughput as a function of the numbers of APs, users and DD channel estimate parameters. We compare the OTFS performance with that of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) at high-mobility conditions. Our findings reveal that with uncorrelated shadowing, cell-free massive MIMO with OTFS modulation achieves up to 35 counterpart. Finally, the increase in the per user throughput is more pronounced at the median rates over the correlated shadowing scenarios.
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