Optimal Design of Energy-Efficient Multi-User MIMO Systems: Is Massive MIMO the Answer?

Assume that a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is designed from scratch to uniformly cover a given area with maximal energy efficiency (EE). What are the optimal number of antennas, active users, and transmit power? The aim of this paper is to answer this fundamental question. We consider jointly the uplink and downlink with different processing schemes at the base station and propose a new realistic power consumption model that reveals how the above parameters affect the EE. Closed-form expressions for the EE-optimal value of each parameter, when the other two are fixed, are provided for zero-forcing (ZF) processing in single-cell scenarios. These expressions prove how the parameters…

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