Massive MIMO-Enabled HetNets with Full Duplex Small Cells

Abstract

Massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and full duplex (FD) communication are being considered as potential candidates for the spectrum efficient 5G wireless networks. In this paper, we develop a tractable model for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) transmission in K-tier heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) with massive MIMO macrocells and full duplex (FD) small cells for spectrum efficiency. In the considered HCNs, the performance of the mobile user (MU) is limited by several sources of interference, specifically due to FD nature of small cell base stations (SBSs). A stochastic geometry based model of the proposed HCNs is provided which allows to derive the DL and UL rate coverage probabilities of such a system. Monte Carlo simulations confirm the accuracy of the analytical results, while numerical results reveal that equipping large number of MIMO antennas at macro base stations (MBSs) enhances the DL rate coverage probability of a random MU in HCNs. The results show that to achieve the maximum joint DL and UL performance gain in HCNs with FD small cells, both SBSs' density and SBSs' transmit power should be optimized. Moreover, the UL performance can be improved by decreasing the SBSs receivers sensitivity and increasing the UL power control factor.