UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Joint Precoding and Fronthaul Compression for Cell-Free MIMO with Hybrid Topology

Chen, Yijie; Xia, Wenchao; Zhang, Jun; Hou, Xiaoyun; Wong, Kai-Kit; Zhu, Hongbo; (2025) Joint Precoding and Fronthaul Compression for Cell-Free MIMO with Hybrid Topology. IEEE Internet of Things Journal 10.1109/JIOT.2025.3541111. (In press). Green open access

[thumbnail of Joint Precoding and Fronthaul Compression for Cell-Free MIMO with Hybrid Topology.pdf]
Preview
Text
Joint Precoding and Fronthaul Compression for Cell-Free MIMO with Hybrid Topology.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Cell-free multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) generally uses a star topology for superior communication but faces high costs due to long cables. An economical alternative, the stripe topology, is suitable for specific deployments but cannot meet user demands in densely populated areas due to limited fronthaul capacity. To address these limitations, we propose a hybrid network structure combining stripe and star topologies, ensuring system performance while reducing deployment costs. In such a network, joint precoding and fronthaul compression is considered to maximize system sum-rate and an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm is proposed. However, the AO algorithm involves an iterative process and complex matrix calculations, making it unsuitable for practical applications. To deal with this issue, we propose a low-complexity iterative gradient descent (IGD) algorithm with simple matrix operations. To further reduce online computational complexity, we propose a novel deep unfolding neural network (DUNN) scheme, which is interpretable and scalable, based on the IGD algorithm. Simulation results show that the hybrid topology significantly improves system capacity compared to the stripe-only topology. Additionally, the DUNN achieves a tradeoff between the achievable sum-rate performance and the corresponding computational complexity.

Type: Article
Title: Joint Precoding and Fronthaul Compression for Cell-Free MIMO with Hybrid Topology
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1109/JIOT.2025.3541111
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1109/jiot.2025.3541111
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Cell-free MIMO, hybrid topology, precoding, fronthaul compression, deep unfolding
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Electronic and Electrical Eng
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205324
Downloads since deposit
Loading...
4Downloads
Download activity - last month
Loading...
Download activity - last 12 months
Loading...
Downloads by country - last 12 months
Loading...

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item