User association and load balancing for cellular massive MIMO

Abstract

Massive MIMO is expected to play a key role in coping with the predicted mobile-data traffic explosion. Indeed, in combination with small cells and TDD operation, it promises large throughputs per unit area with low latency. In this paper we focus on the problem of balancing the load across networks with massive MIMO base-stations (BSs). The need for load balancing arises from variations in the user population density and is more pronounced in small cells due to the large variability in coverage area. We consider methods for load balancing over networks with small and large massive MIMO BSs. As we show, the distinct operation and properties of massive MIMO enable practical resource-efficient load-balancing methods with near-optimal performance.