Chapter 12: User-Centric Cell-Free Massive MIMO

Learning Objectives

• Identify the scalability bottleneck in the original cell-free massive MIMO formulation
• Define user-centric clustering and explain how it resolves the scalability problem
• Describe the Fog Massive MIMO architecture and its connection to user-centric cell-free
• Formulate the master AP concept and explain its role in coordination
• Derive achievable rate expressions under user-centric clustering with partial AP cooperation
• Design pilot assignment strategies that exploit user-centric cluster structure
• Compare full cell-free, user-centric cell-free, and conventional cellular in terms of spectral efficiency and computational complexity