Coexistence of eMBB+ and mMTC+ in Uplink Cell-Free Massive MIMO Networks

Abstract: This paper tackles the problem of designing proper uplink multiple access (MA) schemes for coexistence between enhanced mobile broadband+ (eMBB+) users and massive machine-type communications+ (mMTC+) devices in a terminal-centric cell-free massive MIMO system. Specifically, the use of a time-frequency spreading technique for the mMTC+ devices has been proposed. Coupled with the assumption of imperfect channel knowledge, closed-form bounds of the achievable (ergodic) rate for the two types of data services are derived. Using suitable power control mechanisms, we show it is possible to efficiently multiplex eMBB+ and mMTC+ traffic in the same time-frequency resource grid. Numerical experiments reveal interesting trade-offs in the selection of the spreading gain and the number of serving access points within the system. Results also demonstrate that the performance of the mMTC+ devices is slightly affected by the presence of the eMBB+ users. Overall, our approach can endow good quality of service to both 6G cornerstones at once.