User Association in Massive MIMO HetNets

Massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) and small cell are both recognized as key technologies for the future fifth-generation wireless systems. In this paper, we investigate the problem of user association in a heterogeneous network (HetNet) with massive MIMO and small cells, where the macro base station (BS) is equipped with a massive MIMO, and the picocell BSs are equipped with regular MIMOs. We first develop centralized user association algorithms with proven optimality, considering various objectives such as rate maximization, proportional fairness, and joint user association and resource allocation. We then develop a repeated game model, which leads to distributed user association algorithms with proven convergence to the Nash equilibrium. We demonstrate the efficacy of these optimal schemes by comparing with several greedy algorithms through simulations.