Three Practical Aspects of Massive MIMO: Intermittent User Activity, Pilot Synchronism, and Asymmetric Deployment

This paper considers three aspects of Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) communication networks that have received little attention in previous works, but are important to understand when designing and implementing this promising wireless technology. First, we analyze how bursty data traffic behaviors affect the system. Using a probabilistic model for intermittent user activity, we show that the spectral efficiency (SE) scales gracefully with reduced user activity. Then, we make an analytic comparison between synchronous and asynchronous pilot signaling, and prove that the choice between these has no impact on the SE. Finally, we provide an analytical and numerical study of the SE achieved with random network deployment.