Mobile Cell-Free Massive MIMO: Challenges, Solutions, and Future Directions

Cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, which exploit many geographically distributed access points to coherently serve user equipments via spatial multiplexing on the same time-frequency resource, has become a vital component of the next-generation mobile communication networks. Theoretically, CF massive MIMO systems have many advantages, such as large capacity, great coverage, and high reliability, but several obstacles must be overcome. In this article, we study the paradigm of CF massive MIMO-aided mobile communications, including the main application scenarios and associated deployment architectures. Furthermore, we thoroughly investigate the challenges of CF massive MIMO-aided mobile communications. We then propose a novel predictor antenna, hierarchical cancellation, rate-splitting and dynamic clustering system for CF massive MIMO. Finally, several important research directions regarding CF massive MIMO for mobile communications are presented to facilitate further investigation.