Bayesian Learning for Pilot Decontamination in Cell-Free Massive MIMO

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Forsch, Christian, Zhao, Zilu, Slock, Dirk, Cottatellucci, Laura
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Forsch, Christian
Zhao, Zilu
Slock, Dirk
Cottatellucci, Laura
author_facet Forsch, Christian
Zhao, Zilu
Slock, Dirk
Cottatellucci, Laura
contents Pilot contamination (PC) arises when the pilot sequences assigned to user equipments (UEs) are not mutually orthogonal, eventually due to their reuse. In this work, we propose a novel expectation propagation (EP)-based joint channel estimation and data detection (JCD) algorithm specifically designed to mitigate the effects of PC in the uplink of cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CF-MaMIMO) systems. This modified bilinear-EP algorithm is distributed, scalable, demonstrates strong robustness to PC, and outperforms state-of-the-art Bayesian learning algorithms. Through a comprehensive performance evaluation, we assess the performance of Bayesian learning algorithms for different pilot sequences and observe that the use of non-orthogonal pilots can lead to better performance compared to shared orthogonal sequences. Motivated by this analysis, we introduce a new metric to quantify PC at the UE level. We show that the performance of the considered algorithms degrades monotonically with respect to this metric, providing a valuable theoretical and practical tool for understanding and managing PC via iterative JCD algorithms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_11791
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bayesian Learning for Pilot Decontamination in Cell-Free Massive MIMO
Forsch, Christian
Zhao, Zilu
Slock, Dirk
Cottatellucci, Laura
Information Theory
Signal Processing
Pilot contamination (PC) arises when the pilot sequences assigned to user equipments (UEs) are not mutually orthogonal, eventually due to their reuse. In this work, we propose a novel expectation propagation (EP)-based joint channel estimation and data detection (JCD) algorithm specifically designed to mitigate the effects of PC in the uplink of cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CF-MaMIMO) systems. This modified bilinear-EP algorithm is distributed, scalable, demonstrates strong robustness to PC, and outperforms state-of-the-art Bayesian learning algorithms. Through a comprehensive performance evaluation, we assess the performance of Bayesian learning algorithms for different pilot sequences and observe that the use of non-orthogonal pilots can lead to better performance compared to shared orthogonal sequences. Motivated by this analysis, we introduce a new metric to quantify PC at the UE level. We show that the performance of the considered algorithms degrades monotonically with respect to this metric, providing a valuable theoretical and practical tool for understanding and managing PC via iterative JCD algorithms.
title Bayesian Learning for Pilot Decontamination in Cell-Free Massive MIMO
topic Information Theory
Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11791