2019 22nd International Conference of Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT), 18-20 December, 2019

Energy Efficiency Investigation in Massive MIMO

5G System using Nakagami-m Fading Channel
Tamanna Hossain Md Munjure Mowla Md Yeakub Ali
Dept. of ETE Dept. of ETE Dept. of ETE
Rajshahi Univ. of Engg. & Tech. Rajshahi Univ. of Engg. & Tech. Rajshahi Univ. of Engg. & Tech.
Rajshahi, Bangladesh Rajshahi, Bangladesh Rajshahi, Bangladesh
tamannahossain941@gmail.com rimonece@gmail.com yeakub.ruet08@gmail.com

Abstract—Massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) is However, interference occurs in massive MIMO system as

considered as one of the major technologies for 5G communi-
cations, implementing huge elements of antenna array to boost
spectral efficiency, robustness, and reliability. However, massive
deployment of MIMO antenna elements also increases power
consumption, which ultimately cannot fulfill another important
design criterion of 5G communications, i.e., energy- efficiency.
In addition, huge deployment of closely spaced antenna also
increases co-channel interference. Nakagami-m fading channel
has the m diversity order to minimize interference in different
fading distributions. Based on base station antennas distribution,
massive MIMO can be classified as co-located, distributed, and
hybrid. In this paper, we investigate the energy efficiency of
massive MIMO systems for different distributions using MMSE
(minimum mean square error) detector in Nakagami-m fading
channel. Simulation results show that the high energy efficiency
can be exploited in hybrid system compared to other two MIMO
distributions. Moreover, the trade-off between spectral efficiency
and energy efficiency with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is also
portrayed for different distribution.
Index Terms—Nakagami-m fading channel, co-located MIMO,
distributed MIMO, hybrid MIMO, energy efficiency.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The upsurge of mobile data traffic is expected to reach 49
Exabytes within 2021 as the massive deployment of mobile de-
vices, terminals, and equipment [1]. The next generation wire-
less technology, 5G is designed to fulfill the huge demand by
leveraging some advanced technologies, e.g., massive multiple
input multiple output (MIMO), millimeter wave (mmWave),
small cell network (SCN) based heterogeneous system etc
[2]. One of the remarkable 5G technologies is the massive
multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). It consists of a large
number of antennas which are integrated into the system to
enhance the system performance as well as to meet the ever-
increasing demand of high data. Usually, the transmit-array
of a massive MIMO system consists of tens or hundreds of
transmit antennas to engage hundreds of users concurrently
[3].
it carries a large number of antennas. The interference is the
obstacle for the efficiency of the massive MIMO system. The
Nakagami-m fading channel is an advanced radio propagation
channel to reduce the co-channel interference, which supports
m diversity order [4]. Diversity order is a property, which
can reduce the co-channel interference. On the other hand,
Rayleigh fading only provides order of one. So, it is less
effective than Nakagami-m fading channel in terms of reducing
the co-channel interface.The Nakagami-m distribution allows
for more flexibility because of having one more free parameter.
Therefore, the Nakagami-m fading model not only improves
the reliability of the system, but also reduces the co-channel
interference significantly.
While the huge deployment of antenna elements meet the
spectrum capacity, it causes high power consumption as well.
Another major technical design consideration of 5G systems
is to achieve high energy efficiency as ICT sector consumes
about 4.7% of global electricity production contributing 2-4%
of the global carbon footprint [5].
In this paper, we investigate the energy efficiency of the
massive MIMO systems while using Nakagami-m fading
channel. In Nakagami-m fading channel MMSE (minimum
mean square error) detector is the best detector compared to
other detectors like ZF (Zero Forcing) or MRC (maximum-
ratio combining) detector [6]. We consider three different
MIMO distributions, i.e, co-located, distributed, and hybrid.
Several publications have appeared in recent years analyzing
the performance of massive MIMO. Authors analyzed the
ergodic capacity with various linear receivers using Nakagami-
m fading channel in [7]. Another research described the
maximum energy efficiency with small cell using Rayleigh
fading model in [6]. However, to the best of author knowledge,
no research have found that investigate the energy efficiency
of massive MIMO system using Nakagami-m channel while
using different MIMO distribution simultaneously. The main
objective of this research is to analyze the nature and perfor-

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mance of massive MIMO when Nakagami-m fading is applied. A. Co-located MIMO
In this paper, the energy efficiency for the co-located MIMO,
For a Co-located MIMO, the vector of the received signal
distributed MIMO and hybrid MIMO have been compared by
can be represented by [7]:
using MMSE detector.
r
The remainder of this paper is arranged as follows. Section P
II describes system model showing different MIMO distribu- yco−located = Hm x + n (2)
Mt
tions. The energy efficiency model is derived in Section III.
Section IV portrays the simulation environment and discusses Spectral Efficiency of the Co-located MIMO channel can be
results. Finally, Section V concludes the paper. expressed as:
" #
1
SEco−located = log2 P
(3)
II. S YSTEM M ODEL (I + M HmH .H )−1
m
t

In this section, we describe the network scenario for H

where Hm is the Hermitian matrix or self-adjoint matrix which
different MIMO distributions, i.e., Co-located (C-MIMO), is conjugate transpose of Hm .
distributed MIMO (D-MIMO), and hybrid (H-MIMO). The
received power and their corresponding spectral efficiency are B. Distributed MIMO
presented. Co-located MIMO has various co-located antennas
For a distributed MIMO, the vector of the received signal
at several sides of wireless link. It is the conventional point
can be represented by [7]:
to point MIMO and has identical large-scale fading [6].
Distributed MIMO has been developed for indoor coverage
r
P
without increasing large amount of antennas. The D-MIMO ydistributed = Hm W 1/2 .x + n (4)
LMt
channel reflects the distinctive large-scale fading effects for r
P
each antenna-pair. Here, the antennas of the base station = Am .x + n
(BS) are distributed at several geographical locations [8]. LMt
Hybrid MIMO is a combination of analog and fully digital where channel matrix is denoted by Am = Hm W 1/2 . W 1/2
beamformers and connected to the RF domain chains. It has indicates LMr × LMt diagonal matrix which is the effect of
a array antenna structures, which is fully or partially linked large-scale fading.
[9]. Fig. 1 depicts a layout for three MIMO distributions; Co- Spectral efficiency of the distributed MIMO channel can be
located MIMO (C-MIMO), distributed MIMO (D-MIMO), and written as:
hybrid MIMO (H-MIMO). " #
1
SEdistributed = log2 P −1
(5)
(I + LM t
AHm .Am )

where the linear decoder matrix is Mr × LMt .

C. Hybrid MIMO
For a hybrid MIMO, the vector of the received signal can
be represented as [10]:
r
P
yhybrid = 2
Hm W H .Vdiag .Vana .x + n (6)
σ Mt
r
P
Fig. 1: Layout of co-located, distributed and hybrid MIMO. = Cm .x + n
σ 2 Mt
In this paper, we consider Nakagami-m fading channel. The where Vdiag ∈ CMrf ×Ms and Vana ∈ CMt ×Mrf represent dig-
equation of Nakagami-m fading channel can be written as: ital and analog matrices, respectively. W denotes combining
matrix; Cm indicates a product of Hm , W H , Vdiag , and Vana
y = Hm .x + n (1) matrix. Ms represents data streams serving a single user with
Mr receive antennas. Mrf is the number of RF chains.
where y is the received signal vector, x is the transmitted Spectral efficiency of the hybrid MIMO channel can be
signal vector, and n is the AWGN vector represented by written as:
(Mr × 1), (Mt × 1), and (Mr × 1), respectively. Hm (Channel " #
co-efficient) is denoted by (Mt ×Mr ) matrix. In the following 1
SEhybrid = log2 P H .C )−1
(7)
section, we show the expression for different MIMO distribu- (I + M t
Cm m
tions, i.e., C-MIMO, D-MIMO, and H-MIMO.

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 (a) EE vs SNR. (b) EE vs gain. (c) EE vs no. of antenna.
Fig. 2: Comparison of Energy efficiency (in Mbit/Joule) as a function SNR, gain, and no. of antenna.

III. E NERGY E FFICIENCY IV. S IMULATION E NVIRONMENT AND R ESULTS

In this section, we first describe simulation parameters
Energy Efficiency (EE) is defined as:
for different types MIMO distributions. Then, we discuss
Rt (bit/s) about the results associated with investigation. In this network
EEbit/joule = (8) scenario, co-located MIMO, distributed MIMO, hybrid MIMO
PT (joule/s)
are simulated by the different parameters which are defined by
Where Rt = β.SE; β is the channel bandwidth. fixed value according to table I. Besides, we use some other
The product of coding, decoding, and backhaul power is parameters e.g., number of transmitting antenna, number of
denoted as: Z = Pcod + Pdecod + Pbh . receiving antenna, number of user, number of data stream,
The fixed power of this system can be written as: number of RF chains, whose values vary considering different
simulation environment. All the results have been simulated
Pf ix = Pini + Pue U + Pbs M + Plo + Ps U M + Pce .
by the MATLAB simulator. In this system, there is no remark-
Therefore, the sum of the total power can be written as:
able change to count the energy efficiency regardless of the
hundreds or thousands number of iteration in the simulation.
PT = Pf ix + Z × SE (9)
TABLE I: Simulation parameters
where M and U denote the number of antennas and users. Parameter Name Notation Value
Pini , Pue , Pbs , Plo , Ps , and Pce represent initial power Fixed transmission power Pini 10 W
consumption, circuit power per active user, circuit power per Circuit power per active user Pue 0.2 × 10−9 W
base station antenna, power of local oscillator, power of signal Circuit power per BS antenna Pbs 0.4 × 10−9 W
Power of local oscillator Plo 0.2 × 10−9 W
processing, and power of channel estimation, respectively. Power of signal processing Ps 1.56 × 10−10 W
We can rewrite (8) as: Power of channel estimation Pce 0.2 W/(Bit/s)
Circuit power of channel coding Pcod 8 × 10−10 W/(Bit/s)
β.SE Circuit power of channel decoding Pdecod 12 × 10−10 W/(Bit/s)
EE = (10) Circuit power of backhaul Pbh 16 × 10−10 W/(Bit/s)
Pf ix + Z × SE
Bandwidth β 20 MHz

For a co-located MIMO channel, the EE can be expressed

as: Fig. 2a compares the energy efficiency of the co-located,
distributed and hybrid MIMO. The energy efficiency (EE)
β.SEco−located is increased with the increasing of the signal to noise ratio
EEco−located = (11)
Pf ix + Z × SEco−located (SNR). So, EE increases when the signal amount increases
and conversely, EE decreases when the noise increases. In this
For a distributed MIMO channel, the EE can be represented case, it is observed that the energy efficiency of the hybrid
as: MIMO is better than other two schemes. Another observation
β.SEdistributed is that distributed MIMO’s efficiency is higher than the co-
EEdistributed = (12) located MIMO. Fig. 2b represents the simulation of energy
Pf ix + Z × SEdistributed
efficiency with respect to gain. Here, the efficiency of hybrid
For a hybrid MIMO channel, the EE can be written as: MIMO results more efficient than other two configurations.
From the data in Fig. 2b, it is apparent that up to gain of 0.2,
β.SEhybrid the rate of EE is rapidly increasing, after that it results steady
EEhybrid = (13) improvement. All the above figures show that, hybrid MIMO
Pf ix + Z × SEhybrid

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 (a) Co-located MIMO. (b) Distributed MIMO.
Fig. 3: Comparison of Energy efficiency (in Mbit/Joule) with the Spectral efficiency (in bits/s/Hz) and SNR (in dB).
bears better performance from the distributed and co-located
MIMO. Because, hybrid MIMO is capable of achieving almost
the same performance of the fully digital design. It can develop
the data streams intended for the MSs. Distributed MIMO
remains second in terms of performance as it has radio ports.
If the number of radio ports is increased, the transmit diversity
will enhance. So, for that transmit diversity distributed MIMO
is better than the co-located MIMO. Co-located MIMO is
point to point MIMO. Therefore, there is no need of additional
point for a new user. Because it connects with all the points.
It is suitable for large number of users. On the other hand,
distributed MIMO has only one end, which reflects common
large-scale fading. So, it is suitable for low number of users.
Figs. 3a, 3b, and 3c represent the energy efficiency (in
Mbit/Joule) which varies with the spectral efficiency (in
bits/s/Hz) and SNR (in dB) for the co-located, distributed and
hybrid MIMO Nakagami-m fading channel respectively. Here,
the energy efficiency of co-located and distributed MIMO are
approximately same but the energy efficiency of hybrid MIMO
is higher than the rest of the two.
Fig. 4: Energy efficiency (in Mbit/Joule) as a function of the
Spectral efficiency (in Mbit/s/Hz). Comparison is obtained by
Nakagami-m fading channel for co-located, distributed and
hybrid MIMO.
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(c) Hybrid MIMO.
Fig. 4 describes energy efficiency (in Mbit/Joule) as a
function of the spectral efficiency (in Mbit/s/Hz). The trade-off
between spectral efficiency and energy efficiency is observed
in the figure. According to [11] in the spectral efficiency and
energy efficiency trade-off, the quantity of power at distributed
MIMO does not matter, there is a saturation point where the
energy efficiency is maximum. For this reason, the distributed
MIMO shows more energy efficiency in Fig. 4. In Fig.4 trade-
off is showed the trade off at 0 W and 10 W.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this investigation, the aim is to assess the energy ef-
ficiency of massive MIMO when the Nakagami-m fading
channel is used. We have shown the mathematical model and
comparison for different types of MIMOs, e.g., co-located, dis-
tributed, and hybrid MIMO. In this research, we have carried
a number of simulation on the energy efficiency in respect to
SNR, gain, number of antenna and spectral efficiency for the
three types of MIMOs. One of the prime significant findings,
what has been emerged from this study, is that the energy
efficiency of the hybrid MIMO is more than the two others
because of two attributes. The second major finding was that,
the distributed MIMO results more efficient than co-located
MIMO. We also investigate the trade-off between the energy
efficiency and the spectral efficiency. Further research in this
field regarding the role of energy efficiency would be great
help in next generation wireless communication.
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