Spectral, Energy, and Economic Efficiency of 5G Multicell Massive MIMO Systems with Generalized Spatial Modulation

This paper studies generalized spatial modulation (Gen-SM) schemes in multicell multiuser massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems as a promising high-throughput and energy-efficient technique for fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks. A detection algorithm for such systems is proposed based on linear processing techniques. By applying the concept of order statistics, a general framework for approximating the achievable sum rates with linear detection is also given. The probability of detecting antenna combinations is analyzed and is used to approximate the sum-rate performance with practical channel conditions, such as antenna correlation, imperfect channel information, and pilot contamination. The fundamental trade-off between spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) is also investigated. Despite offering less SE, spatial modulation (SM) with a single active antenna per user is shown to be the most energy-efficient transmission mode among the Gen-SM class. Within the operating range of SM (i.e., in the low-to-moderate SE regime), SM is demonstrated to achieve better EE compared with conventional massive MIMO schemes. The performance in terms of economic efficiency, indicating economic profitability (in monetary unit per second), is also analyzed and is shown to serve as a complementary performance metric, enabling an implicit trade-off between SE and EE.