On the total energy consumption of scalable cache-aided multi-CPU cell-free massive MIMO systems

In conventional cell-free (CF) systems, the scalability and feasibility are hindered by the fact that a single central processing unit (CPU) manages all access points and the stringent synchronization requirement for coherent transmission (CT) across the entire network. Multi-CPU CF systems emerge as a scalable and feasible alternative, yet they still encounter the typical CF system challenge of high downlink transmit energy consumption from extensive fronthaul and backhaul transmissions. To tackle this issue, we propose a scalable downlink partial coherent transmission (PCT) strategy for multi-CPU CF systems to provide high spectral efficiency (SE), reduce transmission time and thereby lower energy consumption, while keeping decoding complexity manageable. Based on the PCT strategy, we introduce scalable cache-aided multi-CPU CF systems and develop the corresponding total energy consumption (TEC) model. A successive convex approximation algorithm is proposed to obtain the suboptimal cache placement to minimize the TEC. Simulation results indicate that the proposed PCT-based scalable cache-aided multi-CPU CF systems can significantly reduce the TEC and consistently maintain the TEC at a relatively low level across all Zipf parameters by leveraging the high SE of CT and the independent transmission of non-coherent transmission.