Service Coverage Design for MEC-Enabled Cell-Free Massive MIMO Network

To achieve green and low-carbon development of 6th generation (6G) mobile networks, a new metric of network coverage performance is defined, e.g., service coverage, to improve the efficiency of network operation by providing accurate on-demand services. Deeply exploring the advantages of flexible cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CF-mMIMO) network deployment can optimize the system performance differentiation for each coverage unit, thus enabling the overall optimization of system performance. Considering the impact of access point (AP) positions and computing power on computing latency and communication reliability in the CF-mMIMO with the mobile edge computing (MEC) network, we have formulated the joint deployment as a two-layer coupled optimization problem. We first obtained an AP deployment scheme that meets traffic demands, then solved the computing power deployment problem under latency constraints, and finally achieved optimal service coverage through alternating optimization. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed network deployment method based on service coverage can meet diverse service requirements, achieve higher communication reliability, and reduce computing delay.