Active Attack on User Load Achieving Pilot Design in Massive MIMO Networks

In this paper, we propose an active attacking strategy on a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) network, where the pilot sequences are obtained using the user load-achieving pilot sequence design. The user load-achieving design ensures that the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) requirements of all the users in the massive MIMO networks are guaranteed even in the presence of pilot contamination. However, this design has some vulnerabilities, such as one known pilot sequence and the correlation among the pilot sequences, that may be exploited by active attackers. In this work, we first identify the potential vulnerabilities in the user load-achieving pilot sequence design and then, accordingly, develop an active attacking strategy on the network. In the proposed attacking strategy, the active attackers transmit known pilot sequences in the uplink training and artificial noise in the downlink data transmission. Our examination demonstrates that the per-cell user load region is significantly reduced by the proposed attacking strategy. As a result of the reduced per-cell user load region, the SINR requirements of all the users are no longer guaranteed in the presence of the active attackers. Specifically, for the worst affected users the SINR requirements may not be ensured even with infinite antennas at the base station.Comment: Accepted in IEEE GlobeCOM 201

Energy Efficiency and Sum Rate Tradeoffs for Massive MIMO Systems with Underlaid Device-to-Device Communications

In this paper, we investigate the coexistence of two technologies that have been put forward for the fifth generation (5G) of cellular networks, namely, network-assisted device-to-device (D2D) communications and massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). Potential benefits of both technologies are known individually, but the tradeoffs resulting from their coexistence have not been adequately addressed. To this end, we assume that D2D users reuse the downlink resources of cellular networks in an underlay fashion. In addition, multiple antennas at the BS are used in order to obtain precoding gains and simultaneously support multiple cellular users using multiuser or massive MIMO technique. Two metrics are considered, namely the average sum rate (ASR) and energy efficiency (EE). We derive tractable and directly computable expressions and study the tradeoffs between the ASR and EE as functions of the number of BS antennas, the number of cellular users and the density of D2D users within a given coverage area. Our results show that both the ASR and EE behave differently in scenarios with low and high density of D2D users, and that coexistence of underlay D2D communications and massive MIMO is mainly beneficial in low densities of D2D users.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, Submitte