Access Point Selection for Bistatic Backscatter Communication in Cell-Free MIMO

TL;DR

This paper explores optimal access point selection for bistatic backscatter communication in cell-free MIMO networks, improving error performance through a MAP detector and a novel selection algorithm.

Contribution

It introduces a new algorithm for selecting the best CE-reader pair in bistatic BC within cell-free MIMO, enhancing communication reliability.

Findings

Error performance is improved with the proposed selection algorithm.

The MAP detector effectively decodes backscatter device information.

Simulation results demonstrate the algorithm's superiority over benchmarks.

Abstract

Backscatter communication (BC) has emerged as a key technology to satisfy the increasing need for low-cost and green Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity, especially in large-scale deployments. Unlike the monostatic BC (MoBC), the bistatic BC (BiBC) has the possibility to decrease the round-trip path loss by having the carrier emitter (CE) and the reader in different locations. Therefore, this work investigates the BiBC in the context of cell-free multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) networks by exploring the optimal selection of CE and reader among all access points, leveraging prior knowledge about the area where the backscatter device (BD) is located. First, a maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) detector to decode the BD information bits is derived. Then, the exact probability of error for this detector is obtained. In addition, an algorithm to select the best CE-reader pair for serving the specified area is proposed. Finally, simulation results show that the error performance of the BC is improved by the proposed algorithm compared to the benchmark scenario.