Optimal User Loading in Massive MIMO Systems With Regularized Zero Forcing Precoding

We consider a downlink massive multiple-input multiple output system employing regularized zero-forcing precoding. We derive the asymptotic signal-to-leakage-plus-noise ratio (SLNR) as both the number of antennas and the number of users go to infinity at a fixed ratio. Focusing on spatially uncorrelated channels with homogeneous large scale fading gains, we show that the SLNR is asymptotically equal to signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio, which allows us to optimize the user loading for spectral efficiency. The results show that the optimal user loading varies depending on the channel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). As the SNR increases, the optimal user loading decreases at low SNR, but increases at high SNR.