In this paper, we use satellite-assisted and multi-group multicast mechanisms to relieve ground traffic pressure and improve data transmission efficiency of cell-free massive MIMO systems. We propose to estimate channel state information (CSI) by common pilot scheme. Given the estimated CSI, we derive the closed-form expressions of achievable rate with maximum ratio transmission (MRT) and zero-forcing (ZF) precoding. The correctness of the closed-form expressions is verified through simulations. The results show that with the help of satellite and multicast, the average system spectrum efficiency (SE) can be significantly improved.
Satellite-Assisted Cell-Free Massive MIMO Systems with Multi-Group Multicast