  Multiuser multiple-input multiple-output wireless communications systems have
the potential to satisfy the performance requirements of fifth-generation and
future wireless networks. In this context, cell-free (CF) systems, where the
antennas are distributed over the area of interest, have attracted attention
because of their potential to enhance the overall efficiency and throughput
performance when compared to traditional networks based on cells. However, the
performance of CF systems is degraded by imperfect channel state information
(CSI). To mitigate the detrimental effects of imperfect CSI, we employ rate
splitting (RS) - a multiple-access scheme. The RS approach divides the messages
of the users into two separate common and private portions so that interference
is managed robustly. Unlike prior works, where the impact of RS in CF systems
remains unexamined, we propose a CF architecture that employs RS with linear
precoders to address deteriorated CSI. We derive closed-form expressions to
compute the sum-rate performance of the proposed RS-CF architecture. Our
numerical experiments show that our RS-CF system outperforms existing systems
in terms of sum-rate, obtaining up to $10$% higher gain.
