  Cell-Free (CF) Massive MIMO (mMIMO) is a technology which can potentially
augment not only the deployment of 5G, but also the deployment of beyond 5G
(B5G) wireless networks. However, the cost for rolling out such systems may be
significant. Radio stripes form a promising solution which offers the potential
of scalability at a reduced price. This paper investigates the uplink scenario
of a CF mMIMO system, implemented with a limited-capacity radio stripe which
integrates a novel arrangement of access points (APs), fully exploiting
macro-diversity benefits. We also analyze a heuristic Compare-and-Forward (CnF)
strategy, which, by comparing normalized linear minimum mean square error
(N-LMMSE) soft estimates, enables optimal dynamic cooperation clustering, thus
leading to a user-centric radio stripe network approach. Aiming at maximizing
the per-user uplink spectral efficiency (SE), we ensure that, under finite
capacity constraints, our solution can guarantee better performance than
existing radio stripe architectures, especially when system size increases.
