Low-complexity channel estimation in large-scale MIMO using polynomial expansion

This paper reports on investigations into the effects of spatial correlation on channel estimation and capacity of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system. Minimum mean square error (MMSE) method is applied for channel estimation under a correlated channel scenario. Simulation results for a 4 times 4 MIMO system with the Jakes model describing a channel between a base station and a mobile station demonstrate a trade-off between the effects of spatial correlation, channel estimation and capacity. For low values of signal to noise ratio (SNR), spatial correlation decreases channel estimation errors and improves capacity. For high values of SNR, spatial correlation has a less pronounced effect on improving channel estimation and thus the MIMO capacity is adversely affected by the decreased channel matrix rank.

Large‐scale multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) system is considered one of promising technologies to realise next‐generation wireless communication system (5G). So far, channel estimation problem is a big obstacle to develop large‐scale MIMO system design due to high computational complexity and curse of dimensionality, which are caused by the long delay spread as well as a large number of antennas. Hence, devising any low‐complexity channel estimation method could promote the successful development of the large‐scale MIMO system. Due to the fact that, large‐scale MIMO channels often exhibit sparse or/and cluster‐sparse structure, in this study, the authors propose an effective low‐complexity large‐scale MIMO channel estimation method by using affine combination of sparse adaptive filtering filters. First, problem formulation and standard affine combination of adaptive least mean square (LMS) filters are introduced. Then they propose an effective affine combination method with two sparse LMS filters and design an approximate optimum affine combiner according to stochastic gradient search method. Later, to verify the proposed algorithm for large‐scale MIMO channel estimation, both theoretical analysis and numerical simulations are provided to confirm effectiveness of the proposed algorithm which can achieve better estimation performance than the traditional methods.

In recent years, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, which use several transmit and receive antennas, have attracted much attention for high performance radio systems. In MIMO systems, the channel estimation is important to distinguish transmit signals from multiple transmit antennas. While the space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm is known to offer good channel estimation and data detection. We proposed earlier the minimum mean square error (MMSE)-based SAGE algorithm for MIMO systems where the MMSE estimation is used for channel estimation. We showed that the proposed MMSE-based SAGE algorithm can achieve the better bit error rate (BER) than the maximum likelihood (ML) detection with training symbols. The MMSE channel estimation needs the knowledge of the maximum Doppler frequency F <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">d</sub> for deriving the covariance matrix of the channel and the variance sigma <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Additionally, the computation of the MMSE channel estimation requires O(L <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> ) operations where L is the transmitted frame length. Thus, its computational complexity is high. In this paper, we propose a zero-forcing (ZF)-based SAGE algorithm for channel estimation and data detection in MIMO systems that does not need the knowledge of Fd and sigma <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Since the computation of the proposed ZF-based SAGE algorithm requires O(N <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> ) operations where N is the number of transmit antennas, its computational complexity is low. We show that the proposed ZF-based tracking SAGE algorithm with less computational complexity can achieve almost the same BER as that of the MMSE-based tracking SAGE algorithm

In this paper, we propose a joint channel estimation and symbol detection (JCESD) algorithm relying on message-passing algorithms (MPA) for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems. The channel estimation and symbol detection leverage the framework of expectation propagation (EP) and belief propagation (BP) with the aid of Gaussian approximation, respectively. Furthermore, to reduce the computation complexity involved in channel estimation, the matrix inversion is transformed into a series of diagonal matrix inversions through the Sherman-Morrison formula. Simulation experiments show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the pilot overhead by about 50%, compared with the traditional linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) algorithm, and can approach to the bit error rate (BER) performance bound of perfectly known channel state information within 0.1 dB.

After a few decades’ evolution of wireless communication systems, to ensure reliable highspeed communication over unreliable wireless channels is still one of the major challenges facing researchers and engineers. The use of multiple antennas at transmitter and receiver, known as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications, is one promising technology delivering desired wireless services. The main goal of this thesis is to study two important issues in wireless MIMO communication systems: receiver design for coded MIMO systems, and diversity-multiplexing tradeoff analysis in general fading channels. In the first part of this thesis, we decompose the receiver design problem into two subproblems: MIMO channel estimation and MIMO detection. For the MIMO channel estimation, we develop an expectation-maximization (EM) based semi-blind channel and noise covariance matrix estimation algorithm for space-time coding systems under spatially correlated noise. By incorporating the proposed channel estimator into the iterative receiver structure, both the channel estimation and the error-control decoding are improved significantly. We also derive the modified Cramer-Rao bounds (MCRB) for the unknown parameters as the channel estimation performance metric, and demonstrate that the proposed channel estimation algorithm can achieve the MCRB after several iterations. For the MIMO detection, we propose a novel lowcomplexity MIMO detection algorithm, which has only cubic order computational complexity, but with near-optimal performance. For a 4×4 turbo-coded system, we show that the proposed detector had the same performance as the maximum a posteriori (MAP) detector for BPSK modulation, and 0.1 dB advantage over the approximated MAP detector (list sphere decoding algorithm) for 16-QAM modulation at BER = 10−4. In the second part of this thesis, we derive the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff for

Optimal linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) transceiver design techniques are proposed for Bayesian learning (BL)-based sparse parameter vector estimation in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless sensor network (WSN). Our proposed transceiver designs rely on majorization theory and hyperparameter estimates obtained from the BL module for minimizing the mean square error (MSE) of parameter estimation at the fusion center (FC). The linear transceiver design framework is initially proposed for the general scenario with arbitrary SNR sensor observations, followed by a special case with high-SNR sensor observations scenario. Our analysis also incorporates the channel correlation. The MMSE channel estimates are determined for the sensors (SNs), followed by a robust transceiver design procedure that is resilient to the channel state information (CSI) uncertainty arising due to the channel estimation error, an aberration that is unavoidable in practical implementations. Our simulation results demonstrate the improved performance of the proposed BL framework and optimal MMSE transceiver design in sparse parameter estimation relyingon realistic imperfect channel estimates over the benchmarks.

Channel estimation is crucial for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to scale up multi-user MIMO, providing significant improvement in spectral and energy efficiency. In this paper, we present a simple and practical channel estimator for multipath multi-cell massive MIMO time division duplex systems with pilot contamination, which poses significant challenges to channel estimation. The proposed estimator addresses performance under moderate to strong pilot contamination without previous knowledge of the inter-cell large-scale fading coefficients and noise power. Additionally, we derive and assess an approximate analytical mean square error (MSE) expression for the proposed channel estimator. We show through simulations that the proposed estimator performs asymptotically as well as the minimum MSE estimator with respect to the number of antennas and multipath coefficients.

This paper deals with optimized Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) channel estimation and ensuing information throughput conveyed by pilot-based multi-antenna systems affected by both spatially colored Multiple Access Interference (MUI) and errors in the available channel estimates. The architecture of the Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) MIMO channel estimator is derived and the related analytical conditions for the optimal design of space-time training sequences are provided. Afterwards, closed form expressions for the maximum information throughput sustained by the considered systems for Gaussian distributed input signals are given and, then, a novel powers’ allocation algorithm for the asymptotical achievement of the system capacity is developed. Considerations about optimized space-division MAC strategies are also provided.

Massive multiple-input, multiple-output (M-MIMO) is an important knowledge for fifth-generation (5G) wireless cellular networks. The pilot contamination (PC) is an issue in massive MIMO due to interference between adjacent cells. We proposed that the number of pilot sequence inside a cell could become smaller than or equal to the number of users (UEs), taking into account the different number of UEs that transmitted the same pilot sequence in the same cell. In addition, the pilot sequence became mutually orthogonal for different cells to prevent PC among cells. In this paper, we analyzed a channel estimation for time division duplex (TDD) and improved the achievable data rate by reducing the PC for limiting user capacity and using channel orthogonality for minimum mean square error (MMSE) precoding. From the simulation results, the proposed scheme provided a data rate for two several situations, with and without interference PC for an increased number of antennas. Consequently, increasing the number of coherence intervals made the channel estimation critical and provided a small data rate due to increased noise and interference at increased transmit pilot sequence.

This work examines the use of two-way training to efficiently discriminate the channel estimation performances at a legitimate receiver (LR) and an unauthorized receiver (UR) in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless system. This work improves upon the original discriminatory channel estimation (DCE) scheme proposed by Chang where multiple stages of feedback and retraining were used. While most studies on physical layer secrecy are under the information-theoretic framework and focus directly on the data transmission phase, studies on DCE focus on the training phase and aim to provide a practical signal processing technique to discriminate between the channel estimation performances (and, thus, the effective received signal qualities) at LR and UR. A key feature of DCE designs is the insertion of artificial noise (AN) in the training signal to degrade the channel estimation performance at UR. To do so, AN must be placed in a carefully chosen subspace, based on the transmitter's knowledge of LR's channel, in order to minimize its effect on LR. In this paper, we adopt the idea of two-way training that allows both the transmitter and LR to send training signals to facilitate channel estimation at both ends. Both reciprocal and nonreciprocal channels are considered and a two-way DCE scheme is proposed for each scenario. For mathematical tractability, we assume that all terminals employ the linear minimum mean square error criterion for channel estimation. Based on the mean square error (MSE) of the channel estimates at all terminals, we formulate and solve an optimization problem where the optimal power allocation between the training signal and AN is found by minimizing the MSE of LR's channel estimate subject to a constraint on the MSE achievable at UR. Numerical results show that the proposed DCE schemes can effectively discriminate between the channel estimation and, hence, the data detection performances at LR and UR.

With the increasing rate of wireless devices and high bandwidth operations, wireless networking and communications are becoming over crowded. To cope with such crowded and messy situation, massive MIMO is designed to work with hundreds of low-cost serving antennas at a time as well as improve the spectral efficiency at the same time. Time Division Duplexing (TDD) has been used for gaining beamforming which is a major part of massive MIMO, to gain its best improvement to transmit and receive pilot sequences. All the benefits are only possible if the channel state information or channel estimation is gained properly. Least Square (LS), Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) and Linear Minimum Mean Square Error (LMMSE) are the estimators commonly used for estimating channel matrices. We have optimized these methods using genetic algorithm to minimize the mean squared error and finding the best channel matrix from existing algorithms with less computational complexity. Our simulation result has shown that the use of Genetic Algorithm (GA) worked well on existing algorithms in a Rayleigh slow fading channel and existence of Additive White Gaussian Noise. We found that the GA optimized LS is better than existing algorithms. GA provides optimal result in some few iterations in terms of Mean Square Error (MSE) with respect to SNRand computational complexity.

Channel estimation and data detection schemes for Orthogonal Time Frequency Space massive MIMO systems

This paper considers the design of a practical low-density parity check (LDPC)-coded multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system composed of M transmit and N receive antennas operating in a flat-fading environment where channel state information (CSI) is assumed to be unavailable both to the transmitter and the receiver. A soft iterative receiver structure is developed, which consists of three main blocks: a soft MIMO detector and two LDPC component soft decoders. We first propose at the component level several soft-input soft-output MIMO detectors whose performances are much better than the conventional minimal mean square error (MMSE)-based detectors. In particular, one optimal soft MIMO detector and two simplified suboptimal detectors are developed that do not require an explicit channel estimate and offer an effective tradeoff between complexity and performance. In addition, a modified expectation maximization (EM)-based MIMO detector is developed that completely removes positive feedback between input and output extrinsic information and provides much better performance compared with the direct EM-based detector that has strong correlations especially in fast-fading channels. At the structural level, the LDPC-coded MIMO receiver is constructed in an unconventional manner where the soft MIMO detector and LDPC variable node decoder form one super soft-decoding unit, and the LDPC check node decoder forms the other component of the iterative decoding scheme. By exploiting the proposed receiver structure, tractable extrinsic information transfer functions of the component soft decoders are obtained, which further lead to a simple and efficient LDPC code degree profile optimization algorithm with proven global optimality and guaranteed convergence from any initialization. Finally, numerical and simulation results are provided to confirm the advantages of the proposed design approach for the coded MIMO system.

This paper proposes a new precoding approach that utilizes two-dimension (2D) Angle of Arrival (AOA) based precoding (beamforming) approach for multi-cell massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (m-MIMO) systems. The proposed approach enhances the performance of m-MIMO systems by overcoming pilot contamination that is caused by corrupted Channel State Information. It exploits the spatial properties of the propagated signals to distinguish between various users in the multi-cell m-MIMO system and selects the partial space for beamforming based on AOA information to suppress inter-cell and intra-cell interference. We mathematically analyze the impact of pilot contamination in the uplink training and determine the closed-form approximation of uplink Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) estimator. By using MMSE estimator as well as 2D AOA and channel estimation, a corresponding MMSE precoding which minimizes the effect of pilot contamination and improves the downlink achievable rate of the system is proposed. Furthermore, a comparison is made of the resolution between the various 2D AOA estimations for an m-MIMO and the optimum values closest bound for the proposed precoding was chosen to reduce pilot contamination. The performance of the proposed MMSE precoding based on 2D AOA estimation methods: 2D Unitary Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Techniques (2D UESPRIT), 2D Fourier Domain Line Search MUSIC (2D FDLSM), and 2D Propagator Method (2D PM)) were evaluated and compared with pilot contaminated system and deterministic MMSE precoding in terms of their respective achievable rate. Simulation results reveal that the achievable sum rate gains of 2D UESPRIT, 2D FDLSM, and 2D PM based precoding which achieved 97.6%, 92.4%, 86.3% of the desired deterministic performance, respectively, compared to pilot contaminated system, which achieved only 90% even when in the best case of having only one contaminated user out of all users within the activated cell. Findings from our research indicate the feasibility of utilizing the AOA based beamforming to reduce pilot contamination effect that is inherent in a larger order m-MIMO system for the Fifth Generation (5G) wireless transmissions.

Multipath channels often exhibit sparse structures in multicarrier underwater acoustic (MC-UWA) communication systems. Conventional linear channel estimators, such as least squares (LS) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) are considered as optimal solutions under the assumption of rich multipath. However, they often result in low spectral efficiency due to neglect of the sparsity in multipath channels. In this paper, we propose a novel sparse channel estimation method with compressive sensing. The proposed estimator has better estimation performance and low complexity when compared with the LS estimator. Simulations verified the proposed method with respect to the mean square error (MSE) and the computational complexity. Key words: Underwater acoustic (UWA), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), sparse multipath, compressive sensing (CS), sparse channel estimator.