Soft Pilot Reuse and Multi-Cell Block Diagonalization Precoding for Massive MIMO Systems

The users at cell edge of a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system suffer from severe pilot contamination, which leads to poor quality of service (QoS). In order to enhance the QoS for these edge users, soft pilot reuse (SPR) combined with multi-cell block diagonalization (MBD) precoding are proposed. Specifically, the users are divided into two groups according to their large-scale fading coefficients, referred to as the center users, who only suffer from modest pilot contamination and the edge users, who suffer from severe pilot contamination. Based on this distinction, the SPR scheme is proposed for improving the QoS for the edge users, whereby a cell-center pilot group is reused for all cell-center users in all cells, while a cell-edge pilot group is applied for the edge users in the adjacent cells. By extending the classical block diagonalization precoding to a multi-cell scenario, the MBD precoding scheme projects the downlink transmit signal onto the null space of the subspace spanned by the inter-cell channels of the edge users in adjacent cells. Thus, the inter-cell interference contaminating the edge users' signals in the adjacent cells can be efficiently mitigated and hence the QoS of these edge users can be further enhanced. Our theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that both the uplink and downlink rates of the edge users are significantly improved, albeit at the cost of the slightly decreased rate of center users.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 201

Channel estimation for massive MIMO TDD systems assuming pilot contamination and flat fading

Channel estimation is crucial for massive massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to scale up multi-user (MU) MIMO, providing great improvement in spectral and energy efficiency. This paper presents a simple and practical channel estimator for multi-cell MU massive MIMO time division duplex (TDD) systems with pilot contamination in flat Rayleigh fading channels, i.e., the gains of the channels follow the Rayleigh distribution. We also assume uncorrelated antennas. The proposed estimator addresses performance under moderate to strong pilot contamination without previous knowledge of the cross-cell large-scale channel coefficients. This estimator performs asymptotically as well as the minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimator with respect to the number of antennas. An approximate analytical mean square error (MSE) expression is also derived for the proposed estimator

Channel estimation in massive MIMO systems

Last years were characterized by a great demand for high data throughput, good quality and spectral efficiency in wireless communication systems. Consequently, a revolution in cellular networks has been set in motion towards to 5G. Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is one of the new concepts in 5G and the idea is to scale up the known MIMO systems in unprecedented proportions, by deploying hundreds of antennas at base stations. Although, perfect channel knowledge is crucial in these systems for user and data stream separation in order to cancel interference. The most common way to estimate the channel is based on pilots. However, problems such as interference and pilot contamination (PC) can arise due to the multiplicity of channels in the wireless link. Therefore, it is crucial to define techniques for channel estimation that together with pilot contamination mitigation allow best system performance and at same time low complexity. This work introduces a low-complexity channel estimation technique based on Zadoff-Chu training sequences. In addition, different approaches were studied towards pilot contamination mitigation and low complexity schemes, with resort to iterative channel estimation methods, semi-blind subspace tracking techniques and matrix inversion substitutes. System performance simulations were performed for the several proposed techniques in order to identify the best tradeoff between complexity, spectral efficiency and system performance

Channel estimation for massive MIMO TDD systems assuming pilot contamination and flat fading

Channel estimation is crucial for massive massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to scale up multi-user (MU) MIMO, providing great improvement in spectral and energy efficiency. This paper presents a simple and practical channel estimator for multi-cell MU massive MIMO time division duplex (TDD) systems with pilot contamination in flat Rayleigh fading channels, i.e., the gains of the channels follow the Rayleigh distribution. We also assume uncorrelated antennas. The proposed estimator addresses performance under moderate to strong pilot contamination without previous knowledge of the cross-cell large-scale channel coefficients. This estimator performs asymptotically as well as the minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimator with respect to the number of antennas. An approximate analytical mean square error (MSE) expression is also derived for the proposed estimator201

Massive MIMO systems for 5G: a systematic mapping study on antenna design challenges and channel estimation open issues

The next generation of mobile networks (5G) is expected to achieve high data rates, reduce latency, as well as improve the spectral and energy efficiency of wireless communication systems. Several technologies are being explored to be used in 5G systems. One of the main promising technologies that is seen to be the enabler of 5G is massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) systems. Numerous studies have indicated the utility of mMIMO in upcoming wireless networks. However, there are several challenges that needs to be unravelled. In this paper, the latest progress of research on challenges in mMIMO systems is tracked, in the context of mutual coupling, antenna selection, pilot contamination and feedback overhead. The results of a systematic mapping study performed on 63 selected primary studies, published between the year 2017 till the second quarter of 2020, are presented. The main objective of this secondary study is to identify the challenges regarding antenna design and channel estimation, give an overview on the state-of-the-art solutions proposed in the literature, and finally, discuss emerging open research issues that need to be considered before the implementation of mMIMO systems in 5G networks

An overview of transmission theory and techniques of large-scale antenna systems for 5G wireless communications

To meet the future demand for huge traffic volume of wireless data service, the research on the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication systems has been undertaken in recent years. It is expected that the spectral and energy efficiencies in 5G mobile communication systems should be ten-fold higher than the ones in the fourth generation (4G) mobile communication systems. Therefore, it is important to further exploit the potential of spatial multiplexing of multiple antennas. In the last twenty years, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna techniques have been considered as the key techniques to increase the capacity of wireless communication systems. When a large-scale antenna array (which is also called massive MIMO) is equipped in a base-station, or a large number of distributed antennas (which is also called large-scale distributed MIMO) are deployed, the spectral and energy efficiencies can be further improved by using spatial domain multiple access. This paper provides an overview of massive MIMO and large-scale distributed MIMO systems, including spectral efficiency analysis, channel state information (CSI) acquisition, wireless transmission technology, and resource allocation

Advanced Channel Estimation Techniques for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Multi-Carrier Systems in Doubly-Dispersive Channels

Flexible numerology of the physical layer has been introduced in the latest release of 5G new radio (NR) and the baseline waveform generation is chosen to be cyclic-prefix based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM). Thanks to the narrow subcarrier spacing and low complexity one tap equalization (EQ) of OFDM, it suits well to time-dispersive channels. For the upcoming 5G and beyond use-case scenarios, it is foreseen that the users might experience high mobility conditions. While the frame structure of the 5G NR is designed for long coherence times, the synchronization and channel estimation (CE) procedures are not fully and reliably covered for diverse applications. The research on alternative multi-carrier waveforms has brought up valuable results in terms of spectral efficiency, applications coexistence and flexibility. Nevertheless, the receiver design becomes more challenging for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) non-orthogonal multi-carriers because the receiver must deal with multiple dimensions of interference. This thesis aims to deliver accurate pilot-aided estimations of the wireless channel for coherent detection. Considering a MIMO non-orthogonal multi-carrier, e.g. generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), we initially derive the classical and Bayesian estimators for rich multi-path fading channels, where we theoretically assess the choice of pilot design. Moreover, the well time- and frequency-localization of the pilots in non-orthogonal multi-carriers allows to reuse their energy from cyclic-prefix (CP). Taking advantage of this feature, we derive an iterative approach for joint CE and EQ of MIMO systems. Furthermore, exploiting the block-circularity of GFDM, we comprehensively analyze the complexity aspects, and propose a solution for low complexity implementation. Assuming very high mobility use-cases where the channel varies within the symbol duration, further considerations, particularly the channel coherence time must be taken into account. A promising candidate that is fully independent of the multi-carrier choice is unique word (UW) transmission, where the CP of random nature is replaced by a deterministic sequence. This feature, allows per-block synchronization and channel estimation for robust transmission over extremely doubly-dispersive channels. In this thesis, we propose a novel approach to extend the UW-based physical layer design to MIMO systems and we provide an in-depth study of their out-of-band emission, synchronization, CE and EQ procedures. Via theoretical derivations and simulation results, and comparisons with respect to the state-of-the-art CP-OFDM systems, we show that the proposed UW-based frame design facilitates robust transmission over extremely doubly-dispersive channels.:1 Introduction 1 1.1 Multi-Carrier Waveforms 1 1.2 MIMO Systems 3 1.3 Contributions and Thesis Structure 4 1.4 Notations 6 2 State-of-the-art and Fundamentals 9 2.1 Linear Systems and Problem Statement 9 2.2 GFDM Modulation 11 2.3 MIMO Wireless Channel 12 2.4 Classical and Bayesian Channel Estimation in MIMO OFDM Systems 15 2.5 UW-Based Transmission in SISO Systems 17 2.6 Summary 19 3 Channel Estimation for MIMO Non-Orthogonal Waveforms 21 3.1 Classical and Bayesian Channel Estimation in MIMO GFDM Systems 22 3.1.1 MIMO LS Channel Estimation 23 3.1.2 MIMO LMMSE Channel Estimation 24 3.1.3 Simulation Results 25 3.2 Basic Pilot Designs for GFDM Channel Estimation 29 3.2.1 LS/HM Channel Estimation 31 3.2.2 LMMSE Channel Estimation for GFDM 32 3.2.3 Error Characterization 33 3.2.4 Simulation Results 36 3.3 Interference-Free Pilot Insertion for MIMO GFDM Channel Estimation 39 3.3.1 Interference-Free Pilot Insertion 39 3.3.2 Pilot Observation 40 3.3.3 Complexity 41 3.3.4 Simulation Results 41 3.4 Bayesian Pilot- and CP-aided Channel Estimation in MIMO NonOrthogonal Multi-Carriers 45 3.4.1 Review on System Model 46 3.4.2 Single-Input-Single-Output Systems 47 3.4.3 Extension to MIMO 50 3.4.4 Application to GFDM 51 3.4.5 Joint Channel Estimation and Equalization via LMMSE Parallel Interference Cancellation 57 3.4.6 Complexity Analysis 61 3.4.7 Simulation Results 61 3.5 Pilot- and CP-aided Channel Estimation in Time-Varying Scenarios 67 3.5.1 Adaptive Filtering based on Wiener-Hopf Approac 68 3.5.2 Simulation Results 69 3.6 Summary 72 4 Design of UW-Based Transmission for MIMO Multi-Carriers 73 4.1 Frame Design, Efficiency and Overhead Analysis 74 4.1.1 Illustrative Scenario 74 4.1.2 CP vs. UW Efficiency Analysis 76 4.1.3 Numerical Results 77 4.2 Sequences for UW and OOB Radiation 78 4.2.1 Orthogonal Polyphase Sequences 79 4.2.2 Waveform Engineering for UW Sequences combined with GFDM 79 4.2.3 Simulation Results for OOB Emission of UW-GFDM 81 4.3 Synchronization 82 4.3.1 Transmission over a Centralized MIMO Wireless Channel 82 4.3.2 Coarse Time Acquisition 83 4.3.3 CFO Estimation and Removal 85 4.3.4 Fine Time Acquisition 86 4.3.5 Simulation Results 88 4.4 Channel Estimation 92 4.4.1 MIMO UW-based LMMSE CE 92 4.4.2 Adaptive Filtering 93 4.4.3 Circular UW Transmission 94 4.4.4 Simulation Results 95 4.5 Equalization with Imperfect Channel Knowledge 96 4.5.1 UW-Free Equalization 97 4.5.2 Simulation Results 99 4.6 Summary 102 5 Conclusions and Perspectives 103 5.1 Main Outcomes in Short 103 5.2 Open Challenges 105 A Complementary Materials 107 A.1 Linear Algebra Identities 107 A.2 Proof of lower triangular Toeplitz channel matrix being defective 108 A.3 Calculation of noise-plus-interference covariance matrix for Pilot- and CPaided CE 108 A.4 Bock diagonalization of the effective channel for GFDM 109 A.5 Detailed complexity analysis of Sec. 3.4 109 A.6 CRLB derivations for the pdf (4.24) 113 A.7 Proof that (4.45) emulates a circular CIR at the receiver 11