Interference-Alignment and Soft-Space-Reuse Based Cooperative Transmission for Multi-cell Massive MIMO Networks

As a revolutionary wireless transmission strategy, interference alignment (IA) can improve the capacity of the cell-edge users. However, the acquisition of the global channel state information (CSI) for IA leads to unacceptable overhead in the massive MIMO systems. To tackle this problem, in this paper, we propose an IA and soft-space-reuse (IA-SSR) based cooperative transmission scheme under the two-stage precoding framework. Specifically, the cell-center and the cell-edge users are separately treated to fully exploit the spatial degrees of freedoms (DoF). Then, the optimal power allocation policy is developed to maximize the sum-capacity of the network. Next, a low-cost channel estimator is designed for the proposed IA-SSR framework. Some practical issues in IA-SSR implementation are also discussed. Finally, plenty of numerical results are presented to show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication

Harvest the potential of massive MIMO with multi-layer techniques

Massive MIMO is envisioned as a promising technology for 5G wireless networks due to its high potential to improve both spectral and energy efficiency. Although the massive MIMO system is based on innovations in the physical layer, the upper layer techniques also play important roles in harvesting the performance gains of massive MIMO. In this article, we begin with an analysis of the benefits and challenges of massive MIMO systems. We then investigate the multi-layer techniques for incorporating massive MIMO in several important network deployment scenarios. We conclude this article with a discussion of open and potential problems for future research.Comment: IEEE Networ

Enabling Covariance-Based Feedback in Massive MIMO: A User Classification Approach

In this paper, we propose a novel channel feedback scheme for frequency division duplexing massive multi-input multi-output systems. The concept uses the notion of user statistical separability which was hinted in several prior works in the massive antenna regime but not fully exploited so far. We here propose a hybrid statistical-instantaneous feedback scheme based on a user classification mechanism where the classification metric derives from a rate bound analysis. According to classification results, a user either operates on a statistical feedback mode or instantaneous mode. Our results illustrate the sum rate advantages of our scheme under a global feedback overhead constraint.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, conference paper, 2018 Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computer

A Covariance-Based Hybrid Channel Feedback in FDD Massive MIMO Systems

In this paper, a novel covariance-based channel feedback mechanism is investigated for frequency division duplexing (FDD) massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems. The concept capitalizes on the notion of user statistical separability which was hinted in several prior works in the massive antenna regime but not fully exploited so far. We here propose a hybrid statistical-instantaneous feedback mechanism where the users are separated into two classes of feedback design based on their channel covariance. Under the hybrid framework, each user either operates on a statistical feedback mode or quantized instantaneous channel feedback mode depending on their so-called statistical isolability. The key challenge lies in the design of a covariance-aware classification algorithm which can handle the complex mutual interactions between all users. The classification is derived from rate bound principles. A suitable precoding method is also devised under the mixed statistical and instantaneous feedback model. Simulations are performed to validate our analytical results and illustrate the sum rate advantages of the proposed feedback scheme under a global feedback overhead constraint.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure

A Generalized Framework on Beamformer Design and CSI Acquisition for Single-Carrier Massive MIMO Systems in Millimeter Wave Channels

In this paper, we establish a general framework on the reduced dimensional channel state information (CSI) estimation and pre-beamformer design for frequency-selective massive multiple-input multiple-output MIMO systems employing single-carrier (SC) modulation in time division duplex (TDD) mode by exploiting the joint angle-delay domain channel sparsity in millimeter (mm) wave frequencies. First, based on a generic subspace projection taking the joint angle-delay power profile and user-grouping into account, the reduced rank minimum mean square error (RR-MMSE) instantaneous CSI estimator is derived for spatially correlated wideband MIMO channels. Second, the statistical pre-beamformer design is considered for frequency-selective SC massive MIMO channels. We examine the dimension reduction problem and subspace (beamspace) construction on which the RR-MMSE estimation can be realized as accurately as possible. Finally, a spatio-temporal domain correlator type reduced rank channel estimator, as an approximation of the RR-MMSE estimate, is obtained by carrying out least square (LS) estimation in a proper reduced dimensional beamspace. It is observed that the proposed techniques show remarkable robustness to the pilot interference (or contamination) with a significant reduction in pilot overhead

Channel Estimation in Massive MIMO Systems

We introduce novel blind and semi-blind channel estimation methods for cellular time-division duplexing systems with a large number of antennas at each base station. The methods are based on the maximum a-posteriori principle given a prior for the distribution of the channel vectors and the received signals from the uplink training and data phases. Contrary to the state-of-the-art massive MIMO channel estimators which either perform linear estimation based on the pilot symbols or rely on a blind principle, the proposed semi-blind method efficiently suppresses most of the interference caused by pilot-contamination. The simulative analysis illustrates that the semi-blind estimator outperforms state- of-the-art linear and non-linear approaches to the massive MIMO channel estimation problem

Codebook Design for Channel Feedback in Lens-Based Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO Systems

The number of radio frequency (RF) chains can be reduced through beam selection in lens-based millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive MIMO systems, where the equivalent channel between RF chains and multiple users is required at the BS to achieve the multi-user multiplexing gain. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no dedicated codebook for the equivalent channel feedback in such systems. In this paper, we propose the dimension-reduced subspace codebook, which achieves a significant reduction of the feedback overhead and codebook size. Specifically, we firstly utilize the limited scattering property of mmWave channels to generate the high-dimensional vectors in the channel subspace. Then, according to the function of lens and beam selector, we propose the dimension-reduced subspace codebook to quantize the equivalent channel vector.Moreover, the performance analysis of the proposed codebook is also provided.Finally, simulation results show the superior performance of the proposed dimension-reduced subspace codebook compared with conventional codebooks.Comment: Submitted to SPL for publicatio

Joint Spatial Division and Multiplexing

We propose Joint Spatial Division and Multiplexing (JSDM), an approach to multiuser MIMO downlink that exploits the structure of the correlation of the channel vectors in order to allow for a large number of antennas at the base station while requiring reduced-dimensional Channel State Information at the Transmitter (CSIT). This allows for significant savings both in the downlink training and in the CSIT feedback from the user terminals to the base station, thus making the use of a large number of base station antennas potentially suitable also for Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) systems, for which uplink/downlink channel reciprocity cannot be exploited. JSDM forms the multiuser MIMO downlink precoder by concatenating a pre-beamforming matrix, which depends only on the channel second-order statistics, with a classical multiuser precoder, based on the instantaneous knowledge of the resulting reduced dimensional effective channels. We prove a simple condition under which JSDM incurs no loss of optimality with respect to the full CSIT case. For linear uniformly spaced arrays, we show that such condition is closely approached when the number of antennas is large. For this case, we use Szego asymptotic theory of large Toeplitz matrices to design a DFT-based pre-beamforming scheme requiring only coarse information about the users angles of arrival and angular spread. Finally, we extend these ideas to the case of a two-dimensional base station antenna array, with 3-dimensional beamforming, including multiple beams in the elevation angle direction. We provide guidelines for the pre-beamforming optimization and calculate the system spectral efficiency under proportional fairness and maxmin fairness criteria, showing extremely attractive performance. Our numerical results are obtained via an asymptotic random matrix theory tool known as deterministic equivalent approximation.Comment: 10 figure

Multi-User Flexible Coordinated Beamforming using Lattice Reduction for Massive MIMO Systems

The application of precoding algorithms in multi-user massive multiple-input multiple-output (MU-Massive-MIMO) systems is restricted by the dimensionality constraint that the number of transmit antennas has to be greater than or equal to the total number of receive antennas. In this paper, a lattice reduction (LR)-aided flexible coordinated beamforming (LR-FlexCoBF) algorithm is proposed to overcome the dimensionality constraint in overloaded MU-Massive-MIMO systems. A random user selection scheme is integrated with the proposed LR-FlexCoBF to extend its application to MU-Massive-MIMO systems with arbitary overloading levels. Simulation results show that significant improvements in terms of bit error rate (BER) and sum-rate performances can be achieved by the proposed LR-FlexCoBF precoding algorithm.Comment: 5 figures, Eusipc

Efficient Downlink Channel Probing and Uplink Feedback in FDD Massive MIMO Systems

Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (massive MIMO) is a variant of multi-user MIMO in which the number of antennas at each Base Station (BS) is very large and typically much larger than the number of users simultaneously served. Massive MIMO can be implemented with Time Division Duplexing (TDD) or Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) operation. FDD massive MIMO systems are particularly desirable due to their implementation in current wireless networks and their efficiency in situations with symmetric traffic and delay-sensitive applications. However, implementing FDD massive MIMO systems is known to be challenging since it imposes a large feedback overhead in the Uplink (UL) to obtain channel state information for the Downlink (DL). In recent years, a considerable amount of research is dedicated to developing methods to reduce the feedback overhead in such systems. In this paper, we use the sparse spatial scattering properties of the environment to achieve this goal. The idea is to estimate the support of the continuous, frequency-invariant scattering function from UL channel observations and use this estimate to obtain the support of the DL channel vector via appropriate interpolation. We use the resulting support estimate to design an efficient DL probing and UL feedback scheme in which the feedback dimension scales proportionally with the sparsity order of DL channel vectors. Since the sparsity order is much less than the number of BS antennas in almost all practically relevant scenarios, our method incurs much less feedback overhead compared with the currently proposed methods in the literature, such as those based on compressed-sensing. We use numerical simulations to assess the performance of our probing-feedback algorithm and compare it with these methods.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figure