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

Large-Scale MIMO Detection for 3GPP LTE: Algorithms and FPGA Implementations

Large-scale (or massive) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is expected to be one of the key technologies in next-generation multi-user cellular systems, based on the upcoming 3GPP LTE Release 12 standard, for example. In this work, we propose - to the best of our knowledge - the first VLSI design enabling high-throughput data detection in single-carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA)-based large-scale MIMO systems. We propose a new approximate matrix inversion algorithm relying on a Neumann series expansion, which substantially reduces the complexity of linear data detection. We analyze the associated error, and we compare its performance and complexity to those of an exact linear detector. We present corresponding VLSI architectures, which perform exact and approximate soft-output detection for large-scale MIMO systems with various antenna/user configurations. Reference implementation results for a Xilinx Virtex-7 XC7VX980T FPGA show that our designs are able to achieve more than 600 Mb/s for a 128 antenna, 8 user 3GPP LTE-based large-scale MIMO system. We finally provide a performance/complexity trade-off comparison using the presented FPGA designs, which reveals that the detector circuit of choice is determined by the ratio between BS antennas and users, as well as the desired error-rate performance.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processin

Energy Efficiency and Asymptotic Performance Evaluation of Beamforming Structures in Doubly Massive MIMO mmWave Systems

Future cellular systems based on the use of millimeter waves will heavily rely on the use of antenna arrays both at the transmitter and at the receiver. For complexity reasons and energy consumption issues, fully digital precoding and postcoding structures may turn out to be unfeasible, and thus suboptimal structures, making use of simplified hardware and a limited number of RF chains, have been investigated. This paper considers and makes a comparative assessment, both from a spectral efficiency and energy efficiency point of view, of several suboptimal precoding and postcoding beamforming structures for a cellular multiuser MIMO (MU-MIMO) system with large number of antennas. Analytical formulas for the asymptotic achievable spectral efficiency and for the global energy efficiency of several beamforming structures are derived in the large number of antennas regime. Using the most recently available data for the energy consumption of phase shifters and switches, we show that fully-digital beamformers may actually achieve a larger energy efficiency than lower-complexity solutions, as well as that low-complexity beam-steering purely analog beamforming may in some cases represent a good performance-complexity trade-off solution.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networkin