The Downlink Performance for Cell-Free Massive MIMO with Instantaneous CSI in Slowly Time-Varying Channels

In centralized massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, the channel hardening phenomenon can occur, in which the channel behaves as almost fully deterministic as the number of antennas increases. Nevertheless, in a cell-free massive MIMO system, the channel is less deterministic. In this paper, we propose using instantaneous channel state information (CSI) instead of statistical CSI to obtain the power control coefficient in cell-free massive MIMO. Access points (APs) and user equipment (UE) have sufficient time to obtain instantaneous CSI in a slowly time-varying channel environment. We derive the achievable downlink rate under instantaneous CSI for frequency division duplex (FDD) cell-free massive MIMO systems and apply the results to the power control coefficients. For FDD systems, quantized channel coefficients are proposed to reduce feedback overhead. The simulation results show that the spectral efficiency performance when using instantaneous CSI is approximately three times higher than that achieved using statistical CSI.     

A low complexity burst channel estimation algorithm for FDD massive MIMO systems

To fully attain array gains of massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and its energy and spectral efficiency, deriving channel state information (CSI) at the base station (BS) side is essential. However, CSI estimation of frequency-division duplex (FDD) based massive MIMO is a challenging task owning to the required pilots, which are proportional to the number of antennas at the BS side. Therefore, the pilot overhead should be inevitably mitigated in the process of downlink channel estimation of FDD technique. In this paper, we propose a novel compressed sensing (CS) algorithm which takes advantage of correlation between the received and transmitted signals to estimate the channel with high precision, and moreover, to reduce the computational complexity imposed on the BS side. The main idea behind the proposed algorithm is to sort the specific number of maximum correlations as a common support in each iteration of the algorithm. Simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm is capable of estimating downlink channel better than the counterpart algorithms in terms of mean square error (MSE) and the computational complexity. Meanwhile, the complexity of the proposed method linearly grows up when the number of BS antennas increases.     

On superimposed pilot for channel estimation in massive MIMO uplink

In this paper, we consider the uplink (UL) of multiuser multi-cell massive MIMO systems, and present a transmission-efficient channel estimation technique by using time-superimposed (TS) pilots, where pilots are superimposed onto data symbols in time domain. In large-antenna regime, we mathematically characterize the UL achievable rate of massive MIMO as a closed-form expression. Concerning the asymptotic case, we show that the UL achievable rate is a monotonically increasing function of pilot power, and also depends on the time allocation between pilot and data. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed design in comparison with both the conventional TS and time-multiplexed pilots.     

Deep learning assisted time-varying channel estimation in multi-user mmWave hybrid MIMO systems

Hybrid analog/digital multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system is proposed to mitigate the challenges of millimeter wave (mmWave) communication. This architecture enables utilizing the large array gain with reasonable power consumption. However, new methods are required for the channel estimation problem of hybrid architecture-based systems due to the fewer number of radio frequency (RF) chains than antenna elements. Leveraging the sparse nature of the mmWave channels, compressed sensing (CS)-based channel estimation methods are proposed. Recently, machine learning (ML)-aided methods have been investigated to improve the channel estimation performance. Additionally, the Doppler effect should be considered for the high mobility scenarios, and we deal with the time-varying channel model. Therefore, in this article, we consider the scenario of time-varying channels for a multi-user mmWave hybrid MIMO system. By proposing a Deep Neural Network (DNN) and defining the inputs and outputs, we introduce a novel algorithm called Deep Learning Assisted Angle Estimation (DLA-AE) for improving the estimation of the Angles of Departure/Arrival (AoDs/AoAs) of the channel paths. In addition, we suggest Linear Phase Interpolation (LPI) to acquire the path gains for the data transmission instants. Simulation results show that utilizing the proposed DLA-AE and LPI methods enhance the time-varying channel estimation accuracy with low computational complexity.     

Doubly selective channel estimation and equalization based on ICI/ISI mitigation for OQAM-FBMC systems

Over a doubly selective channel, broadband transmission systems face challenges in channel estimation and equalization. High mobility causes inter-carrier interference (ICI), while multipath transmission induces inter-symbol interference (ISI). In this paper, we present a mitigation method of ICI/ISI for the offset quadrature amplitude-modulated filter bank multi-carrier (OQAM-FBMC) system. It features low inherent imaginary interference (IMI) sensitivity and high efficiency. Specifically, a pilot indices optimization algorithm and a sparse adaptive orthogonal subspace pursuit (SAOSP) algorithm are presented based on the 2-D channel modeling scheme. The guard pilots are first added to mitigate the effect of ICI. Then the index optimization and SAOSP algorithms are applied to achieve a high-accuracy estimation of sparse channel coefficients. In addition, a threshold judgment suboptimal minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalization method is presented based on the variability of the interference power. The method uses normalized interference power thresholds to estimate the ISI dimension and reduce the equalization data, thus mitigating the effect of ISI and achieving efficient equalization. To verify the above methods, single-input-single-output (SISO) and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) models are built. Simulation results indicate a 3-5 dB improvement in channel estimation accuracy. The suboptimal MMSE equalization results are close to the optimal MMSE with about four orders of magnitude reduction in complexity.     

Rate analysis of ZF receiver for uplink cell-free massive MIMO systems with D2D communications

This paper proposes a transmission structure of zero forcing (ZF) receiver for uplink cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with device-to-device (D2D) communications, followed by a rate analysis. We assumed that D2D users (DUEs) can utilize orthogonal radio resources to improve the efficiency of the scarce utilization or repurpose the time–frequency-spectrum resources currently used by the cell-free users (CFUEs). Assuming that the imperfect channel state information (CSI) is realizable, after that, the use-and-forget bounding technique is then used to respectively obtain the closed-form expressions of the CFUEs and DUEs, which provide the lower bounds on the ergodic approximate realizable rate of both communication links. First, we calculate the minimum-mean-square error (MMSE) estimation for all channels. Then, the derived results of the achievable uplink sum rate provide us with a tool that enables us to explain how some important parameters, such as the number of access points (APs)/CFUEs, each AP/CFUE/antenna, and the density of DUEs, affect system performance, highlighting the significance of cooperation between cell-free massive MIMO and D2D communication.     

Performance enhancement in the cell-free massive MIMO SWIPT system with active eavesdropping

This paper investigates the secure transmission for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in the cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. To develop green communication, legitimate users harvest energy by the hybrid time switching (TS) and power splitting (PS) strategy in the downlink phase, and the harvested energy can provide power to send uplink pilot sequences for the next time slot. By in-built batteries, the active eavesdropper can send the same pilots with the wiretapped user, which results in undesirable correlations between the channel estimates. Under these scenarios, we derive the closed-form expressions of average harvested energy and achievable rates, and propose an iterative power control (PC) scheme based on max–min fairness algorithm with energy and secrecy constraints (MMF-ESC). This scheme can ensure the uniform good services for all users preserving the distributed architecture advantage of cell-free networks, while meeting the requirements of energy harvested by legitimate users and network security against active eavesdroppers. Besides, continuous approximation, bisection and path tracking are jointly applied to cope with the high-complexity and non-convex optimization. Numerical results demonstrate that MMF-ESC PC scheme can effectively increase the achievable rate and the average harvested energy of each user, and decrease the eavesdropping rate below the threshold. Moreover, the results also reveal that PS strategy is superior in harvesting energy in terms of more stringent network requirements for average achievable rates or security.     

Pilot design and doubly-selective channel estimation for faster-than-Nyquist signaling

Being capable of enhancing the spectral efficiency (SE), faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling is a promising approach for wireless communication systems. This paper investigates the doubly-selective (i.e., time- and frequency-selective) channel estimation and data detection of FTN signaling. We consider the intersymbol interference (ISI) resulting from both the FTN signaling and the frequency-selective channel and adopt an efficient frame structure with reduced overhead. We propose a novel channel estimation technique of FTN signaling based on the least sum of squared errors (LSSE) approach to estimate the complex channel coefficients at the pilot locations within the frame. In particular, we find the optimal pilot sequence that minimizes the mean square error (MSE) of the channel estimation. To address the time-selective nature of the channel, we use a low-complexity linear interpolation to track the complex channel coefficients at the data symbols locations within the frame. To detect the data symbols of FTN signaling, we adopt a turbo equalization technique based on a linear soft-input soft-output (SISO) minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalizer. Simulation results show that the MSE of the proposed FTN signaling channel estimation employing the designed optimal pilot sequence is lower than its counterpart designed for conventional Nyquist transmission. The bit error rate (BER) of the FTN signaling employing the proposed optimal pilot sequence shows improvement compared to the FTN signaling employing the conventional Nyquist pilot sequence. Additionally, for the same SE, the proposed FTN signaling channel estimation employing the designed optimal pilot sequence shows better performance when compared to competing techniques from the literature.     

Exploiting joint sparsity for underwater acoustic MIMO communications

MIMO communication has been recognized as a potential solution for high speed underwater acoustic communication, which unfortunately encounters significant difficulties posed by simultaneous presence of multipath and Co-channel interference (CoI). Sparsity contained in the multipath structure of underwater acoustic channels offers an effective way for improving channel estimation quality and thus enhancing the communication performance in the form of time reversal or channel estimation based equalization. However, for MIMO channels with extensive multipath and CoI, the performance gain achieved by classic sparsity exploitation channel estimation methods such as orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is still not enough to yield satisfactory performance. Under quasi-stationary assumption, underwater acoustic channels of adjacent data blocks exhibit correlated multipath structure, namely, multipath arrivals with similar time delay but different magnitude, which has not been exploited. In this paper, a joint sparse recovery approach is proposed to exploit the sparse correlation among adjacent data blocks to improve the performance of channel estimation. Under the framework of distributed compressed sensing (DCS), a joint sparse model which treats the multipath arrivals as sparse solutions with common time support is adopted to derive a joint sparse recovery algorithm for efficient channel estimation, the results of which are used to initialize and periodly update a channel estimation based time reversal receiver. Finally, underwater MIMO communication experimental results obtained in a shallow water channel are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, compared to the same type of receiver that do not exploit the joint sparse.     

深海远程正交频分复用水声通信块间迭代稀疏信道估计方法

在深海远程正交频分复用(OFDM)水声通信中,信道时延长、频率选择性衰落严重,传统的块独立压缩感知稀疏估计需要较高导频插入密度才能保证一定的估计性能,通信频谱利用率较低。提出了一种基于信道稀疏时变建模的块间迭代信道估计方法,利用深海信道在两个相邻OFDM数据块之间的时间相关性建立块间信道稀疏多途结构的时变关系,在此基础上,对传统稀疏信道估计算法中的候选字典矩阵的字典原子进行删减并改进优化方程,实现了对前一数据块所估信道信息的有效利用,显著降低了信道估计所需的导频插入密度。在深海不同接收深度、不同距离条件下开展了海试验证,实验结果表明,与传统稀疏信道估计方法相比,本方法在导频插入密度减半的条件下可达到优于传统方法的估计性能。     

Energy-efficient power allocation in cell-free massive MIMO with zero-forcing: First order methods

In this paper, the downlink of cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) with zero-forcing processing is considered. To maximize the system energy efficiency (EE), we design power allocation algorithms taking into account imperfect channel state information, hardware, and backhaul power consumption. The total EE optimization problem is nonconvex, which traditionally is solved by the successive convex approximation framework which involves second order cone programs (SOCPs). As such methods have high complexity, the run time is extremely long, especially in large-scale systems with thousands of access points (APs) and users. To overcome this problem, in this paper, we propose to apply two computationally efficient methods, namely proximal gradient (PG) method and accelerated proximal gradient (APG) method to solve the considered problem. Numerical results show that, compared to the conventional SOCPs approximation methods, our proposed methods achieve the same performance while the run time is much smaller.     

A Generalized Spatial Modulation System Using Massive MIMO Space Time Coding Antenna Grouping

Massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), also known as a very large-scale MIMO, is an emerging technology in wireless communications that increases capacity compared to MIMO systems. The massive MIMO communication technique is currently forming a major part of ongoing research. The main issue for massive MIMO improvements depends on the number of transmitting antennas to increase the data rate and minimize bit error rate (BER). To enhance the data rate and BER, new coding and modulation techniques are required. In this paper, a generalized spatial modulation (GSM) with antenna grouping space time coding technique (STC) is proposed. The proposed GSM-STC technique is based on space time coding of two successive GSM-modulated data symbols on two subgroups of antennas to improve data rate and to minimize BER. Moreover, the proposed GSM-STC system can offer spatial diversity gains and can also increase the reliability of the wireless channel by providing replicas of the received signal. The simulation results show that GSM-STC achieves better performance compared to conventional GSM techniques in terms of data rate and BER, leading to good potential for massive MIMO by using subgroups of antennas.     

水声正交频分多址上行通信稀疏信道估计与导频优化

针对水声正交频分多址(OFDMA)上行通信中用户导频数量少、分布不均匀, 导致传统内插信道估计方法产生误码平层的问题, 提出一种稀疏信道估计与导频优化方法. 基于压缩感知(CS)理论估计稀疏信道冲激响应, 并依据CS理论中测量矩阵互相关最小化原理, 提出基于随机搜索的导频图案和导频功率联合优化算法. 仿真结果表明, 所提方法在不同多径扩展信道下的性能均优于基于线性内插的最小二乘估计、未经导频优化的CS信道估计以及单纯基于导频图案优化的CS信道估计. 水池实验分别验证了交织式和广义式子载波分配的水声OFDMA上行通信性能, 在接收信噪比高于10 dB时利用所提方法实现了两用户接入的可靠通信.     

Deep learning-based channel estimation using Gaussian mixture distribution and expectation maximum algorithm

In massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), it is much challenging to obtain accurate channel state information (CSI) after radio frequency (RF) chain reduction due to the high dimensions. With the fast development of machine learning(ML), it is widely acknowledged that ML is an effective method to deal with channel models which are typically unknown and hard to approximate. In this paper, we use the low complexity vector approximate messaging passing (VAMP) algorithm for channel estimation, combined with a deep learning framework for soft threshold shrinkage function training. Furthermore, in order to improve the estimation accuracy of the algorithm for massive MIMO channels, an optimized threshold function is proposed. This function is based on Gaussian mixture (GM) distribution modeling, and the expectation maximum Algorithm (EM Algorithm) is used to recover the channel information in beamspace. This contraction function and deep neural network are improved on the vector approximate messaging algorithm to form a high-precision channel estimation algorithm. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed network.     

A novel blind spatial-based random access to pilots (BSB-RAP) in overloaded massive MIMO systems

In this study, to increase the success rate of active user admission in overloaded massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems, a new spatially based random access to pilots (RAP) is proposed to assign orthogonal pilots to the users requesting network access. Therefore, by increasing the acceptance rate of users in a cell, this approach reduces the training overhead and waste of resources. In the massive MIMO for crowd scenarios, the main issue is the limited number of available orthogonal pilots employed by the users in the channel estimation process. This novel approach as spatially based random access enables us to have more connected users during every coherence interval (CI) despite the mentioned limitation. Intrinsic angular domain sparsity of massive MIMO channels and the sporadic traffic of users can help us obtain the spatial features of active UEs in a blind continuous compressed sensing (CCS) approach. Proposed approach is to use a continuous compressed sensing technique based on a prior optimization that provides users’ angle of arrival (AoA) and an innovative space-based RAP protocol to assign orthogonal pilots to active users in coherent transmission. Unlike the previous works, this strategy does not need to limit the number of users to the number of available orthogonal pilots due to the employed spatial degrees of freedom.     

基于压缩感知理论的大规模MIMO系统下行信道估计中的导频优化理论分析与算法设计

针对大规模多输入多输出(multiple input multiple output, MIMO)系统信道估计中的导频设计问题,在压缩感知理论框架下,提出了一种基于信道重构错误率最小化的自适应自相关矩阵缩减参数导频优化算法.首先以信道重构错误率最小化为目标,推导了正交匹配追踪(orthogonal matching pursuit, OMP)算法下信道重构错误率与导频矩阵列相关性之间的关系,并得出优化导频矩阵的两点准则,即导频矩阵列相关性期望和方差最小化;然后研究了优化导频矩阵的方法,并提出相应的自适应自相关矩阵缩减参数导频矩阵优化算法,即在每次迭代过程中,以待优化矩阵平均列相关程度是否减小作为判断条件,调整自相关矩阵缩减参数值,使参数不断趋近于理论最优.仿真结果表明,与采用Gaussian矩阵、Elad方法、低幂平均列相关方法得到的导频矩阵相比,本文所提方法具有更好的列相关性,且具有更低的信道重构错误率.     

水声多输入多输出信道的分布式压缩感知估计

多输入多输出技术通过采用多个阵元进行多发多收空间复用信道可在极其有限的通信带宽下实现高速水声通信,但由于同时存在通道间干扰和多径干扰,水声MIMO信道估计变得困难。提出利用MIMO水声信道多径稀疏结构存在的相关性,在经典联合稀疏模型的基础上对MIMO观测矩阵进行重组,从而建立基于分布式压缩感知的单载波水声MIMO通信信道联合稀疏模型;同时,针对信道响应中具有相同多径位置的稀疏部分和特有稀疏部分设计区分性正交匹配追踪算法进行联合重构,进一步抑制通道间干扰的影响。最后通过仿真和海上实验进行本方法有效性的验证,实现16 kbps的MIMO水声通信。通过算法推导、仿真和实验可得到结论:利用MIMO水声信道多径相关性进行分布式压缩感知估计可提高估计性能。      

Scattered pilot-based channel estimation with joint noise reduction for PDM-CO-OFDM system

To improve the accuracy of the channel estimation in PDM-CO-OFDM system when LS algorithm is used, a joint denoising method is proposed in this paper. We have theoretically proposed and simulated designed scattered pilot pattern for PDM-CO-OFDM system, then multi-wavelet is used to denoise the LS channel estimation results which have been interpolation in frequency domain, ISFA is further used to denoise signals after interpolation in time domain. Simulation results show that for 4-QAM, 80 GB/s PDM-CO-OFDM system, the proposed joint denoising method has improved 0.96 dB in OSNR sensitivity at the BER of 1e−3 (threshold of FEC) compared to the common LS method and reduced system overhead at the same time.     

基于混合范数约束的非均匀稀疏水声信道估计方法*

水声信道具有明显的簇状稀疏特性,即稀疏的信道冲激响应大部分为零或接近零的小值系数,而非零值系数是以簇的形式非均匀分布于时延域。为此本文提出了一种基于非均匀混合范数约束仿射投影算法的水声信道估计方法。该方法首先根据信道簇状结构对其进行非均匀分组,基于此将范数约束规则加入仿射投影算法中,具体方法为：对簇状部分施加范数约束,有效提高系数间的相关性,而簇状结构与其他零值抽头之间利用范数约束实现了整体的稀疏特性。数值仿真以及深海远程水声通信实验数据处理结果表明了本文所提出的水声信道估计算法相较现有稀疏信道估计方法能够实现更快的收敛速度以及更高精度的信道估计结果。     

Experience-driven learning-based intelligent hybrid beamforming for massive MIMO mmWave communications

We have studied massive MIMO hybrid beamforming (HBF) for millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications, where the transceivers only have a few radio frequency chain (RFC) numbers compared to the number of antenna elements. We propose a hybrid beamforming design to improve the system’s spectral, hardware, and computational efficiencies, where finding the precoding and combining matrices are formulated as optimization problems with practical constraints. The series of analog phase shifters creates a unit modulus constraint, making this problem non-convex and subsequently incurring unaffordable computational complexity. Advanced deep reinforcement learning techniques effectively handle non-convex problems in many domains; therefore, we have transformed this non-convex hybrid beamforming optimization problem using a reinforcement learning framework. These frameworks are solved using advanced deep reinforcement learning techniques implemented with experience replay schemes to maximize the spectral and learning efficiencies in highly uncertain wireless environments. We developed a twin-delayed deep deterministic (TD3) policy gradient-based hybrid beamforming scheme to overcome Q-learning’s substantial overestimation. We assumed a complete channel state information (CSI) to design our beamformers and then challenged this assumption by proposing a deep reinforcement learning-based channel estimation method. We reduced hybrid beamforming complexity using soft target double deep Q-learning to exploit mmWave channel sparsity. This method allowed us to construct the analog precoder by selecting channel dominant paths. We have demonstrated that the proposed approaches improve the system’s spectral and learning efficiencies compared to prior studies. We have also demonstrated that deep reinforcement learning is a versatile technique that can unleash the power of massive MIMO hybrid beamforming in mmWave systems for next-generation wireless communication.