Residual Learning and Multi-Path Feature Fusion-Based Channel Estimation for Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO System

Channel estimation is a challenging task in a millimeter-wave (mm Wave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. The existing deep learning scheme, which learns the mapping from the input to the target channel, has great difficulty in estimating the exact channel state information (CSI). In this paper, we consider the quantized received measurements as a low-resolution image, and we adopt the deep learning-based image super-resolution technique to reconstruct the mm Wave channel. Specifically, we exploit a state-of-the-art channel estimation framework based on residual learning and multi-path feature fusion (RL-MFF-Net). Firstly, residual learning makes the channel estimator focus on learning high-frequency residual information between the quantized received measurements and the mm Wave channel, while abundant low-frequency information is bypassed through skip connections. Moreover, to address the estimator’s gradient dispersion problem, a dense connection is added to the residual blocks to ensure the maximum information flow between the layers. Furthermore, the underlying mm Wave channel local features extracted from different residual blocks are preserved by multi-path feature fusion. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms traditional methods as well as existing deep learning methods, especially in the low signal-to-noise-ration (SNR) region.     

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.     

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.     

Downlink channel estimation in FDD cell-free massive MIMO

In frequency-division duplexing (FDD) cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, an excessive channel estimation overhead is a critical issue that limits the system performance. In this paper, by exploiting the sparse channel characteristics of such a cell-free system, we apply compressive sensing to estimate the channel state information and solve the excessive pilot overhead problem. The proposed algorithm estimates several channel coefficients with significant gains in the power domain and ignores the approximately zero coefficients. Compared to minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimation with orthogonal pilots, the proposed method significantly reduces the pilot overhead in an FDD cell-free massive MIMO system. The access points (APs) that contribute low gains feature reduced energy consumption because the power coefficients corresponding to zero gains in the sparse channel are assigned zeros in the power control process. Therefore, to improve the energy efficiency, the ignored channel coefficients reduce the power overhead.     

Deep learning and expert knowledge based underwater acoustic OFDM receiver

In this paper, a deep learning and expert knowledge based receiver is proposed for underwater acoustic (UWA) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Different from the existing deep learning based UWA OFDM receivers, the proposed receiver combines deep learning with the classical expert knowledge of block-based signal processing in UWA OFDM to improve system performance and interpretability. It performs joint channel estimation and signal detection by designing skip connection (SC) convolutional neural network (CNN) cascaded attention mechanism (AM) enhanced bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) network, abbreviated as SC-CNN-AM-BiLSTM network (SCABNet). Specifically, the channel estimation subnet is designed with SC-CNN to utilize the thought of image super-resolution to reconstruct the entire channel frequency response of all subcarriers. The signal detection subnet is designed with AM-BiLSTM to extract the correlations of received sequential data for signal detection. Especially with the AM, the signal detection subnet can focus more on effective information of the received distorted signal to train the optimal network weights to improve the accuracy of data recovery. The proposed SCABNet is evaluated by experimental data, and the results have demonstrated that the SCABNet has the lowest BER and robust performance compared to the traditional linear algorithm, deep learning based black-box receiver, and ComNet receiver. And the proposed SCABNet is effective and robust when multiple nonideal factors co-exist.     

Deep Task-Based Quantization

Quantizers play a critical role in digital signal processing systems. Recent works have shown that the performance of acquiring multiple analog signals using scalar analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) can be significantly improved by processing the signals prior to quantization. However, the design of such hybrid quantizers is quite complex, and their implementation requires complete knowledge of the statistical model of the analog signal. In this work we design data-driven task-oriented quantization systems with scalar ADCs, which determine their analog-to-digital mapping using deep learning tools. These mappings are designed to facilitate the task of recovering underlying information from the quantized signals. By using deep learning, we circumvent the need to explicitly recover the system model and to find the proper quantization rule for it. Our main target application is multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication receivers, which simultaneously acquire a set of analog signals, and are commonly subject to constraints on the number of bits. Our results indicate that, in a MIMO channel estimation setup, the proposed deep task-bask quantizer is capable of approaching the optimal performance limits dictated by indirect rate-distortion theory, achievable using vector quantizers and requiring complete knowledge of the underlying statistical model. Furthermore, for a symbol detection scenario, it is demonstrated that the proposed approach can realize reliable bit-efficient hybrid MIMO receivers capable of setting their quantization rule in light of the task.     

Energy Efficiency of User-Centric,Cell-Free Massive MIMO-OFDM with Instantaneous CSI

In the user-centric, cell-free, massive multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system, a large number of deployed access points (APs) serve user equipment (UEs) simultaneously, using the same time–frequency resources, and the system is able to ensure fairness between each user; moreover, it is robust against fading caused by multi-path propagation. Existing studies assume that cell-free, massive MIMO is channel-hardened, the same as centralized massive MIMO, and these studies address power allocation and energy efficiency optimization based on the statistics information of each channel. In cell-free, massive MIMO systems, especially APs with only one antenna, the channel statistics information is not a complete substitute for the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) obtained via channel estimation. In this paper, we propose that energy efficiency is optimized by power allocation with instantaneous CSI in the user-centric, cell-free, massive MIMO-OFDM system, and we consider the effect of CSI exchanging between APs and the central processing unit. In addition, we design different resource block allocation schemes, so that user-centric, cell-free, massive MIMO-OFDM can support enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) for high-speed communication and massive machine communication (mMTC) for massive device communication. The numerical results verify that the proposed energy efficiency optimization scheme, based on instantaneous CSI, outperforms the one with statistical information in both scenarios.     

Deep learning-driven MIMO: Data encoding and processing mechanism

Large-scale Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) is the key technology of 5G communication. However, dealing with physical channels is a complex process. Machine learning techniques have not been utilized commercially because of the limited learning capabilities of traditional machine learning algorithms. We design a deep learning hybrid precoding scheme based on the attention mechanism. The method mainly includes channel modeling and deep learning encoding two modules. The channel modeling module mainly describes the problem formally, which is convenient for the subsequent method design and processing. The model design module introduces the design framework, details, and main training process of the model. We utilize the attention layer to extract the eigenvalues of the interference between multiple users through the output attention distribution matrix. Then, according to the characteristics of inter-user interference, the loss minimization function is used to study the optimal precoder to achieve the maximum reachable rate of the system. Under the same condition, we compare our proposed method with the traditional unsupervised learning-based hybrid precoding algorithm, the TTD-based (True-Time-Delay, TTD) phase correction hybrid precoding algorithm, and the deep learning-based method. Additionally, we verify the role of attention mechanism in the model. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results of this research prove that deep learning technology can play a driving role in the encoding and processing of MIMO with its unique feature extraction and modeling capabilities. In addition, this research also provides a good reference for the application of deep learning in MIMO data processing problems.     

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.     

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.     

Two-level-enforced security with hybrid precoding for multicast massive MIMO wiretap systems

Multicast hybrid precoding reaches a compromise among hardware complexity, transmission performance and wireless resource efficiency in massive MIMO systems. However, system security is extremely challenging with the appearance of eavesdroppers. Physical layer security (PLS) is a relatively effective approach to improve transmission and security performance for multicast massive MIMO wiretap systems. In this paper, we consider a transmitter with massive antennas transmits the secret signal to many legitimate users with multiple-antenna, while eavesdroppers attempt to eavesdrop the information. A fractional problem aims at maximizing sum secrecy rate is proposed to optimize secure hybrid precoding in multicast massive MIMO wiretap system. Because the proposed optimized model is an intractable non-convex problem, we equivalently transform the original problem into two suboptimal problems to separately optimize the secure analog precoding and secure digital precoding. Secure analog precoding is achieved by applying singular value decomposition (SVD) of secure channel. Then, employing semidefinite program (SDP), secure digital precoding with fixed secure analog precoding is obtained to ensure quality of service (QoS) of legitimate users and limit QoS of eavesdroppers. Complexity of the proposed SVD-SDP algorithm related to the number of transmitting antennas squared is lower compared with that of constant modulus precoding algorithm (CMPA) which is in connection with that number cubed. Simulation results illustrate that SVD-SDP algorithm brings higher sum secrecy rate than those of CMPA and SVD-SVD algorithm.     

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.     

Near optimal performance joint semi-blind channel estimation and data detection techniques for Alamouti coded single-carrier (SC) MIMO communication systems

In this paper, two novel joint semi-blind channel estimation and data detection techniques are proposed and investigated for Alamouti coded single-carrier (SC) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system using Rayleigh flat fading channel model. In the first novel semi-blind technique, blind channel estimation can be performed by using singular value decomposition (SVD) of received output autocorrelation matrix and training based channel estimation for orthogonal training symbols can be performed by using orthogonal pilot maximum likelihood (OPML) algorithm. Further using, that semi-blind channel estimate and received output, data detection is performed by using Maximum likelihood (ML) detection. Finally we derived new training symbols from error covariance matrix of estimated data and known orthogonal training symbols, which further applied to OPML algorithm for final channel estimate. In the second novel semi-blind technique, blind channel estimation can be performed by using matrix triangularization based on householder QR decomposition (H-QRD) of received output autocorrelation matrix instead of SVD decomposition. Other steps are same as the first novel technique to calculate data detection and final channel estimation. Simulation results are presented under 2-PSK, 4-PSK, 8-PSK and 16-QAM data modulation schemes using 2 transmitters and different combinations of receiver antennas to investigate the performances of novel techniques compare to conventional whitening rotation (WR) and rotation optimization maximum likelihood (ROML) based semi-blind channel estimation techniques. Result demonstrates that novel techniques outperform others by achieving near optimal performance.     

Deep Learning-Based Joint CSI Feedback and Hybrid Precoding in FDD mmWave Massive MIMO Systems

In this paper, we propose an end-to-end deep learning approach to realize channel state information (CSI) feedback and hybrid precoding for millimeter wave massive multiple-input multiple-output systems in the frequency division duplexing mode. Different from conventional approaches that treat the CSI reconstruction and hybrid precoding as separate components, we propose a new end-to-end learning method bypassing the channel reconstruction phase, and design the hybrid precoders and combiners directly from the feedback codewords (a compressed version of the CSI). More specifically, we design a neural network composed of the CSI feedback and hybrid precoding. Experiment results show that our proposed network can achieve better performance than conventional hybrid precoding schemes that reserve channel reconstruction, especially when the feedback resources are limited.     

Unsupervised LoS/NLoS identification in mmWave communication using two-stage machine learning framework

Identification of line-of-sight (LoS)/ non-LoS (NLoS) condition in millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is important for localization and unobstructed transmission between a base station (BS) and a user. A sudden obstruction in a link between a BS and a user can result in poorly received signal strength or termination of communication. Channel features obtained by the estimation of channel state information (CSI) of a user at the BS can be used for identifying LoS/NLoS condition. With the assumption of labeled CSI, existing machine learning (ML) methods have achieved satisfactory performance for LoS/NLoS identification. However, in a real communication environment, labeled CSI is not available. In this paper, we propose a two-stage unsupervised ML based LoS/NLoS identification framework to address the lack of labeled data. We conduct experiments for the outdoor scenario by generating data from the NYUSIM simulator. We compare the performance of our method with the supervised deep neural network (SDNN) in terms of accuracy and receiver characteristic curves. The proposed framework can achieve an accuracy of 87.4% and it outperforms SDNN. Further, we compare the performance of our method with other state-of-the-art LoS/NLoS identification schemes in terms of accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score.     

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.     

矢量泰勒级数特征补偿的说话人识别

将矢量泰勒级数(Vector Taylor Series,VTS)特征补偿算法应用于说话人识别,给出了卷积噪声方差的近似闭式解,构建了联合快速估计卷积噪声和加性噪声均值和方差的框架。该算法可在无需失配环境先验信息的前提下,直接从失配语音中估计出卷积噪声和加性噪声的均值和方差,实现对环境失配的补偿。实验结果表明,在信道变化较大的无线信道下,卷积噪声方差的补偿最高可降低误识率3.24%.提升了系统的识别性能。在存在加性噪声的无线信道下,与基于线性失真模型的特征映射算法和倒谱均值减算法相比,本文算法可分别最大降低49.65%和68.06%的误识率,适合于信道变化较大的失配环境补偿。      

Caching popularity-unknown contents for massive communication channels via deep Q-learning

In order to reduce the backhaul link pressure of wireless networks, edge caching technology has been regarded as a promising solution. However, with massive and dynamical communication connections, it is challenging to provide analytical caching solution to achieve the best performance, particularly when the requested contents are changing and their popularities are unknown. In this paper, we propose a deep Q-learning (DQN) method to address the issue of caching placement. Considering a content caching network containing multiple cooperating SBSs with unknown content popularity, we need to determine which content to cache and where to cache. Therefore, the learning network has to be designed for dual aims, one of which is to estimate the content popularities while the other is to assign contents to the proper channels. An elaborate DQN is proposed to make decisions to cache contents with limited storage space of base-station by considering channel conditions. Specifically, the content requests of users are first collected as one of the training samples of the learning network. Second, the channel state information for the massive links are estimated as the other training samples. Then, we train the network based on the proposed method thereby improving spectral efficiency of the entire system and reducing bit-error rate. Our major contribution is to contrive a caching strategy for enhanced performance in massive connection communications without knowing the content popularity. Numerical studies are performed to show that the proposed method acquires apparent performance gain over random caching in terms of average spectral efficiency and bit-error rate of the network.     

Data detection based on matrix decomposition for massive MIMO systems in realistic channel scenarios

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is a key technology for modern wireless communication systems. In massive MIMO receivers, data detection is a computationally expensive task. In this paper, we explore the performance and the computational complexity of matrix decomposition based detectors in realistic channel scenarios for different massive MIMO configurations. In addition, data detectors based on decomposition algorithms are compared to the approximate-inversion detection (AID) methods. It is shown that the alternating-direction-method-of-multipliers-based-Infinity-Norm (ADMIN) detection is promising in realistic channel environment and the performance is stable even when the ratio of the base-station (BS) antenna elements to the number of users is small. In addition, this paper studies the performance of several detectors in imperfect channel state information (CSI) and correlated channels. Our work provides valuable insights for massive MIMO systems and very large-scale integration (VLSI) designers to select the appropriate massive MIMO detector based on their specifications.     

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.