Multiuser Millimeter Wave MIMO Channel Estimation with Hybrid Beamforming

TL;DR

This paper presents a hybrid beamforming approach for multiuser mmWave MIMO channel estimation using a TDD protocol, subspace tracking, and pilot sequences, achieving effective channel estimation with low complexity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multiuser mmWave MIMO channel estimation method combining PASTd subspace tracking and pilot-based estimation with hybrid beamforming.

Findings

Effective channel estimation with low complexity

Good performance of the proposed algorithms

Compatibility with analog RF beamformers

Abstract

This paper focuses on multiuser MIMO channel estimation and data transmission at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies. The proposed approach relies on the time-division-duplex (TDD) protocol and is based on two distinct phases. First of all, the Base Station (BS) sends a suitable probing signal so that all the Mobile Stations (MSs), using a subspace tracking algorithm, can estimate the dominant left singular vectors of their BS-to-MS propagation channel. Then, each MS, using the estimated dominant left singular vectors as pre-coding beamformers, sends a suitable pilot sequence so that the BS can estimate the corresponding right dominant channel singular vectors and the corresponding eigenvalues. The low-complexity projection approximation subspace tracking with deflation (PASTd) algorithm is used at the MSs for dominant subspace estimation, while pilot-matched (PM) and zero-forcing (ZF) reception is used at the BS. The proposed algorithms can be used in conjuction with an analog RF beamformer and are shown to exhibit very good performance.