Subspace Tracking Algorithms for Millimeter Wave MIMO Channel Estimation with Hybrid Beamforming

TL;DR

This paper introduces subspace tracking algorithms tailored for millimeter wave MIMO channel estimation with hybrid beamforming, demonstrating improved performance over existing methods.

Contribution

It develops novel subspace tracking algorithms adapted for hybrid beamforming in mmWave MIMO systems, explicitly considering the hybrid architecture.

Findings

Algorithms outperform existing methods in simulations

Effective in estimating channel singular vectors

Compatible with hybrid analog/digital beamforming

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of subspace tracking algorithms for performing MIMO channel estimation at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies. Using a subspace approach, we develop a protocol enabling the estimation of the right (resp. left) singular vectors at the transmitter (resp. receiver) side; then, we adapt the projection approximation subspace tracking with deflation (PASTd) and the orthogonal Oja (OOJA) algorithms to our framework and obtain two channel estimation algorithms. The hybrid analog/digital nature of the beamformer is also explicitly taken into account at the algorithm design stage. Numerical results show that the proposed estimation algorithms are effective, and that they perform better than two relevant competing alternatives available in the open literature.