# On the Uplink Achievable Rate of Massive MIMO System With Low-Resolution ADC and RF Impairments

## TL;DR

This paper analyzes the impact of low-resolution ADCs and RF impairments on the uplink achievable rate of massive MIMO systems, revealing hardware impairments cause a nonzero estimation error floor and proposing an approximate rate expression.

## Contribution

It introduces a combined analysis of ADC resolution and RF impairments using AQNM and EEVM models, providing a tractable rate expression and demonstrating the feasibility of low-cost hardware in massive MIMO.

## Key findings

- Hardware impairments cause a nonzero channel estimation error floor.
- An approximate uplink achievable rate expression is derived.
- Economical coarse ADCs and RF components are feasible for practical systems.

## Abstract

This paper considers channel estimation and uplink achievable rate of the coarsely quantized massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with radio frequency (RF) impairments. We utilize additive quantization noise model (AQNM) and extended error vector magnitude (EEVM) model to analyze the impacts of low-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and RF impairments respectively. We show that hardware impairments cause a nonzero floor on the channel estimation error, which contraries to the conventional case with ideal hardware. The maximal-ratio combining (MRC) technique is then used at the receiver, and an approximate tractable expression for the uplink achievable rate is derived. The simulation results illustrate the appreciable compensations between ADCs' resolution and RF impairments. The proposed studies support the feasibility of equipping economical coarse ADCs and economical imperfect RF components in practical massive MIMO systems.