A Spatial Sigma-Delta Approach to Mitigation of Power Amplifier Distortions in Massive MIMO Downlink

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel spatial Sigma-Delta approach to mitigate power amplifier distortions in massive MIMO downlink systems, leveraging spatial shaping to reduce distortion impact on received signals.

Contribution

The paper proposes a new spatial Sigma-Delta modulation technique for PA distortion mitigation in massive MIMO systems, avoiding the need for detailed PA transfer function knowledge.

Findings

Effective distortion suppression in simulations

Improved signal quality in low-angle regions

Compatibility with existing precoding schemes

Abstract

In massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink systems, the physical implementation of the base stations (BSs) requires the use of cheap and power-efficient power amplifiers (PAs) to avoid high hardware cost and high power consumption. However, such PAs usually have limited linear amplification ranges. Nonlinear distortions arising from operation beyond the linear amplification ranges can significantly degrade system performance. Existing approaches to handle the nonlinear distortions, such as digital predistortion (DPD), typically require accurate knowledge, or acquisition, of the PA transfer function. In this paper, we present a new concept for mitigation of the PA distortions. Assuming a uniform linear array (ULA) at the BS, the idea is to apply a Sigma-Delta ($\Sigma \Delta$) modulator to spatially shape the PA distortions to the high-angle region. By having the system operating in the low-angle region, the received signals are less affected by the PA distortions. To demonstrate the potential of this spatial $\Sigma \Delta$ approach, we study the application of our approach to the multi-user MIMO-orthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM) downlink scenario. A symbol-level precoding (SLP) scheme and a zero-forcing (ZF) precoding scheme, with the new design requirement by the spatial $\Sigma \Delta$ approach being taken into account, are developed. Numerical simulations are performed to show the effectiveness of the developed $\Sigma \Delta$ precoding schemes.