Low-complexity joint channel estimation for multi-user mmwave massive MIMO systems

Abstract

For multi-user millimeter wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, the precise acquisition of channel state information (CSI) is a huge challenge. With the increase of the number of antennas at the base station (BS), the traditional channel estimation techniques encounter the problems of pilot training overhead and computational complexity increasing dramatically. In this paper, we develop a step-length optimization-based joint iterative scheme for multi-user mmWave massive MIMO systems to improve channel estimation performance. The proposed estimation algorithm provides the BS with full knowledge of all channel parameters involved in up-and down-links. Compared with existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm has higher channel estimation accuracy with low complexity. Moreover, the proposed scheme performs well even with a small number of training sequences and a large number of users. Simulation results are shown to demonstrate the performance of the proposed channel estimation algorithm.