Chinese Journal of Electronics

Vol.23, No.2, Apr. 2014

An Enhanced IRC Algorithm for LTE Downlink

Receiver in Multi-cell Environment
YAN Zhiting, HE Guanghui, MA Jun
(School of Microelectronics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China )
Abstract This paper proposes an enhanced Interference rejection combining (IRC) algorithm for Long term
evolution (LTE) downlink receiver in multi-cell communication systems. In this algorithm, a proper Multiple input
multiple output (MIMO) receive method is adopted according to Generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) intercell interference detection. Iteration between channel estimation and data detection is carried out to improve the
performance of IRC algorithm. Simulation results show
that this proposed algorithm can eectively detect intercell interference and improve Block error rate (BLER)
performance and channel estimation Mean squared error
(MSE) compared to non-iterative IRC algorithm, making
it suitable for LTE downlink receiver in multi-cell cellular
systems.
Key words Long term evolution (LTE), Inter-cell
interference, Interference rejection combing (IRC), Generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT).

I. Introduction
Long term evolution (LTE) system is designed to achieve a
frequency reuse factor of one in order to utilize the maximum
bandwidth available in each cell. Due to the reuse of the same
frequency band among neighboring cells, these cellular systems suer from inter-cell interference, especially for users at
cell edges. Inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC), power
control and adaptive scheduling are promising approaches to
deal with such interference at base stations[1] .
In order to suppress inter-cell interference at terminals, Interference rejection combing (IRC) algorithm is investigated in
several works[2][6] . The purpose of IRC algorithm is to exploit
spatial correlation of dierent antennas to suppress inter-cell
interference[2] . In Ref.[3], it is veried that IRC algorithm
performs poorer than other linear MIMO receive algorithms
in channels without inter-cell interference, because spatial covariance matrix of channel noise can not be estimated precisely
using limited numbers of pilot subcarriers in LTE systems. To
the best of our knowledge, there is no feasible solution to this
problem at present.
In addition, IRC algorithm is highly sensitive to the quality of channel and inter-cell interference covariance matrix
estimation[4][6] . Unfortunately, most of the existing works on
channelestimation[7][10] and data detection[11][14] for LTE

downlink receiver do not take inter-cell interference into account. Although decision-directed method is an attractive approach to improve the performance of channel estimation and
data detection simultaneously[15] , it also does not consider interference from other cells. In short, all these receive algorithms do not address inter-cell interference problem in LTE
systems.
In this paper, we proposed an enhanced IRC algorithm for
LTE downlink receiver in multi-cell environment. To solve the
problem of performance degradation in channels without intercell interference, a proper MIMO receive method is adopted according to Generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) inter-cell
interference detection. Specically, this method rst assesses
interference detection result and then adapts the data detection between linear algorithm and iterative IRC algorithm.
Moreover, to improve the estimation performance of channel
response and spatial covariance matrix, an iterative IRC algorithm is proposed. Through iteration between channel estimation and data detection, the accuracy of channel estimation is
increased using channel information from data detection.
Notations Boldface letters identify vectors or matrices.
() , ()T and ()H represent complex conjugate, transpose, and
Hermitian. E() denotes the expectation, I indicate the identity matrix.

II. System Models

Consider a LTE downlink MIMO spatial multiplexing
model with K subcarriers, NT transmit and NR receive antennas. Assume L is the number of OFDM symbols in a LTE
subframe. The system model is expressed as follows.
Y (k, l) = H s (k.l)X s (k, l) + n(k, l)

(1)

where X s (k, l) denotes NT 1 transmit data vector at the kth

subcarrier of the lth OFDM symbol of a subframe, which is
called a resource element in LTE system. H s (k, l) is NR NT
MIMO channel matrix with each element as complex Gaussian random variable and is assumed constant during a LTE
subframe. And n(k, l) is NR 1 independent identical distribution (i.i.d.) cyclic symmetric complex Gaussian random
vector with covariance matrix of 2 I.
Three well-known linear MIMO receive algorithms are
Matching lter (MF), Zero forcing (ZF) and Minimum mean-

Manuscript Received May 2013; Accepted Jul. 2013. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
under Grant (No. 61306026).

Chinese Journal of Electronics

378

squared error (MMSE), whose expressions are given by

w MF = H H
s (k, l)
w ZF =

(2)

1
(H H
HH
s (k, l)H s (k, l))
s (k, l)

(3)

1
w MMSE = RH
Y X RY Y
H
2
1
= HH
s (k, l)(H s (k, l)H s (k, l) + I)

(4)

where RY X is the cross-correlation matrix between Y (k, l)

and X s (k, l), and RY Y is the auto-correlation matrix of
Y (k, l). MF cannot eliminate interference while ZF and MMSE
can. ZF is susceptible to noise enhancement while MMSE
makes a balance between interference and noise.
If inter-cell interference appears, an extension to Eq.(1) is
dened as

2014

where subscript p denotes pilots and k is OFDM subcarrier

index. z  (k) denotes interference from other cells and z(k)
combines z  (k) with n(k, l). OFDM symbol index l in a subframe is omitted.
A practical solution to this problem is Generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT)[17] . This method rst calculates maximum likelihood estimation of the unknown parameters, e.g.
noise variance 2 and spatial covariance matrix of z(k)
2 = arg max p(Z|H0 , 2 )

zz = arg max p(Z|H1 , Rzz )

R
R zz

LG (Z) =

z(k,l)

(5)

where z  (k, l) denotes inter-cell interference and z(k, l) combines z  (k, l) with n(k, l). It is assumed that z  (k, l), n(k, l)
and X s (k, l) are independent of each other. IRC algorithm is
given by
1
w IRC = RH
Y X RY Y
H
1
= HH
s (k, l)(H s (k, l)H s (k, l) + R zz )

(6)

where Rzz represents the spatial covariance matrix of intercell interference plus noise. Rzz is obtained through average
of each pilot positions estimate, which is given by
NP

p (k, l)X p (k, l)]
zz = 1
[Y p (k, l) H
R
NP
k,l

p (k, l)X p (k, l)]H

[Y p (k, l) H

(7)

p (k, l)
where subscript p denotes at pilot subcarrier position, H
is the estimated channel response at pilot subcarrier p, and NP
is the number of pilot resource elements in a subframe.

III. Proposed Enhanced IRC Algorithm

for LTE Downlink Receiver
In this section, a GLRT interference detection method is
proposed to decide whether linear algorithm such as MF and
MMSE or iterative IRC algorithm is adopted. Furthermore,
an iterative IRC algorithm is presented, where the estimate
of channel response and spatial covariance matrix can benet
from channel information embedded in data subcarriers.
1. GLRT inter-cell interference detection
Inter-cell interference detection in LTE systems can be considered as a binary hypothesis test problem. The hypothesis
testing problem of interest at pilot subcarriers is represented
as
H0 :

k = 0, , NP 1
H1 :

z(k) = Y p (k) H p (k)X p (k) = z  (k) + n(k),

k = 0, , NP 1

(8)

zz , H1 )
p(Z|R
2 , H0 )
p(Z|

(11)

2 , H0 ) denotes probability den zz , H1 ) and p(Z|

where p(Z|R
sity function of random vector Z under H1 and H0 respectively. Due to the unknown information about inter-cell interference, such as spatial covariance matrix Rzz , z(k) is assumed to be a complex Gaussian random vector. And suppose
that the inter-cell interference in dierent pilot subcarrier is
independent, the joint PDF of NP random vectors z(k) is calculated as
NP 1

p(Z) =
p(z(k))
(12)
k=0

where Z = [z(0), z(1), , z(NP 1)] is a NR NP matrix

consisting of interference vector at each pilot subcarrier position as a column. The joint PDF of Z under H0 is thus
obtained as

NP 1

1
1
2
(13)
exp

z(k)
p(Z|H0 , 2 ) =
( 2 )NR
2
k=0

And the joint PDF of Z under H1 is

NP 1

1
exp[z H (k)Rzz z(k)]
NR det(Rzz )
k=0
(14)
Next, natural logarithm of likelihood function under H0 can
be computed as
p(Z|H1 , Rzz ) =

ln p(Z|H0 , 2 ) = NR NP ln( 2 )

NP 1
1 
z(k)2
2 k=0

(15)

The maximum likelihood estimate of 2 under H0 minimizes

Eq.(15) and is given by
2 =

NP 1

1
z(k)2
NR NP

(16)

k=0

Putting Eq.(16) into the PDF under H0 in Eq.(15) yields




NP 1


z(k)2 NR NP
NR NP k=0
(17)
Also the natural logarithm function under H1 in Eq.(14) is
ln p(Z|H0 , 2 ) = NR NP ln

z(k) = Y p (k) H p (k)X p (k) = n(k),

(10)

Then based on these estimated parameters, likelihood ratio

test statistic is given by

Y (k, l) = H s (k.l)X s (k, l) + z  (k, l) + n(k, l)




= H s (k.l)X s (k, l) + z(k, l)

(9)

ln p(Z|H1 , Rzz ) = ln NR NP NP ln(det(Rzz ))

An Enhanced IRC Algorithm for LTE Downlink Receiver in Multi-cell Environment

NP 1

z H (k)R1
zz z(k)

379

1
H

=H
s (k, l)(H s (k, l)H s (k, l) + R zz )

(18)

(25)

k=0

The maximum likelihood estimate of Rzz is shown to be

zz
R

NP 1
1 
=
z(k)z H (k)
NP

H s

Channel
Estimation

(19)

Spatial Covariance
Matrix Estimation

k=0

Pilots

zz is a Hermitian matrix.
where R
zz leads to
Eigenvalue properties of covariance matrix R
Y

NR 1

zz ) =
det (R

zz )
n (R

H s

R zz

X s

X s

IRC
Data detection

(20)

X s

n=0
NP 1

1
1
zz )
z(k)2 =
tr (R
NR NP k=0
NR

Fig. 1. Diagram of the proposed iterative IRC algorithm

NR 1
1 
zz )
n (R
NR n=0

(21)

zz . So Eqs.(17) and (18)

where n is the nth eigenvalue of R
can be simplied as
ln p(Z|H0 , 2 ) = NR NP ln


NR 1

zz )
n (R
NR k=0

NR NP
zz ) = NR NP ln () NP ln
ln p(Z|H1 , R

 N
R 1

ij

n=0

(23)

Subtracting Eq.(22) from Eq.(23) and do some simplication, the GLRT statistic is derived as
NR 1
1 
zz )
1
n (R
zz )
tr (R
NR n=0
NR
GLRT (n ) =
=
1
 1
 N
R 1
zz )) NR
NR
(det (R

n (Rzz )

(24)

n=0

The above test statistic depends only on the eigenvalues of the

estimated spatial covariance matrix. When all the eigenvalues
are the same, then GAM (n ) = 1. Inter-cell interference is
deemed to be absent and the receiver adopts linear MIMO
algorithms. Or else when GAM (n ) > 1, receiver detects
that interference exists and choose iterative IRC algorithm described in the next section.
2. Iterative channel estimation and data detection
Once inter-cell interference is detected, an iterative IRC
algorithm is introduced to improve the performance of noniterative IRC algorithm. The diagram of this proposed algorithm is illustrated in Fig.1. This algorithm is described as
follows:
Step 1 Linear minimum mean-squared error (LMMSE)
channel estimator[18] is used to estimate channel frequency
response, and two dimension interpolations to get an initial
s (k, l). R
zz is estimated via Eq.(7).
H
s (k, l) and R
zz for
Step 2 Perform IRC algorithm (H
the rst time of iteration; H s (k, l) and Rzz for the rest)
s (k, l) = w IRC Y (k, l)
X

where IP and ID are pilots and data subcarriers subset respectively. The nal updated channel estimate is achieved by
s (k, l), that is
utilizing a LMMSE[18] ltering to lter H
ij
H s (l) = Rij
HH (R HH +

(22)


n (Rzz )

NP NR

Step 3 The detected data symbols are used to update

the channel estimation, which is

k IP
H s (k, l),

H s (k, l) =
(26)
s (k, l), k ID
Y (k, l)/X

ij
I) H
s (l)
SNR

(27)

ij
ij
where H s (l) and H
s (l) denote ltered and unltered estimate of channel frequency response vector from transmit antenna j to receive antenna i for all subcarriers at lth OFDM
symbol. Rij
HH is autocorrelation matrix of channel response
from transmit antenna j to receive antenna i. is a parameter
related to modulation type.
Step 4 The updated covariance matrix can be obtained
as

k IP

Rzz (k, l),

Rzz (k, l) =
[Y (k, l) H s (k, l)X s (k.l)]
(28)

s (k.l)]H , k ID
[Y (k, l) H s (k, l)X

And then covariance matrix at pilot and data subcarriers add

up to produce the average estimate

1
zz (k, l)
Rzz =
(29)
R
NP + ND
k,l

where NP and ND stand for the number of pilots and data

subcarriers in a subframe.
Step 5 If the maximum number of iterations is not attained, jump to Step 2. Otherwise stop the iteration.
3. Complexity analysis
The computation of the GLRT detection is dominated by
the trace and determinant calculation of matrix, which require
3
O(NR
) multiplications. In addition to matrix inversion whose
3
complexity is O(NR
), IRC needs to estimate the spatial covari3
ance matrix rst, which needs O(NP NR
) operations. So once
the proposed GLRT detection method detects the absence of
inter-cell interference, the MF or MMSE algorithm is adopted
and the complexity is reduced.

IV. Simulation Results

We consider a multi-cell LTE downlink system with two
ring topology. It has 19 cells and each cell is equipped with one

Chinese Journal of Electronics

380

base station serving 3 sectors. Block fading channel, which is

constant at a LTE subframe is used and PI/PO represents the
ratio of interesting signal power to interfering signal power.
A rate of 1/3 turbo code is used and channel decoder applies BCJR max-log-MAP decoding algorithm with 8 iterations. Simulation parameters are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Simulation parameters
Networks pattern
19 cells, each with 3 sectors
Carrier frequency
2GHz
Bandwidth
5MHz
MIMO mode
2 2 open loop
Channel model
EPedA (Block-fading Channel)
Users in a cell
10
PI/PO
3.2dB
Moving Speed
5km/h
Constellation Mapping
QPSK
Large scale path loss model
COST 231-Hata

Fig.2 shows BLER for dierent algorithms in the absence

of inter-cell interference. GLRT method can decide that interference does not exist and then receiver chooses MMSE algorithm to suppress inter-antenna interference. IRC algorithm
does not make decision so that it suers from inaccurate channel estimation and covariance matrix and has poorer performance than GLRT method at the whole SNR range. Because
MF is more suitable for white Gaussian noise as mentioned in
Ref.[3], it is observed that MF algorithm outperforms IRC algorithm. Meanwhile due to lack of inter-antenna interference
suppression, MF algorithm is inferior to GLRT method.

2014

Fig.3 compares the BLER performance of the proposed iterative IRC algorithm with MF, in which inter-cell interference
exists and PI/PO=3.2dB. It can be seen that the proposed algorithm outperform MF algorithm, even at high SNR. Additionally, error oor appears when SNR is above about 6dB, in
that MF algorithm does not apply any approaches to suppress
both inter-antenna and inter-cell interference. The simulation
results also show that the proposed iterative IRC algorithm
with four and ve iterations overlap at high SNR region, which
means more numbers of iterations do not provide signicant
performance gain. This is because of iterations only between
channel estimation and data detection, not including channel
decoding. Based on these observations, no more than ve iterations are proper to reduce implementation complexity.
Fig.4 shows the channel estimation Mean squared error(MSE) of the proposed IRC algorithm for various numbers
of iterations. It can be seen that the proposed algorithm has
great improvement over non-iterative IRC algorithm at the
whole SNR range, because of more channel information obtained from detected data symbols. In addition, MSE continuously decreases with more numbers of iterations, but performance gap becomes smaller. The proposed algorithm with 3
times of iterations has about 0.5dB performance degradation
against 5 times at MSE = 102 .
Fig.5 illustrates the relationship between numbers of iteration and BLER performance. SNR-performance improvements
can be achieved with iteration between channel estimation and
IRC algorithm, especially at above 5dB SNR. In particular,

100

100
IRC
IRC with 2 iterations
IRC with 3 iterations
IRC with 5 iterations

IRC
MF
Proposed GLRT detection

101

MSE

BLER

101

102

102

103

104
2

103

SNR [dB]

Fig. 2. BLER performance of dierent algorithms versus SNR

in the absence of inter-cell interference

10

11

12

100
MF
4 iterations IRC
5 iterations IRC

I=1
I=2
I=3
I=4
I=5

101
BLER

101

BLER

Fig. 4. MSE performance of channel estimation versus SNR

in the presence of inter-cell interference

100

102

102

103

103

104
2

7
8
SNR

10

SNR [dB]

Fig. 3. BLER performance of dierent algorithms versus SNR

in the presence of inter-cell interference

104
2

4
6
SNR [dB]

10

Fig. 5. BLER performance of the proposed iterative method

using various number of iterations

An Enhanced IRC Algorithm for LTE Downlink Receiver in Multi-cell Environment

performing four iterations enable to achieve 102 BLER at
5dB SNR, compared to the more than 6.8dB SNR is required
by non-iterative IRC (I = 1). Note that the SNR-performance
gain from four to ve iterations is only about 0.1dB, which indicates that performing more than ve iterations does not help
improve the system performance further.

V. Conclusion
In this paper, an enhanced IRC algorithm for LTE downlink receiver is proposed. A proper MIMO receive method is
adopted according to GLRT inter-cell interference detection.
Simulation results demonstrate that it eectively detects interference and has better BLER performance than IRC algorithm
without interference detection. Furthermore, an iterative IRC
method is proposed to improve the performance of channel estimation and data detection. Simulation results demonstrate
that this method has lower BLER than IRC and MF algorithm. It also can be seen that channel estimation MSE of IRC
algorithm decreases with iterations and benets from channel
information embedded in data symbols.
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YAN Zhiting was born in 1984. He
received M.S. degree in electrical engineering and is now pursuing Ph.D. degree in
School of Microelectronics at Shanghai Jiao
Tong University, Shanghai, China. His
current research interests include MIMOOFDM channel estimation, data detection
and interference mitigation.

HE
Guanghui
received the
B.S.degree in electronic engineering from
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu,
China, in 2002, and the Ph.D degree in
electronic engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2007. From 2007
to 2009, he was with Legend Silicon Corp,
Fremont, CA. In 2009, he joined the School
of Microelectronics at Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Shanghai, China. His research interests are in the area
of algorithms and VLSI architecture design for wireless communication systems, digital signal processing systems and multimedia
systems.(E-mail: guanghui.he@sjtu.edu.cn)
MA Jun
received the B.S. in electrical engineering from Xian Jiaotong University, China in 1993, the M.S. in applied
mathematics from the University of Houston, TX in 1995, and the Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1999. From 1999 to
2008, as a senior technical sta, engineering manager, and/or founding team member, he subsequently worked at Motorola
Research Labs (Schaumburg, IL), Broadcom Corporation (Irvine,
CA), Attansic Technology (Shanghai, China), and Newport Media
Inc (LakeForest, CA). Since 2008, he has been a Professor in the
School of Microelectronics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.