Design of mmWave massive

MIMO cellular systems

Abbas Kazerouni and Mainak Chowdhury

Faculty mentor: Andrea Goldsmith
Wireless Systems Lab, Stanford University

March 23, 2015

 Future cellular networks

• Higher data rates

• More users
• Greater energy efficiency
 Future cellular networks

• Higher data rates

• More users
• Greater energy efficiency

Enablers for next generation

cellular
• More spectrum
(mmWave)
• Efficient frequency
reuse/coexistence
(massive MIMO)
 Properties of mmWave and massive MIMO

mmWave
• Massive amount of spectrum ⇒ Higher data rates
• Large attenuation from path loss and shadowing
• Stringent ADC requirements
• High speed baseband processor requirements

massive MIMO
• High directivity
• Large antenna array size
• Channel estimation challenges
 mmWave massive MIMO in cellular
Benefits
• Directivity of massive MIMO compensates for high mmWave
attenuation, reduces multipath and multiuser interference
• mmWave frequencies reduce the size required for massive
MIMO antenna arrays
 mmWave massive MIMO in cellular
Benefits
• Directivity of massive MIMO compensates for high mmWave
attenuation, reduces multipath and multiuser interference
• mmWave frequencies reduce the size required for massive
MIMO antenna arrays

Some key challenges in mmWave massive MIMO

• Channel estimation
• ADC requirements and baseband complexity

Massive MIMO testbed, Lund Uni- Hybrid beamforming architecture for mmwave, Samsung, Globecom
versity, Globecom 2014 2014
Our proposed work addresses
these key challenges
 Channel estimation
Pilot contamination
• Reusing the pilots in other cells results in interference
• In the infinite antenna regime, this is the only limiting factor
on the capacity1

1
Marzetta, Thomas L. ”Noncooperative cellular wireless with unlimited numbers of base station antennas.”
IEEE Trans. on Wireless Commun. 9.11 (2010): 3590-3600.
 Pilot contamination in small cells

α
• Cell size reduction mitigates pilot contamination 2 , SIR = R12 ρ


60
α=2
α=4
50 α=4

Worst−Case Capacity (bits/sec/Hz)

α=8

40

30

20

10

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
User Density ρ (person/m2)

• In the infinite antenna regime, cell size reduction increases the

user density and the capacity of each user
2
A. Kazerouni, F. J. Lopez-Martinez, A. Goldsmith, “Increasing capacity in massive MIMO cellular networks
via small cells”, IEEE Globecom workshop, 2014
 Pilot contamination for moderate array sizes

• With non-infinite antenna arrays, the effect of noise and

intra-cell interference is not negligible
cross correlation between columns of H

10−1

10−2

y = Hx + ν, H ∈ Rn×4
10−3

101 102 103 104 105 106

number of antennas
 Pilot contamination for moderate array sizes

• With non-infinite antenna arrays, the effect of noise and

intra-cell interference is not negligible
cross correlation between columns of H

10−1

10−2

y = Hx + ν, H ∈ Rn×4
10−3

101 102 103 104 105 106

number of antennas

• How do these additional factors affect the capacity ?

• How many antennas do we need to have a certain
performance?
 Do we need channel estimation at all?
Short answer
Not always, and not estimating the channel may also address the
second key challenge about baseband processing complexity

3
M. Chowdhury, A. Manolakos, A. Goldsmith, “Coherent versus noncoherent massive SIMO systems: which
has better performance?”, IEEE ICC 2015
4
M. Chowdhury, A. Manolakos, A. Goldsmith, “Noncoherent energy-based communications for the massive
SIMO MAC”, under revision, IEEE Trans. Info. Theory, 2015
 Do we need channel estimation at all?
Short answer
Not always, and not estimating the channel may also address the
second key challenge about baseband processing complexity
Noncoherent architecture for a multiuser SIMO system
• Coherent phase reference may not be necessary 3

k·k2
n

Tx Rx to energy based baseband processor

• Analog or hybrid analog/digital architectures reduce demands

on phase recovery circuits, ADCs, etc. 4

3
M. Chowdhury, A. Manolakos, A. Goldsmith, “Coherent versus noncoherent massive SIMO systems: which
has better performance?”, IEEE ICC 2015
4
M. Chowdhury, A. Manolakos, A. Goldsmith, “Noncoherent energy-based communications for the massive
SIMO MAC”, under revision, IEEE Trans. Info. Theory, 2015
 Do we need channel estimation at all?
Short answer
Not always, and not estimating the channel may also address the
second key challenge about baseband processing complexity
Noncoherent architecture for a multiuser SIMO system
• Coherent phase reference may not be necessary 3

k·k2
n

Tx Rx to energy based baseband processor

• Analog or hybrid analog/digital architectures reduce demands

on phase recovery circuits, ADCs, etc. 4 ⇒ Energy efficiency
3
M. Chowdhury, A. Manolakos, A. Goldsmith, “Coherent versus noncoherent massive SIMO systems: which
has better performance?”, IEEE ICC 2015
4
M. Chowdhury, A. Manolakos, A. Goldsmith, “Noncoherent energy-based communications for the massive
SIMO MAC”, under revision, IEEE Trans. Info. Theory, 2015
Noncoherent architectures for different channel models

MISO, MIMO channels

• Can massive antenna arrays at transmitter be exploited
without channel state information (CSI)?

Wideband
• Number of channel coefficients to be estimated is large
• Multi-carrier energy based system achieves same capacity
scaling behavior as coherent systems 5

• How do single carrier implementations compare with a

multi-carrier implementation?

5
M. Chowdhury, A. Manolakos, F. Gomez-Cuba, E. Erkip, A. Goldsmith, “ Capacity scaling in noncoherent
wideband massive SIMO systems”, IEEE ITW, Jerusalem, 2015
 Validation of theory on empirical channel models

Empirical channel models for mmWave

• mmWave channel models still being developed
• Gains depend on models used
• Correlation in Rx antenna reduces capacity due to loss in
diversity
uncorrelated ergodic capacity

correlated ergodic capacity

8 8

6 6

4 4

101 101.5 102 102.5 101 101.5 102 102.5

number of antennas number of antennas
 Validation of theory on empirical channel models

Empirical channel models for mmWave

• mmWave channel models still being developed
• Gains depend on models used
• Correlation in Rx antenna reduces capacity due to loss in
diversity
uncorrelated ergodic capacity

correlated ergodic capacity

8 8

6 6

4 4

101 101.5 102 102.5 101 101.5 102 102.5

number of antennas number of antennas

• How do results change for real life mmWave channels?

• How does correlation affect general MIMO transmission?
Thanks for your attention
Thanks for your attention

Questions ?