Joint Signal and Channel Estimation for Multiuser MIMO
Relay Systems
Rui Chang; Jianhe Du; Yueer Mao; Siyu Ye
Communication University of China
School of Information and Engineering, Communication University of China, Beijing 100024
E-Mail: dujianhe1@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
In order to solve the problem of signal detection and channel
estimation in multiuser multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) relay
systems, a method of joint signal and channel estimation based on
a parallel factor (PARAFAC) model has been proposed in this
paper. Above all, this paper considers a Gaussian multiple-access
channel with an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay. Each of the users
spreads the corresponding information symbol matrix and encodes
it using space-time coding technique. And the relay amplifies the
received signals and forwards amplified signals to the destination.
After being processed, the received signals at the destination node
can be formulated as a PARAFAC model with the uniqueness of
decomposition. Thus, the transmitted symbols of each user can be
detected and the compound channel can be estimated
simultaneously. In addition, the method has better estimation
performance when the number of the antennas at the destination is
less than that of all the users. Simulation results show the
effectiveness of the proposed method.
CCS Concepts
•Applied computing ➝ Physics
Keywords
Multiple-access channel; signal detection; channel estimation;
PARAFAC; MIMO relay.
1. INTRODUCTION
With the demand for higher data rates and wider network coverage
increasing in the wireless communications, MIMO relays have
drawn more and more research attention recently. Relaying
strategies can be classified into non-regenerative relaying (e.g.,
amplify-and-forward (AF)) and regenerative relaying (e.g.,
decode-and-forward (DF)). In consideration of lower cost and
smaller delays in practice, we concentrate on the AF relaying
schemes [1] in which the relay simply amplifies the received
signals subject to a power constraint. The MIMO AF relaying is a
promising solution for upcoming wireless standards due to its
intrinsic benefits in terms of extended coverage and increased
spatial diversity [2]. Apart from relays, the deployment of nodes
with multiple antennas helps to further increase the achievable
data rates. What’s more, multidimensional signaling methods of
processing signals in time, space, frequency and code dimensions
are helpful for increasing the communication reliability and
improving the data rates [3-5].
A multi-user receiver based on a PARAFAC model [6, 7] has been
proposed for AF relay communication system. The multiple-user
receiver in [8] can carry out the joint estimation spatial signatures,
channel gains and transmitted symbols of all users. In order to
improve the accuracy of estimation, a bilinear alternating
least-squares (BALS) based receiver is proposed in [9] for the
two-top relay systems. The BALS algorithm in [9] needs less
number of training data blocks than the least-squares (LS)
algorithm in [10]. Meanwhile, Khatri-Rao space-time (KRST)
coding technique proposed in [11] has received considerable
attention because of its ability to design space-time codes with
full-rate or full-diversity, or variable rate diversity tradeoff [12-14].
For a one-way two-hop relaying scenario, [15] considers a KRST
coding [16] at the source node and proposes a multi-block AF
processing at the relay node. The use of KRST coding at the
source allows successfully exploiting a PARAFAC model of the
received signals tensor for joint transmitted sequences and channel
estimation. A theoretical study on the uniqueness issues for the
BALS-based receiver is also carried out and the estimation
performance is simulated by computer simulations.
In the multiuser MIMO relay system, a method of joint signal and
channel estimation has been proposed in this paper. The
transmitted information matrix is encoded by using KRST coding
technique. Through the AF relay, the received signals at the
destination can be structured as a PARAFAC model. Finally, the
transmitted information can be detected and the compound
channel can be estimated on the basis of the BALS algorithm.
The work is structured as follows: In Section 2, we introduce the
PARAFAC model and analyze the uniqueness conditions. In
section 3, we put forward the multiple-access channel model as the
system model and show the multiple-user received signals at the
destination can be formulated as a PARAFAC model. This section
also analyzes the uniqueness conditions in the system. In Section 4,
the application of the BALS algorithm helps to slove the joint
channel and symbol estimation problem by capitalizing on the
algebraic structure of the PARAFAC model. Simulation results are
provided in Section 5. Finally, some conclusions are drawn in
section 6.
2. PARAFAC MODEL
PARAFAC analysis, which is also called trilinear decomposition,
is a generation of two-way factor analysis to three-way or
high-way data. The outer product of three vectors is a rank-one
three-way tensor. In fact, the rank of the tensor is defined as the
minimum number of rank-one tensors needed to produce a given
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ICCIS 2017, November 7-9, 2017, Wuhan, China
© 2017 Association for Computing Machinery.
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5348-9/17/11…$15.00
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/ 3158233.3159329