Mutual Coupling Calibration for Multiuser Massive MIMO Systems

Abstract

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is a promising technique to greatly increase the spectral efficiency and may be adopted by the next generation mobile communication systems. Base stations (BSs) equipped with large-scale antennas can serve multiple users simultaneously by exploiting the downlink precoding in time division duplex (TDD) mode. However, channel state information (CSI) of uplink transmissions cannot be simply used for downlink precoding, because the gain mismatches of the transceiver radio frequency (RF) circuits disable the channel reciprocity. In this paper, we focus on antenna calibration for massive MIMO systems with maximal ratio transmit (MRT) precoding to solve the channel nonreciprocity problem. A new calibration method, called mutual coupling calibration, is proposed by using the effect of mutual coupling between adjacent antennas. By exploiting this method, the BS can perform the calibration without extra hardware circuit and users' involvement. We also build up the model of calibration error and derive the closed-form expressions of the ergodic sum-rates for evaluating the impact of calibration error on system performance. Simulation results verify the high calibration accuracy of the proposed method and show the significant improvement of system performance by performing antenna calibration.