Reconfigurable Hybrid Beamforming for Dual-Polarized mmWave MIMO Channels: Stochastic Channel Modeling and Architectural Adaptation Methods

Abstract

A reconfigurable hybrid beamforming (HBF) system is presented to dynamically exploit the channel diversities and antenna array directivity in millimeter wave (mmWave) channels. To develop an effective method for HBF architecture adaptation in wideband mmWave channels, the performance of an architecture is evaluated based on its average frequency-domain channel capacity. According to our analysis and simulations, the spatial covariance of the frequency-domain channels of using HBF can still be approximately modeled in a Kronecker form. Furthermore, beamforming directivity and channel spatial diversity have different advantages on capacity improvement in different transceiving conditions. Based on the results of channel modeling, system analysis, and simulations, a reconfigurable HBF architecture is thus proposed to enable flexible adjustments of the active subarrays, the antennas and polarizations of each subarray, and the active analog front-end and radio frequency chains linked to the active subarrays. A training procedure is meanwhile developed for the HBF system to learn proper architectures according to the system constraints, the channel statistics, the baseband precoder structure, and the channel capacity between the transmitter and the receiver. Compared with a fixed HBF system, such a reconfigurable system provides 3–15-dB power gains in channel capacity under various simulated channel conditions.