Hybrid Analog-digital Architecture Research Articles

A scalable hybrid analog-digital architecture for multi-channel feedforward active noise control

This paper proposes a hybrid analog-digital architecture, aimed at reducing hardware resource consumption and improving the scalability of a multi-channel feedforward active noise control system to accommodate a large number of error microphones. This hybrid architecture employs a partial-update filtered-x least mean squares algorithm that is lightweight and suitable for real-time execution, as it updates the control filters in each iteration using only two selected error signals. The selection of these two error signals is achieved through a dedicated analog circuit comprising analog comparators and multiplexers. Thus, the hybrid architecture requires only two analog-to-digital converters for error signals, regardless of the number of error microphones. Experiments were conducted on two active noise control casings, demonstrating that, with a specific computational capacity, the proposed hybrid architecture can accommodate significantly longer control filters, resulting in higher steady-state noise reduction. Moreover, additional error microphones were introduced to demonstrate the scalability. The hybrid architecture simplifies the implementation of the multi-channel feedforward active noise control system when additional error microphones are needed for more evenly distributed residual noise levels or a larger zone of quiet.

Deep Learning-Based Channel Estimation for Wideband Hybrid MmWave Massive MIMO

Hybrid analog-digital (HAD) architecture is widely adopted in practical millimeter wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to reduce hardware cost and energy consumption. However, channel estimation in the context of HAD is challenging due to only limited radio frequency (RF) chains at transceivers. Although various compressive sensing (CS) algorithms have been developed to solve this problem by exploiting inherent channel sparsity and sparsity structures, practical effects, such as power leakage and beam squint, can still make the real channel features deviate from the assumed models and result in performance degradation. Besides, the high complexity of CS algorithms caused by a large number of iterations hinders their applications in practice. To tackle these issues, we develop a deep learning (DL)-based channel estimation approach where the sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) algorithm is unfolded into a deep neural network (DNN). In each SBL layer, Gaussian variance parameters of the sparse angular domain channel are updated by a tailored DNN, which is able to capture complicated channel sparsity structures in various domains effectively and efficiently. The measurement matrix is jointly optimized for performance improvement. Then, the proposed approach is extended to the multi-block case where channel correlation in time is further exploited to adaptively predict the measurement matrix and facilitate the update of variance parameters. Simulation results show that the proposed approaches outperform existing approaches in terms of both performance and complexity.

Simultaneous Channel Estimation and Localization of Terahertz Massive MIMO Systems via Bayesian Tensor Decomposition

In this letter, a Bayesian tensor-based scheme is proposed for simultaneous channel estimation and localization (SCEAL) in wideband terahertz (THz) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with hybrid analog-digital architectures. Considering the beam squint effect, we construct the received training signal into a sixth-order tensor model, including the angle-of-arrival (AOA)/angle-of-departure (AOD), time delay, and path gains. Then, a real-valued Bayesian inference algorithm is developed to fit the constructed tensor model for SCEAL. The proposed algorithm achieves SCEAL with and without line-of-sight (LOS) path, and offers higher accuracy compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms. Simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Partially-Connected Hybrid Beamforming Design for Integrated Sensing and Communication Systems

Beamforming design is an important technique for enhancing the performance of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems. However, related research based on the hybrid analog-digital (HAD) architecture is still limited. In this paper, we investigate the partially-connected hybrid beamforming design for multi-user ISAC systems. Instead of the commonly used beampattern related metric, the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) is employed as the sensing performance metric for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. We aim to minimize the CRB while satisfying the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraints for individual communication users by jointly optimizing the digital and analog beamformers. Subsequently, we propose an alternating optimization based framework, which is significantly different from the conventional methods based on the approximation of the optimal fully-digital beamformer with a hybrid one. We also consider an alternative formulation of optimizing the SINR of radar echo signals. Based on optimal receive beamformer design, we transform the SINR based joint transmitter and receiver optimization problem to a series of problems sharing a similar form with the CRB based transmitter optimization problem, which can be efficiently solved via the proposed algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed designs provide significant performance gains in DOA estimation over the existing beampattern approximation based design.

A low‐computational‐cost alternating switches algorithm for real‐valued spatial covariance matrix reconstruction

The application of the emerging hybrid analog–digital architecture for future millimeter-wave communications has attracted significant attention. Although this architecture can reduce the hardware cost and power consumption considerably, the high-resolution direction of arrival (DOA) estimation in the architecture based on switches is still a challenge. As a solution, an alternating switches algorithm (ASA) is proposed in this paper. By appropriately adjusting the switch connected to each antenna, the real-valued spatial covariance matrix (SCM) is reconstructed with low-dimensional vector-to-vector multiplication. Subsequently, the DOA angle of each signal is estimated based on a split subspace extracted from the real-valued SCM. Finally, a set of simulation experiments are performed to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. The results indicate that the ASA can reconstruct the real-valued SCM and realize high-resolution DOA estimation with a substantially low computational cost.

An Attention-Aided Deep Learning Framework for Massive MIMO Channel Estimation

Channel estimation is one of the key issues in practical massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Compared with conventional estimation algorithms, deep learning (DL) based ones have exhibited great potential in terms of performance and complexity. In this paper, an attention mechanism, exploiting the channel distribution characteristics, is proposed to improve the estimation accuracy of highly separable channels with narrow angular spread by realizing the “divide-and-conquer” policy. Specifically, we introduce a novel attention-aided DL channel estimation framework for conventional massive MIMO systems and devise an embedding method to effectively integrate the attention mechanism into the fully connected neural network for the hybrid analog-digital (HAD) architecture. Simulation results show that in both scenarios, the channel estimation performance is significantly improved with the aid of attention at the cost of small complexity overhead. Furthermore, strong robustness under different system and channel parameters can be achieved by the proposed approach, which further strengthens its practical value. We also investigate the distributions of learned attention maps to reveal the role of attention, which endows the proposed approach with a certain degree of interpretability.

Tensor Dictionary Manifold Learning for Channel Estimation and Interference Elimination of Multi-User Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO Systems

Millimeter Wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with hybrid analog-digital architectures can greatly increase system capacity and communicate with multiple users at the same time. Accurate channel estimation is crucial for multi-user communications, but its accuracy is limited as the number of antennas and users increases. In the matrix high-dimensional operation for multi-user channel estimation, not only is it computationally intensive, but also the estimation accuracy is low. It makes our work turn to channel estimation of the user group within a certain region to improve the accuracy of estimation. In this paper, we propose a tensor dictionary manifold learning method for channel estimation and interference elimination of the multi-user mmWave massive MIMO system. A multi-user digital-analog mixed received signal model is presented. The tensor dictionary manifold learning scheme is proposed to model the received signal as a third-order low-rank tensor to handle the high-dimensional user, antenna, and channel. After segmentation, clustering and manifold learning, multiple tensor dictionary manifold models containing a group of user signals are fitted. Tensor dictionary manifold learning can take advantage of the inherent multi-domain properties of signals in the frequency, time, code and spatial domains to maintain inter-user correlation within a user group while reducing the high-dimensional channels of the user group. Using the convex relaxation property of the tensor alternating direction method, we propose a strategy to eliminate interference from other groups. And with the help of the multi-signal classification method, the channel parameters of user groups are obtained to improve the accuracy of multi-user channel estimation. This method can perform channel estimation for multiple users with only a few pilots, and improve the performance of the system. Numerical results confirm the good performance of this method.

Site-specific millimeter-wave compressive channel estimation algorithms with hybrid MIMO architectures

In this paper, we present and compare three novel model-cum-data-driven channel estimation procedures in a millimeter-wave Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) wireless communication system. The transceivers employ a hybrid analog-digital architecture. We adapt techniques from a wide range of signal processing methods, such as detection and estimation theories, compressed sensing, and Bayesian inference, to learn the unknown virtual beamspace domain dictionary, as well as the delay-and-beamspace sparse channel. We train the model-based algorithms with a site-specific training dataset generated using a realistic ray tracing-based wireless channel simulation tool. We assess the performance of the proposed channel estimation algorithms with the same site's test data. We benchmark the performance of our novel procedures in terms of normalized mean squared error against an existing fast greedy method and empirically show that model-based approaches combined with data-driven customization unanimously outperform the state-of-the-art techniques by a large margin. The proposed algorithms were selected as the top three solutions in the "ML5G-PHY Channel Estimation Global Challenge 2020" organized by the International Telecommunication Union.

Energy-Efficient Hybrid Symbol-Level Precoding for Large-Scale mmWave Multiuser MIMO Systems

We address the symbol-level precoding design problem for the downlink of a multiuser millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless system where the transmitter is equipped with a large-scale antenna array. The high cost and power consumption associated with the massive use of radio frequency (RF) chains prohibit fully-digital implementation of the precoder, and therefore, we consider a hybrid analog-digital architecture where a small-sized baseband precoder is followed by two successive networks of analog on-off switches and variable phase shifters according to a fully-connected structure. We jointly optimize the digital baseband precoder and the states of the switching network on a symbol-level basis, i.e., by exploiting both the channel state information (CSI) and the instantaneous data symbols, whereas the phase-shifting network is designed only based on the CSI due to practical considerations. Our approach to this joint optimization is to minimize the Euclidean distance between the optimal fully-digital and the hybrid symbol-level precoders. Remarkably, the use of a switching network allows for power-savings in the analog precoder by switching some of the phase shifters off according to the instantaneously optimized states of the switches. Our numerical results indicate that, on average, up to 50 percent of the phase shifters can be switched off. We provide an analysis of energy efficiency by adopting appropriate power dissipation models for the analog precoder, where it is shown that the energy efficiency of precoding can substantially be improved thanks to the phase shifter selection approach, compared to the fully-digital and the state-of-the-art hybrid symbol-level schemes.

MmWave Channel Estimation via Compressive Covariance Estimation: Role of Sparsity and Intra-Vector Correlation

In this work, we address the problem of multiple-input multiple-output mmWave channel estimation in a hybrid analog-digital architecture, by exploiting both the underlying spatial sparsity as well as the spatial correlation in the channel. We accomplish this via compressive covariance estimation, where we estimate the channel covariance matrix from noisy low dimensional projections of the channel obtained in the pilot transmission phase. We use the estimated covariance matrix as a plug-in to the linear minimum mean square estimator to obtain the channel estimate. We present a new Gaussian prior model, inspired by sparse Bayesian learning (SBL), which incorporates parameters to capture the channel correlation in addition to sparsity. Based on this prior, we develop the Corr-SBL algorithm, which uses an expectation maximization procedure to learn the parameters of the prior and update the posterior channel estimates. A closed form solution is obtained for the maximization step based on fixed-point iterations. To facilitate practical implementation, an online version of the algorithm is developed which significantly reduces the latency at a marginal loss in performance. The efficacy of the prior model is studied by analyzing the normalized mean squared error in the channel estimate. Our results show that, when compared to a genie-aided estimator and other existing sparse recovery algorithms, exploiting both sparsity and correlation results in significant performance gains, even under imperfect covariance estimates obtained using a limited number of samples.

Two-Step Multiuser Equalization for Hybrid mmWave Massive MIMO GFDM Systems

Although millimeter-wave (mmWave) and massive multiple input multiple output (mMIMO) can be considered as promising technologies for future mobile communications (beyond 5G or 6G), some hardware limitations limit their applicability. The hybrid analog-digital architecture has been introduced as a possible solution to avoid such issues. In this paper, we propose a two-step hybrid multi-user (MU) equalizer combined with low complexity hybrid precoder for wideband mmWave mMIMO systems, as well as a semi-analytical approach to evaluate its performance. The new digital non-orthogonal multi carrier modulation scheme generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) is considered owing to its efficient performance in terms of achieving higher spectral efficiency, better control of out-of-band (OOB) emissions, and lower peak to average power ratio (PAPR) when compared with the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) access technique. First, a low complexity analog precoder is applied on the transmitter side. Then, at the base station (BS), the analog coefficients of the hybrid equalizer are obtained by minimizing the mean square error (MSE) between the hybrid approach and the full digital counterpart. For the digital part, zero-forcing (ZF) is used to cancel the MU interference not mitigated by the analog part. The performance results show that the performance gap of the proposed hybrid scheme to the full digital counterpart reduces as the number of radio frequency (RF) chains increases. Moreover, the theoretical curves almost overlap with the simulated ones, which show that the semi-analytical approach is quite accurate.

Tensor-Based Channel Estimation for Millimeter Wave MIMO-OFDM With Dual-Wideband Effects

We consider the channel estimation problem in millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems with hybrid analog-digital architectures. Leveraging the spatial- and frequency-wideband (dual-wideband) effects in massive MIMO scenarios, we derive a spatial-frequency channel model with dual-wideband effects that incorporates the multipath parameters, i.e., time delay, complex gain, angle of departure/arrival. We adopt a successive beam training scheme and formulate the training OFDM signal as a third-order low-rank tensor fitting a canonical polyadic (CP) model with factor matrices containing the channel parameters. Exploiting the Vandermonde nature of factor matrices, we propose a structured CP decomposition-based channel estimation strategy aided by the spatial smoothing method, where two dedicated algorithms with particular tensor modeling and parameter recovery operations are developed. The proposed scheme leverages standard linear algebra, and, hence, avoids the random initialization problem and iterative procedure. An analysis of the uniqueness condition of CP decomposition is also pursued. Simulation results indicate that the proposed strategy achieves enhanced estimation performance, which outperforms the traditional approaches in terms of accuracy, robustness and complexity.

Spatial Covariance Estimation for Millimeter Wave Hybrid Systems Using Out-of-Band Information

In high mobility applications of millimeter wave (mmWave) communications, e.g., vehicle-to-everything communication and next-generation cellular communication, frequent link configuration can be a source of significant overhead. We use the sub-6 GHz channel covariance as an out-of-band side information for mmWave link configuration. Assuming: 1) a fully digital architecture at sub-6 GHz and 2) a hybrid analog–digital architecture at mmWave, we propose an out-of-band covariance translation approach and an out-of-band aided compressed covariance estimation approach. For covariance translation, we estimate the parameters of sub-6 GHz covariance and use them in theoretical expressions of covariance matrices to predict the mmWave covariance. For out-of-band aided covariance estimation, we use weighted sparse signal recovery to incorporate out-of-band information in compressed covariance estimation. The out-of-band covariance translation eliminates the in-band training completely, whereas out-of-band aided covariance estimation relies on in-band as well as out-of-band training. We also analyze the loss in the signal-to-noise ratio due to an imperfect estimate of the covariance. The simulation results show that the proposed covariance estimation strategies can reduce the training overhead compared to the in-band only covariance estimation.

Hybrid Analog-Digital Beamforming Design for SE and EE Maximization in Massive MIMO Networks

Hybrid analog-digital (HAD) beamforming architectures have been proposed to facilitate the practical implementation of massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems by reducing the number of employed radio frequency chains. While most prior studies have aimed to maximize spectral efficiency (SE), the present paper proposes a two-stage HAD beamforming design for multi-user MIMO systems that can be used to maximize either the system's overall energy efficiency (EE) or SE. This problem is nonconvex and NP-hard due to the joint optimization between the analog and digital domains and the constant modulus constraints required by the analog domain. To address this problem, we propose a decoupled two-stage design wherein the first stage, the analog beamforming parts are updated, which are then taken into account in the second stage to design the digital beamforming parts to maximize the system's EE or SE. We consider two widely-used HAD beamforming techniques that utilize either fully-connected (FC) or partially-connected (PC) architectures employing variable phase-shifters. Using the most recently available data for the circuitry power consumption of the components, we compare the performance of these two HAD architectures with that of the fully-digital (FD) architecture in terms of the total circuitry power consumption, and achieved SE and EE. We find that there is a certain number of users above which the FC architecture has higher circuitry power consumption than the FD counterpart, in contrast to the PC architecture that always has lower circuitry power consumption. More importantly, our results reveal, contrary to the common opinion, that depending on the circuitry parameters the FD architecture may achieve not only higher SE, but also higher EE than the HAD architectures.

Multi-User Linear Equalizer and Precoder Scheme for Hybrid Sub-Connected Wideband Systems

Millimeter waves and massive multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) are two promising key technologies to achieve the high demands of data rate for the future mobile communication generation. Due to hardware limitations, these systems employ hybrid analog–digital architectures. Nonetheless, most of the works developed for hybrid architectures focus on narrowband channels, and it is expected that millimeter waves be wideband. Moreover, it is more feasible to have a sub-connected architecture than a fully connected one, due to the hardware constraints. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to design a sub-connected hybrid analog–digital multi-user linear equalizer combined with an analog precoder to efficiently remove the multi-user interference. We consider low complexity user terminals employing pure analog precoders, computed with the knowledge of a quantized version of the average angles of departure of each cluster. At the base station, the hybrid multi-user linear equalizer is optimized by using the bit-error-rate (BER) as a metric over all the subcarriers. The analog domain hardware constraints, together with the assumption of a flat analog equalizer over the subcarriers, considerably increase the complexity of the corresponding optimization problem. To simplify the problem at hand, the merit function is first upper bounded, and by leveraging the specific properties of the resulting problem, we show that the analog equalizer may be computed iteratively over the radio frequency (RF) chains by assigning the users in an interleaved fashion to the RF chains. The proposed hybrid sub-connected scheme is compared with a fully connected counterpart.

Multi-User Hybrid MIMO at 60 GHz Using 16-Antenna Transmitters

Given the high throughput requirement for the next generation wireless communication systems, merging millimeter wave technologies and multi-user MIMO seems a very promising strategy to achieve the required 20 Gbps. Although a full digital architecture provides the best performance and flexibility, its implementation at millimeter-wave frequencies today seems unrealistic due to the prohibitive costs and high power consumption. Hybrid analog-digital architectures, efficiently sharing beamforming operations between analog and digital domains, appear as a feasible way to implement multi-user MIMO systems at millimeter wave frequencies. While hybrid architectures have been studied intensively, an effective and flexible demonstration proving the feasibility is still missing. In this paper, we introduce the design of a millimeter wave multi-user MIMO system with hybrid analog and digital processing using 60 GHz radios equipped with phased arrays. A base station, employing two 16-antennas transmitters, serves simultaneously two user equipment devices, each with 4 antenna elements, effectively realizing spatial multiplexing. We propose a complete system design comprising the description of millimeter radio transceivers, the multi-user hybrid MIMO algorithms including a strategy for channel estimation and frequency selective precoding along with the transmission protocol. We show that the spatial multiplexing is achieved in several scenarios, most importantly in a strong interference-limited scenario.

Hybrid Analog-Digital Transceiver Designs for Multi-User MIMO mmWave Cognitive Radio Systems

Millimeter wave (mmWave) band mobile communications can be a solution to the continuously increasing traffic demand in modern wireless systems. Even though mmWave bands are scarcely occupied, the design of a prospect transceiver should guarantee the efficient coexistence with the incumbent services in these bands. To that end, in this paper, multi-user underlay cognitive transceiver designs are proposed that enable the mmWave spectrum access while controlling the interference to the incumbent users. MmWave systems usually require large-scale antenna arrays to achieve satisfactory performance and thus, it is difficult to support fully digital transceiver designs due to high demands in hardware complexity and power consumption. Thus, in order to develop efficient solutions, the proposed approaches are based on a hybrid analog-digital (A/D) architecture. Transceiver designs are developed for both the uplink and the downlink regime of a multi-user cellular system. Efficient algorithmic solutions are proposed for the design of the analog and the digital counterparts of the precoding and the decoding matrices of the latter systems based on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). Simulations show that the performance of the proposed hybrid A/D approaches is very close to the one of the corresponding fully digital transceivers for typical experimental setups.

Hybrid Analog-Digital Processing System for Amplitude-Monopulse RSSI-Based MiMo WiFi Direction-of-Arrival Estimation

We present a cost-effective hybrid analog digital system to estimate the Direction of Arrival (DoA) of WiFi signals. The processing in the analog domain is based on simple well-known RADAR amplitude monopulse antenna techniques. Then, using the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) delivered by a commercial MiMo WiFi cards, the DoA is estimated using the so-called digital monopulse function. Due to the hybrid analog digital architecture, the digital processing is extremely simple, so that DoA estimation is performed without using IQ data from specific hardware. The simplicity and robustness of the proposed hybrid analog digital MiMo architecture is demonstrated for the ISM 2.45 GHz WiFi band. Also, the limitations with respect to multipath effects are studied in detail. As a proof of concept, an array of two MiMo WiFi DoA monopulse readers is distributed to localize the two-dimensional position of WiFi devices. This cost-effective hybrid solution can be applied to all WiFi standards and other Internet of Things narrowband radio protocols, such as Bluetooth Low Energy or Zigbee.

Hybrid Iterative Space-Time Equalization for Multi-User mmW Massive MIMO Systems

The combination of millimeter wave (mmW) with massive MIMO is a promising approach to achieve the multi Gb/s required by future wireless systems. Fully digital architectures are not feasible due to hardware limitations, and thus, the design of signal processing techniques for hybrid analog-digital architectures is of paramount importance. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid iterative block space-time receiver structure for multiuser mmW massive MIMO systems. We consider low-complexity user terminals employing analog-only random precoding and a single RF chain. At the base station, a hybrid analog-digital equalizer/detector is designed to efficiently remove the multiuser interference. The analog and digital parts of the equalizer are jointly optimized using as a metric the average bit-error-rate. The specificities of the analog domain impose several constraints in the joint optimization. To efficiently handle these constraints, the analog part is selected from a dictionary based on the array response vectors. We also propose a simple, yet an accurate semi-analytical approach for obtaining the performance of the proposed hybrid receiver structure. The results show that the performance of the hybrid iterative equalizer is close to the fully digital counterpart after only a few iterations. Moreover, it clearly outperforms the linear receivers recently considered for hybrid mmW massive MIMO architectures.

Iterative Multiuser Equalization for Subconnected Hybrid mmWave Massive MIMO Architecture

Millimeter waves and massive MIMO are a promising combination to achieve the multi-Gb/s required by future 5G wireless systems. However, fully digital architectures are not feasible due to hardware limitations, which means that there is a need to design signal processing techniques for hybrid analog-digital architectures. In this manuscript, we propose a hybrid iterative block multiuser equalizer for subconnected millimeter wave massive MIMO systems. The low complexity user-terminals employ pure-analog random precoders, each with a single RF chain. For the base station, a subconnected hybrid analog-digital equalizer is designed to remove multiuser interference. The hybrid equalizer is optimized using the average bit-error-rate as a metric. Due to the coupling between the RF chains in the optimization problem, the computation of the optimal solutions is too complex. To address this problem, we compute the analog part of the equalizer sequentially over the RF chains using a dictionary built from the array response vectors. The proposed subconnected hybrid iterative multiuser equalizer is compared with a recently proposed fully connected approach. The results show that the performance of the proposed scheme is close to the fully connected hybrid approach counterpart after just a few iterations.