Massive MIMO is known as a promising technology for multiuser multiplexing in the fifth generation mobile communication system to accommodate the rapidly-increasing traffic. It has a large number of antenna elements and thus provides very sharp beams. As seen in hybrid beamforming, there have already been many papers on the concatenation of two precoders (beamformers). The inner precoder, i.e., a multi-beam former, performs a linear transformation between the element space and the beam space. The outer precoder forms nulls in the limited beam space spanned by selected beams to suppress the inter-user interference. In this two-step precoder, the beam shape is expected to determine the system performance. In this paper, we evaluate the achievable throughput performance for different beam-shaping schemes: a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) beam, Chebyshev weighted beams, and Taylor weighted beam. Simulations show that the DFT beam provides the best performance except the case of imperfect precoding and cell edge SNR of 30dB.

The number of studies on adaptive antennas has greately increased in resent years in Japan. Most of these studies have sought to enhance the capacity and suppress multipath signals in wireless mobile communications. Adaptive antennas are expected to play an important role in future mobile radio systems. In this paper, we review the history and trends of adaptive antenna studies in Japan. We describe typical adaptive processing algorithms and contributions by Japanese researchers. We then introduce some applications of adaptive antennas for mobile communications. Furthermore, we discuss multi-dimensional signal processing, which is an extended version of the adaptive antenna.

It is difficult for an adaptive array to reduce interference signals efficiently from received signals when the interference signals and desired signal are closely located. This is a problem for a spatial division multiple access (SDMA) system using the multibeam adaptive array as a multiuser detector. In this paper, we propose a space domain multistage interference canceller (SD-MIC) for the SDMA system. Its performance is evaluated by computer simulations, assuming Japanese personal handy phone system (PHS) uplink environments. The results show remarkable improvement in high spatial correlation situations.

Sparse modeling is one of the most active research areas in engineering and science. The technique provides solutions from far fewer samples exploiting sparsity, that is, the majority of the data are zero. This paper reviews sparse modeling in radio techniques. The first half of this paper introduces direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation from signals received by multiple antennas. The estimation is carried out using compressed sensing, an effective tool for the sparse modeling, which produces solutions to an underdetermined linear system with a sparse regularization term. The DOA estimation performance is compared among three compressed sensing algorithms. The second half reviews channel state information (CSI) acquisitions in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In time-varying environments, CSI estimated with pilot symbols may be outdated at the actual transmission time. We describe CSI prediction based on sparse DOA estimation, and show excellent precoding performance when using the CSI prediction. The other topic in the second half is sparse Bayesian learning (SBL)-based channel estimation. A base station (BS) has many antennas in a massive MIMO system. A major obstacle for using the massive MIMO system in frequency-division duplex mode is an overhead for downlink CSI acquisition because we need to send many pilot symbols from the BS and to get the feedback from user equipment. An SBL-based channel estimation method can mitigate this issue. In this paper, we describe the outline of the method, and show that the technique can reduce the downlink pilot symbols.

Frequency-domain equalization (FDE) has been studied for suppressing inter-symbol interference (ISI) due to frequency selective fading in single carrier systems. When a high-mobility terminal is assumed in the system, channel transition within an FDE block cannot be ignored. The ISI reduction performance of FDE degrades since the cyclicity of the channel matrix is lost. To solve this problem, a method of dividing the received data block into multiple subblocks has been proposed, where pseudo cyclic prefix (CP) processing is introduced to realize periodicity in each subblock. In this method, the performance is degraded by the inherently-inaccurate pseudo CP. In this paper, we study the application of frequency-domain turbo equalization (FDTE) to subblock processing for improving the accuracy of pseudo CP. The simulation results show that FDTE with subblock processing yields remarkable performance improvements.

Cochannel interference and multipath propagation reduce the performance of mobile communication systems. Multi-input MLSE with whitening processing can mitigate the influence of the interference and provide path diversity gain. In conventional considerations, however, the required complexity rapidly rises with the number of array elements. In this paper, we propose multi-input MLSE that whitens error signals in the signal space by using a multibeam adaptive array. This scheme can reduce the computational load of multi-input MLSE than the conventional type when using a large-element array. The results of an analysis show that the proposed type is equivalent to conventional one in the sense of the metric and provides less computational complexity.

A sub-Terahertz band is envisioned to play a great role in 6G to achieve extreme high data-rate communication. In addition to very wide band transmission, we need spatial multiplexing using a hybrid MIMO system. A recently presented paper, however, reveals that the number of observed multipath components in a sub-Terahertz band is very few in indoor environments. A channel with few multipath components is called sparse. The number of layers (streams), i.e. multiplexing gain in a MIMO system does not exceed the number of multipaths. The sparsity may restrict the spatial multiplexing gain of sub-Terahertz systems, and the poor multiplexing gain may limit the data rate of communication systems. This paper describes fundamental considerations on sub-Terahertz MIMO spatial multiplexing in indoor environments. We examined how we should steer analog beams to multipath components to achieve higher channel capacity. Furthermore, for different beam allocation schemes, we investigated eigenvalue distributions of a channel Gram matrix, power allocation to each layer, and correlations between analog beams. Through simulation results, we have revealed that the analog beams should be steered to all the multipath components to lower correlations and to achieve higher channel capacity.

In future mobile radio, high-speed transmission and efficient spectrum utilization will be important. However, multipath propagation with large delay difference and cochannel interference are obstacles to the advanced mobile communication system. An adaptive antenna can suppress multipath signals and cochannel interference signals. This paper reviews basic performance of multipath fading reduction and cochannel interference suppression using the adaptive antenna. After a brief explanation of adaptive antenna concepts, we show simulation and experimental results of the fading reduction. It is pointed out that the adaptive antenna cancels multipath signals with large delay difference strongly. This feature is very important for high-speed TDMA systems. Moreover, it is shown from simulation results that the adaptive antenna improves the spectrum efficiency by suppressing the cochannel interference signals.

A time-reversal (TR) approach with multiple signal classification (MUSIC) provides super-resolution for detection and localization using multistatic data collected from an array antenna system. The theory of TR-MUSIC assumes that the number of antenna elements is greater than that of scatterers (targets). Furthermore, it requires many sets of frequency-domain data (snapshots) in seriously noisy environments. Unfortunately, these conditions are not practical for real environments due to the restriction of a reasonable antenna structure as well as limited measurement time. We propose an approach that treats both noise reduction and relaxation of the transceiver restriction by using a time-domain gating technique accompanied with the Fourier transform before applying the TR-MUSIC imaging algorithm. Instead of utilizing the conventional multistatic data matrix (MDM), we employ a modified MDM obtained from the gating technique. The resulting imaging functions yield more reliable images with only a few snapshots regardless of the limitation of the antenna arrays.

Ultrawide-band impulse radio (UWB-IR) technology and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems have attracted interest regarding their use in next-generation high-speed radio communication. We have studied the use of MIMO ultrawide-band (MIMO-UWB) systems to enable higher-speed radio communication. We used frequency-domain equalization based on the minimum mean square error criterion (MMSE-FDE) to reduce intersymbol interference (ISI) and co-channel interference (CCI) in MIMO-UWB systems. Because UWB systems are expected to be used for short-range wireless communication, MIMO-UWB systems will usually operate in line-of-sight (LOS) environments and direct waves will be received at the receiver side. Direct waves have high power and cause high correlations between antennas in such environments. Thus, it is thought that direct waves will adversely affect the performance of spatial filtering and equalization techniques used to enhance signal detection. To examine the feasibility of MIMO-UWB systems, we conducted MIMO-UWB system propagation measurements in LOS environments. From the measurements, we found that the arrival time of direct waves from different transmitting antennas depends on the MIMO configuration. Because we can obtain high power from the direct waves, direct wave reception is critical for maximizing transmission performance. In this paper, we present our measurement results, and propose a way to improve performance using a method of transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) timing control. We evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance for this form of timing control using measured channel data.

A distributed antenna system, where the antennas of a base station are spatially distributed throughout the cell, can achieve better throughput at the cell edge than a centralized antenna system. On the other hand, the peak throughput degrades in general because each remote antenna unit has only a few antennas. To achieve both high peak and cell-edge throughputs, we need to increase the total number of antennas. However, this is not easy due to the pilot resource limitation when we use frequency division duplexing. In this paper, we propose using more antennas than pilot resources. The number mismatch between antennas and signals is solved by using a connection matrix. Here, we test two types of connection matrix: signal-distributing and signal-switching. Simulation results show that the sum throughput is improved by increasing the number of antenna elements per remote antenna unit under a constraint on the same number of pilot resources.

Currently, space division multiplexing (SDM), where individual data streams are transmitted from different antennas simultaneously, is expected to be a promising technology for achieving a high data rate within a limited frequency band in a multiple-input multiple-output channel. In this paper, transmitter and receiver architectures of SDM applications are described, and performance improvement with the increase of data streams is shown referring to results of computer simulations. In addition, channel coded systems are also evaluated.

We consider space division multiplexing in a MIMO-OFDM system for high data rate transmission. Channel estimation is very important for suppressing interference and demultiplexing signals. In a wireless LAN system such as IEEE 802.11a, only a few training symbols are inserted in each subcarrier. First, we propose a channel estimation method for a MIMO-OFDM system with two training symbols per subcarrier. The basic idea is to estimate the time-domain channel responses between the transmit and receive antennas. The array response vectors for each subcarrier are calculated by applying a fast Fourier transform to them. We then can obtain the adaptive weights to cancel the interference. We show that employing training symbols having a lower condition number of the matrix used for the channel estimation improves the estimation accuracy. Furthermore, we show the bit error rate for several signal detection schemes using the above estimated channel. It is shown that an ordered successive detection based on an MMSE criterion has excellent performance, that is, it can achieve higher-speed transmissions with a lower transmit power.

A uniform circular array (UCA) is a well-known array configuration which can accomplish estimation of 360 field of view with identical accuracy. However, a UCA cannot estimate coherent signals because we cannot apply the SSP owing to the structure of UCA. Although a variety of studies on UCA in coherent multipath environments have been done, it is impossible to estimate the DOA of coherent signals with different incident polar angles. Then, we have proposed Root-MUSIC algorithm with a cylindrical array. However, the estimation performance is degraded when incident signals arrive with close polar angles. To solve this problem, in the letter, we propose to use SAGE algorithm with a cylindrical array. Here, we adopt a CLA Root-MUSIC for the initial estimation and decompose two-dimensional search to double one-dimensional search to reduce the calculation load. The results show that the proposal achieves high resolution with low complexity.

MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) technologies have attracted much interest for high-rate and high-capacity wireless communications. MIMO technologies under frequency-selective fading environments (wideband MIMO technologies) have also been studied. A wideband MIMO system is affected by ISI (Inter Symbol Interference) and CCI (Co-Channel Interference). Hence, we need a MIMO signal detection technique that simultaneously suppresses ISI and CCI. The OFDM system and SC-FDE (Single Carrier-Frequency Domain Equalization) techniques are often used for suppressing ISI. By employing these techniques with the ZF (Zero Forcing) or the MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error) spatial filtering technique, we can cancel both ISI and CCI. To use ZF or MMSE, we need channel state information for calculating the receive weights. Although an LS (Least Square) channel estimation technique has been proposed for MIMO-OFDM systems, it needs a large estimation matrix at the receiver side to obtain sufficient estimation performance in heavy multipath environments. However, the use of a large matrix increases computational complexity and the circuit size. We use frequency domain channel estimation to solve these problems and propose an iterative method for achieving better estimation performance. In this paper, we assume the use of a MIMO-UWB system that employs a UWB-IR (Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radio) scheme with the FDE technique as the wideband wireless transmission scheme for heavy multipath environments, and we evaluate the iterative frequency domain channel estimation through computer simulations and computational complexity calculations.

In time-varying fading environments, the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems applying an eigenbeam-space division multiplexing (E-SDM) technique may be degraded due to a channel change during the time interval between the transmit weight matrix determination and the actual data transmission. To compensate for the channel change, we have proposed some channel prediction methods. Simulation results based on computer-generated channel data showed that better performance can be obtained when using the prediction methods in Rayleigh fading environments assuming the Jakes model with rich scatterers. However, actual MIMO systems may be used in line-of-sight (LOS) environments, and even in a non-LOS case, scatterers may not be uniformly distributed around a receiver and/or a transmitter. In addition, mutual coupling between antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver cannot be ignored as it affects the system performance in actual implementation. We conducted MIMO channel measurement campaigns at a 5.2 GHz frequency band to evaluate the channel prediction techniques. In this paper, we present the experiment and simulation results using the measured channel data. The results show that robust bit-error rate performance is obtained when using the channel prediction methods and that the methods can be used in both Rayleigh and Rician fading environments, and do not need to know the maximum Doppler frequency.

MIMO systems using a space division multiplexing (SDM) technique in which each transmit antenna sends an independent signal substream have been studied as one of the successful applications to increase data rates in wireless communications. The throughput of a MIMO channel can be maximized by using an eigenbeam-SDM (E-SDM) technique, and this paper investigates the practical performance of 22 and 44 MIMO E-SDM based on indoor measurements. The channel capacity and bit error rate obtained in various uniform linear array configurations are evaluated and are compared with the corresponding values for conventional SDM. Analysis results show that the bit error rate performance of E-SDM is better than that of SDM and that E-SDM gives better performance in line-of-sight (LOS) conditions than in non-LOS ones. They also show that the performance of E-SDM in LOS conditions depends very much on the array configuration.

Recently, much progress has been made in the study of belief propagation (BP) based signal detection with large-scale factor graphs. When we apply the BP algorithm to equalization in a SISO multipath channel, the corresponding factor graph has many short loops and patterns in an edge connection/strength. Thus, proper convergence may not be achieved. In general, the log-likelihood ratio (LLR) oscillates in ill-converged cases. Therefore, LLR oscillation avoidance is important for BP-based equalization. In this paper, we propose applying node selection (NS) to prevent the LLR from oscillating. The NS extends the loop length virtually by a serial LLR update. Thus, some performance improvement is expected. Simulation results show that the error floor is significantly reduced by NS in the uncoded case and that the NS works very well in the coded case.

For simulating i.i.d. time-varying MIMO channels using multiple Jakes' rings, it is desirable to generate channels having stable statistics with fewer scatterers. The statistical property of the conventional Jakes' model may depend on the initial phase set assigned to scattering points. In this letter, we present simple and effective conditions on arrangement of scattering points to achieve stable fading properties. The results show that the proposed arrangement provides higher statistical stability in generating time-varying channels.

Mainly, a uniform linear array (ULA) has been used for DOA estimation of coherent signals because we can apply the spatial smoothing preprocessing (SSP) technique. However, estimation by a ULA has ambiguity due to the symmetry, and the estimation accuracy depends on the DOA. Although these problems can be solved by using a uniform circular array (UCA), we cannot estimate the DOA of coherent signals because the SSP technique cannot be applied directly to the UCA. In this paper, we propose to estimate 2-dimensional DOA (polar angles and azimuth angles) estimation of coherent signals using a cylindrical array which is composed of stacked UCAs.