We consider the channel estimation problem and the channel-based wireless applications in multiple-input multipleoutput orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems assisted by intelligent reconfigurable surfaces (IRSs). To obtain the necessary channel parameters, i.e., angles, delays and gains, for environment mapping and user localization, we propose a novel twin-IRS structure consisting of two IRS planes with a relative spatial rotation. We model the training signal from the user equipment to the base station via IRSs as a thirdorder canonical polyadic tensor with a maximal tensor rank equal to the number of IRS unit cells. We present four designs of IRS training coefficients, i.e., random, structured, grouping and sparse patterns, and analyze the corresponding uniqueness conditions of channel estimation. We extract the cascaded channel parameters by leveraging array signal processing and atomic norm denoising techniques. Based on the characteristics of the twin-IRS structures, we formulate a nonlinear equation system to exactly recover the multipath parameters by two efficient decoupling modes. We realize environment mapping and user localization based on the estimated channel parameters. Simulation results indicate that the proposed twin-IRS structure and estimation schemes can recover the channel state information with remarkable accuracy, thereby offering a centimeter-level resolution of user positioning.

We consider the channel estimation problem in millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multipleoutput 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.

We consider the channel estimation problem in multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems assisted by intelligent reconfigurable surfaces (IRSs). To avoid the inherent estimation ambiguities of the two-hop channels from mobile stations (MS) to the base station (BS), we adopt a hybrid IRS architecture composed of passive reflectors and active sensors, and establish two independent subproblems of estimating the MS-to-IRS and BS-to-IRS channels. By leveraging the sparse characteristics of high-frequency propagation, we model the training signals as multi-dimensional canonical polyadic decomposition (CPD) tensors with missing fibers or slices. We develop algebraic algorithms to solve the tensor completion problems and recover channel multipath parameters, i.e., angles of arrival, time delays and path gains. Our methods require neither random initialization nor iterative operations, and for these reasons they can perform robustly with a low computational complexity. Moreover, we investigate the uniqueness condition of CPD tensor completion, which can be utilized to inform both the physical design of hybrid IRSs and the time-frequency resource allocation of training strategies. Simulation results indicate that the proposed schemes outperform the traditional counterparts in terms of accuracy, robustness and complexity, especially for the case of low-complexity IRSs with limited number of active sensing elements.

No abstract

No abstract