ICA Based Semi-Blind Decoding Method for a Multicell Multiuser Massive MIMO Uplink System in Rician/Rayleigh Fading Channels

A massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, which utilizes a large number of antennas at base stations to communicate with multiple user terminals each with a single antenna, is one of the most promising techniques for future wireless communications systems. A successful massive MIMO implementation relies on accurate channel estimation, which is typically performed through pilot sequences. However, the channel estimation performance or massive MIMO performance is limited by pilot contamination due to unavoidable reuse of pilot sequences from terminals in neighboring cells. In this paper, a semi-blind decoding method based on independent component analysis (ICA), channel energy levels, and reference bits is proposed. Specifically, the proposed decoding method uses ICA to separate and decode the received signals and to estimate the channels. The estimated channel energy is used to differentiate the in-cell signals and the neighboring cell signals, and reference bits are applied to identify a desired signal among signals within a cell. The analytical performance results of the proposed decoding method are derived. Numerical results show that the proposed semi-blind decoding method has better bit error rate performance and higher transmit efficiency than the traditional minimum mean-square error decoding method and the singular value decomposition-based decoding method.