Xi Yang

Binggui Zhou, Xi Yang, Shaodan Ma et al.

To reap the promising benefits of massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, accurate channel state information (CSI) is required through channel estimation. However, due to the complicated wireless propagation environment and large-scale antenna arrays, precise channel estimation for massive MIMO systems is significantly challenging and costs an enormous training overhead. Considerable time-frequency resources are consumed to acquire sufficient accuracy of CSI, which thus severely degrades systems' spectral and energy efficiencies. In this paper, we propose a dual-attention-based channel estimation network (DACEN) to realize accurate channel estimation via low-density pilots, by jointly learning the spatial-temporal domain features of massive MIMO channels with the temporal attention module and the spatial attention module. To further improve the estimation accuracy, we propose a parameter-instance transfer learning approach to transfer the channel knowledge learned from the high-density pilots pre-acquired during the training dataset collection period. Experimental results reveal that the proposed DACEN-based method achieves better channel estimation performance than the existing methods under various pilot-density settings and signal-to-noise ratios. Additionally, with the proposed parameter-instance transfer learning approach, the DACEN-based method achieves additional performance gain, thereby further demonstrating the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.

Binggui Zhou, Xi Yang, Shaodan Ma et al.

In time division duplexing (TDD) millimeter wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, downlink channel state information (CSI) can be obtained from uplink channel estimation thanks to channel reciprocity. However, under high-mobility scenarios, frequent uplink channel estimation is needed due to channel aging. Additionally, large amounts of antennas and subcarriers result in high-dimensional CSI matrices, aggravating pilot training overhead. To address this, we propose a three-domain (3D) channel extrapolation framework across spatial, frequency, and temporal domains. First, considering the effectiveness of traditional knowledge-driven channel estimation methods and the marginal effects of pilots in the spatial and frequency domains, a knowledge-and-data driven spatial-frequency channel extrapolation network (KDD-SFCEN) is proposed for uplink channel estimation via joint spatial-frequency channel extrapolation to reduce spatial-frequency domain pilot overhead. Then, leveraging channel reciprocity and temporal dependencies, we propose a temporal uplink-downlink channel extrapolation network (TUDCEN) powered by generative artificial intelligence for slot-level channel extrapolation, aiming to reduce the tremendous temporal domain pilot overhead caused by high mobility. Numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed framework in significantly reducing the pilot training overhead by 16 times and improving the system's spectral efficiency under high-mobility scenarios compared with state-of-the-art channel estimation/extrapolation methods.