A Novel Full-wave Methodology for Channel Estimation in Digital mMIMO Applications

This paper proposes a novel full-wave methodology for estimating the channel state information (CSI) in massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) applications. Our approach is based on a hybrid implementation of the shouting and bouncing rays (SBR) and finite-element (FEM) methods. Numerical simulations using FEM are carried out for designing a patch antenna, which provides 1.15-GHz bandwidth centered at 26 GHz and 7.5-dBi gain. The antenna is used to represent the user equipment (UE) and the antenna array element of a base station (BS). The antenna results are imported into the SBR solution region as linked sources. The chosen scenario is the Research Laboratory WOCA from Inatel (Brazil), with a 91-m(2) area, concrete walls and furniture made of wood and metal. Numerical SBR simulations are presented and a 16-order MIMO channel is successfully estimated in terms of magnitude and phase.