LEAST-SQUARES BASED CHANNEL ESTIMATION FOR MIMO RELAYS

Panagiota Lioliou, Mats Viberg

Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

panagiol@chalmers.se, viberg@chalmers.se

ABSTRACT
A Least-Squares based channel estimation algorithm is pro-
posed for Relay-Assisted wireless Multiple-Input Multiple-
Output (MIMO) channels. The method consists of a sequence
of LS-problems with the purpose to arrive to a computation-
ally efficient solution. The performance of the proposed algo-
rithm is evaluated as a function of the input Signal-to-Noise
Ratio (SNR) for randomly generated Rayleigh flat fading chan-
nels. Finally, we study the effect of the channel estimation
error on the performance of a MIMO Zero-Forcing receiver
in order to verify the presented analysis.
1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the use of multiple antennas in wireless links
has become the new cutting edge of wireless communica-
tions. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels, with
appropriate space-time (ST) coding/modulation, have been
introduced to achieve high data rates required by the next-
generation wireless communication systems [1].
The emergence of MIMO communications has created
several technical challenges to be met. Recently, the use of
intermediate nodes (relays) has been identified as a promising
technique for enhancing coverage and combating the impair-
ments of MIMO wireless channels. The basic idea is to in-
troduce relays that forward the data to the destination, which
is otherwise out of the reach of the source. The use of relays
can bring a number of advantages. For instance, in [2] it is
shown that with two hop relaying we can increase the rank
and consequently the capacity of ill-conditioned (rank defi-
cient) MIMO channels. Relaying information on two hops
also decreases the need for high power at the transmitter. If
we take into consideration the fact that power is a critical re-
source, optimizing the usage of this resource is an essential
issue.
The problem of optimal power allocation over the two
links/hops has been studied in a number of papers, and several
optimization techniques have been proposed [3], [4]. Most of
these techniques are based on the assumption that all nodes
This work has been supported in part by VINNOVA within the VINN
Excellence Center Chase; and in part by SSF within the Strategic Research
Center Charmant.
have perfect channel state information (CSI) of the two links
involved. In [3], capacity bounds and power allocation are
investigated by assuming that all nodes have complete CSI.
Similarly, the work in [4] proposes an optimal resource al-
location under aggregate power constraint between relaying
nodes by assuming that the all the channel matrices of the
two links involved can be perfectly estimated.
In this paper, we focus on the estimation of the channel
between the source and the relaying nodes as well as the chan-
nel between the relays and the destination.
Notation. We use bold upper case letters to denote ma-
trices and bold lower case letters to denote vectors. Further-
more, (.)T and (.)H stand for transposition and Hermitian trans-
position, respectively. With vec(A) we denote the vectoriza-
tion of a matrix A. We use the operator vecd(A) for the vector
formed from the diagonal elements of A.
2. SYSTEM MODEL
Fig. 1 illustrates the proposed cooperative MIMO system. It
consists of N transmit and M receive antennas. There are R
amplify-and-forward relays that assist the communication be-
tween source and destination. No measurements are available
at the intermediate (relaying) nodes. The relays are single
antenna nodes, which can operate in full duplex mode. The
source transmits the signal vector xn to the relays and the des-
tination. Then, the relays amplify and forward the received
signal vector rn to the destination.
Assuming frequency-flat fading, we can obtain the fol-
lowing description for the received signal at the destination
yn = H2 Grn +HD xn + wn,D , (1)
where rn is the received signal at the relays, which can be
expressed as
rn = H1 xn + wn,R . (2)
We can now rewrite (1) as
yn =(H2 GH1 +HD )xn + H2 Gwn,R + wn,D , (3)
or equivalently,
yn = Hxn + wn , (4)

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 where X† = XH (XXH )−1 is the matrix pseudoinverse.
The estimate of the compound channel can approximately
be expressed as
Ĥ  H2 GH1 . (7)
The previous relation (7) suggests a Least-Squares estimate
of H1 and H2 as
 2
 
min  Ĥ − H2 GH1  . (8)
H1 ,H2 F

Since H2 is an M × 1 column vector and H1 is an 1 × N row

Fig. 1. System model for Relay-assisted MIMO communication
system.
In the previous equations (1)-(4), HD is the M × N channel
matrix of the direct MIMO channel (source to destination),
H1 ∈ C R×N contains the channel coefficients between source
and relays (first hop) and H2 ∈ C M ×R contains the channel
coefficients between relays and destination (second hop). The
matrix G ∈ C R×R is diagonal and its diagonal elements con-
tain the amplifying factors for each relaying node. The vector
rn is the signal received by the relays. The vectors wn,R and
wn,D are the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) contri-
butions at the relays and the destination, respectively. In (4),
H and wn correspond to the equivalent (compound) channel
matrix and noise.
3. CHANNEL ESTIMATION
3.1. Single Relay Case
It is easy to realize that H1 and H2 cannot be determined
uniquely from the compound channel H. We will initially
study the case of one relay which assists the communication
between the source and the destination. The relay gain is G,
and is assumed to be known. Furthermore, we will assume
that the direct source-destination link is blocked.
For channel estimation purposes, we assume that a known
training sequence X = [x1 , ..., xJ ] of length J is transmitted,
where J ≥ N . A direct application of Least Squares would
suggest
2 mation of the compound channel matrix
min  Y − H2 GH1 X F , (5)
H1 ,H2
vector, the solution is obtained by the principal singular value
of Ĥ. Let the singular value decomposition of Ĥ be

Ĥ = UΣVH = σk uk vkH , (9)
k
where the singular values appear in non-increasing order, σ1 ≥
σ2 ≥ ... ≥ 0. Thus, the LS-estimates of H1 and H2 can be
obtained by
√
Ĥ1 = σ1 v1H , (10)
√
Ĥ2 = σ1 u1 , (11)
where σ1 is the maximum singular value of Ĥ. It is clear that
any scaling of Ĥ1 by some α, and Ĥ2 by 1/α would also
minimize (8). The scaling in (10)-(11) is chosen to give a
 2  2
   
balanced estimate, where  Ĥ1  =  Ĥ2  = σ1 .
3.2. Multiple Relays, Direct Path Blocked
In this section we investigate the channel estimation problem
for multiple relays. For simplicity, we initially assume that the
direct source-destination link is blocked (for example due to
shadowing). There are R amplify-and-forward relaying nodes
between the source and the destination, and consequently R
different channel pairs H1,i , H2,i to be estimated. Therefore,
we propose to use a set of R different amplifying factors G(i) ,
i = 1, ..., R.
For each such G(i) , a training block is applied and the
compound channel is estimated. Again, for channel estima-
tion purposes, we assume that a known training sequence X =
[x1 , ..., xJ ] of length J is transmitted, where J ≥ N . Then,
the Least-Squares Estimator (LSE) is employed for the esti-

where Y = [y1 , ..., yJ ] is the output of the training block, Ĥ(i) = Y(i) X† , (12)
(i)
Instead of solving the nonlinear LS problem in (5), we where Y = [y1 , ..., yJ ] is the output of the ith block, and
propose a simpler two step approach, which is easier to real- X† = XH (XXH )−1 is the matrix pseudoinverse.
ize for R > 1. First, the Least-Squares Estimator (LSE) is Similar to (7), the ith estimate of the compound channel
employed for the estimation of the compound channel matrix can approximately be expressed as
[5]
Ĥ = YX† , (6) Ĥ(i)  H2 G(i) H1 . (13)

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 The previous equation (13) assumes that during the training Then, the LS-estimates of HT1,i and H2,i can be obtained by
interval the channels H1 and H2 vary very slowly with time. √
Thus, we can assume them to be constant. The only element HT1,i = σ1 v1H , (23)
of the compound channel that is varied during the entire train-
ing phase is the gain matrix G. √
The previous relation (13) suggests a Least-Squares esti- H2,i = σ1 u1 , (24)
mate of H1 and H2 as where σ1 is the maximum singular value of Φ̂i .
R 
Recall that H1,i and H2,i can be determined only up to
 2
 (i)  scaling. This is a consequence of not knowing the data at
min Ĥ − H2 G(i) H1  . (14)
H1 ,H2 F the relays. It is then not possible to distinguish the upstream
i=1
gain from the downstream. Applying the above procedure for
Towards solving (14), each term is vectorized [6], resulting in i = 1, ..., R, we obtain estimates of all elements of H1 and
R 
H2 .
 2
 
min vec(Ĥ(i) ) − (HT1 ♦ H2 )vecd(G(i) ) , (15)
H1 ,H2 F 3.3. Direct path included
i=1

If we include in our analysis the direct link between the source

where ♦ is the Khatri-Rao product operator (column-wise
and the destination, then we have to use a set of R+1 different
Kronecker product). This can also be expressed as
amplifying factors G(i) , i = 1, ..., R+1. Again, for each such
 2 G(i) , a training block is applied and the compound channel is
 
min H̃− ΞG̃ , (16) estimated.
H1 ,H2 F
The ith estimate of the compound channel will now be
where H̃ = [vec(Ĥ(1) ), ..., vec(Ĥ(R) )], Ξ = (HT1 ♦H2 ), approximately expressed as
and G̃ = [vecd(G(1) ), ..., vecd(G(R) )]. Instead of solving
the joint minimization in (16), we propose to first obtain an Ĥ(i)  H2 G(i) H1 + HD . (25)
unstructured LS estimate of Ξ as
The relation (25) suggests again an LS estimate of H1 , H2
†
Ξ̂ = H̃G̃ . (17) and HD as

The individual channels H1 and H2 are then revealed by yet 

R+1
 (i)
2

another LS fit min Ĥ − (H2 G(i) H1 + HD ) . (26)
H1 ,H2 ,HD F
 2 i=1

min Ξ̂ − (HT1 ♦H2 )F . (18)
H1 ,H2 After vectorizing each term in (26), we obtain
Clearly, the minimization of (18) can be performed for each
  
column separately. Thus, let ϕi denote the ith column of Ξ,    G̃ 2
min H̃ − Ξ vec(HD )  , (27)
which is given by the Kronecker product between the ith row H1 ,H2 ,HD  1T F
of H1 and the ith column of H2 . This is expressed as
where H̃ = [vec(Ĥ(1) ), ..., vec(Ĥ(R+1) )], Ξ = (HT1 ♦H2 ),
ϕi = HT1,i ⊗ H2,i . (19) G̃ = [vecd(G(1) ), ..., vecd(G(R+1) )], and 1 is a column vec-
The LS estimate of HT1,i and H2,i can then be formulated as tor with 1 in every position. Now, the unstructured LS esti-
mate of Ξ and vec(HD ) is
 
min  ϕ̂i − HT1,i ⊗ H2,i  2 . (20)  †
H1,i ,H2,i F   G̃
Ξ̂ vec(ĤD ) = H̃ . (28)
1T
By rearranging the M N -vector ϕi into an M × N matrix Φ̂i ,
the following equivalent formulation is obtained [7] The individual channels H1 and H2 are then revealed by fol-
 2 lowing the same procedure described in the previous section
 
min  Φ̂i − H2,i HT1,i  . (21) and by using equations (18)-(24).
H1,i ,H2,i F After applying the above procedure for i = 1, ..., R we
Clearly, this is similar to (8), and the solution is obtained by obtain estimates of all elements of H1 , H2 and HD . The algo-
the principal singular value of Φ̂i . Let the singular value de- rithm consists of a sequence of LS-problems, with the purpose
composition be of arriving at a computationally efficient solution. Though no
 optimality is claimed, we can prove that
Φi = UΣVH = σk uk vkH . (22)
k
Ĥ1 → D−1 H1 , (29)

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 Ĥ2 → H2 D, (30) 0
10
RMS angle between estimated and true rows of H
as either SN R → ∞ or J → ∞, where D is an arbitrary 1
RMS angle between estimated and true columns of H2
diagonal matrix. Since the scaling is undetermined, the an-
gle between the two subspaces, spanned by the columns of

RMS angle (deg)

the estimated and the real channel matrices, can be used as a 10
-1

measure of performance of our proposed estimation method.

If the angle is small, the two spaces are nearly the same.

4. NUMERICAL RESULTS 10
-2

In this section we present numerical results in order to demon-

strate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
-3
10
4.1. Simulation Setup 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Training input SNR (dB)
We use N = 4 transmitting antennas and M = 4 receiving
antennas. The relaying nodes have only one transmit and re- Fig. 2. RMS angle between the estimated and true rows/columns of
ceive antenna. The number of relays is R = 4. We choose H1 /H2 , versus training input SNR.
the length of the training sequence to be equal to the num-
ber of the transmitting antennas N . Since the matrix G̃ has
to be full rank, the amplifying factors are generated by us- requires knowledge of the channel state information (CSI),
ing the Fourier Basis. The direct path is also included in the and in practice accurate CSI may not be available [8].
simulations. For the generation of the channel coefficients we We will consider the same MIMO system with N trans-
assume a model which includes path loss and small scale fad- mit and M receive antennas, as described in section 2. The
√
ing. The channel matrices are expressed as Hi = αi Hw , communication between source and destination is assisted by
where the entries of Hw are identically independent distrib- R relays. By using (3), we can express the received signal
uted (i.i.d) complex Gaussian random variables with unit vari- vector as
√ yn = Hxn + wn , (31)
ance. The factor αi contains the path loss and can be written
−γ
as αi = di , where d is the distance. The scalar γ denotes where H and wn correspond to the equivalent (compound)
the pass loss exponent. In our simulations it is equal to 4. channel matrix and noise.
If perfect CSI is available at the receiver, the zero-forcing
4.2. Simulation Results estimate of the transmitted vector can be written as
Fig. 2 shows the RMS angle between the two subspaces, as a x̃n = F(Hxn + wn ) = xn + Fwn , (32)
function of the input SNR. The figure illustrates that the angle
decreases as SN R−3/2 , in the range of the SN R considered. where F = H† , is the pseudoinverse of the compound chan-
As SN R → ∞ the two spaces coincide. Consequently, the nel matrix H.
proposed estimator is consistent. In practice the channel matrix H has to be estimated at the
receiver for retrieving the transmitted symbol vector. We will
use the estimated channel matrices Ĥ1 and Ĥ2 , for obtain-
5. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
ing an estimate of the compound channel H. For simplicity
In this section we will focus on the performance analysis of reasons we will neglect the direct path between the source
the proposed channel estimation algorithm. As an evaluation and the destination. Therefore the estimate of the compound
tool, we will investigate the effect of the channel estimation channel can be calculated as
error on the performance of a MIMO Zero-Forcing receiver.
Ĥ = Ĥ2 GĤ1 . (33)

5.1. Zero-Forcing Detection and the Effect of Channel Es-
timation Error
Zero-Forcing (ZF) detection is a simple and effective tech-
nique for retrieving multiple transmitted data streams at the
receiver. It provides sub-optimal performance compared to
Maximum Likelihood (ML) receivers, but offers significant
computational complexity reduction. However, the detection
In the presence of channel estimation error, the zero-forcing
estimate of the transmitted symbol vector can be written as
x̃n = F̃(Hxn + wn ), (34)
where F̃ = Ĥ† .
Of course, knowledge of the individual channels is not
necessary for implementing the ZF receiver. It is enough to

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 −1
10 Estimated channel
Perfect channel knowledge
BER
−2
10
−3
10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Training SNR
Fig. 3. BER performance of QPSK MIMO ZF receiver versus train-
ing SNR. Data SNR=10 dB
know the compound channel. The main reason for estimating
H1 and H2 separately is to enable optimal power allocation.
For simplicity we still use the resulting Bit-Error-Rate (BER)
with exact and estimated channel to illustrate the perfomance
of the channel estimator.
5.2. Numerical Results
In this section, we use Monte Carlo simulations to illustrate
the impact of the channel estimation error on the BER perfor-
mance of a MIMO Zero-Forcing receiver.
We use again N = 4 transmitting and M = 4 receiving
antennas. The number of relaying nodes is set equal to 4. We
use the same path loss model as in section 4.1 for generat-
ing the Rayleigh fading channels H1 and H2 . The assumed
signaling for data transmission is QPSK.
Fig. 3 shows the BER performance of QPSK modulation
for perfect and imperfect channel knowledge at the receiver,
versus the input training SNR. The input data SNR is set equal
to 10 dB. When the training SNR is greater than 20 dB the
effect of estimation error on the performance of the receiver
is almost negligible. We can observe that the performance of
the ZF receiver is quite sensitive to channel estimation error,
but the BER performance improves significantly as the input
SNR during the training interval increases. This illustrates
again that the proposed estimation algorithm is consistent.
In Fig. 4, the BER performance in the presence of channel
estimation error versus the input data SNR is illustrated. The
SNR during the training period is 20 dB. An impact of the im-
perfect channel knowledge is that the BER does not approach
zero as SNR tends to infinity. Instead, it reaches an error floor
whose value depends on the input SNR during training.
6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
In this paper a channel estimation algorithm for MIMO relay
systems is presented. We focus on the estimation of the in-
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−1
10 Perfect channel knowledge
Estimated channel
−2
10
BER
−3
10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
SNR
Fig. 4. BER performance of QPSK MIMO ZF receiver versus SNR
in the data bits. Training SNR=20 dB
dividual channels between the source and the relaying nodes
and between the relays and the destination. No measurements
are available at the intermediate nodes. The angle between
the two subspaces, spanned by the columns of the estimated
and the real channel matrices, is used as a measure of perfor-
mance of our estimation method. It is evaluated as a function
of SNR for randomly generated Rayleigh flat fading chan-
nels. Finally, we evaluate the effect of the estimation error
of the proposed algorithm on the performance of a MIMO
ZF-receiver. It is shown that the BER performance of the
receiver in the presence of imperfect channel knowledge de-
pends strongly on the input SNR during the training period. It
is found that the SNR during the training needs to be about 10
dB higher than the data input SNR, in order for the influence
of imprecise channel knowledge to be negligible. The estima-
tion error and consequently the deterioration in the receiver’s
performance is less significant for high values of SNR.
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