Subspace Tracking Algorithms for Millimeter Wave MIMO Channel Estimation with Hybrid Beamforming

Abstract:
This paper proposes the use of subspace tracking algorithms for performing MIMO channel estimation at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies. Using a subspace approach, we develop a protocol enabling the estimation of the right (resp. left) singular vectors at the transmitter (resp. receiver) side; then, we adapt the projection approximation subspace tracking with deflation (PASTd) and the orthogonal Oja (OOJA) algorithms to our framework and obtain two channel estimation algorithms. The hybrid analog/digital nature of the beamformer is also explicitly taken into account at the algorithm design stage. Numerical results show that the proposed estimation algorithms are effective, and that they perform better than two relevant competing alternatives available in the open literature.