Massive MIMO two-way relay networks with channel imperfections

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of co-channel interference (CCI), imperfect channel state information (CSI) and pilot contamination for multi-pair massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) two-way relay networks (TWRNs). We consider a multi-cell TWRN system consisting of single-antenna user nodes and amplify-and-forward (AF) relay nodes having very large antenna arrays. Under the aforementioned channel imperfections, the asymptotic signal-to-interference-noise ratio and asymptotic sum rate expressions are derived in closed-form whenever the number of relay antennas grows unbounded with respect to the number of user nodes. For perfect CSI case, the transmit power at the user nodes and the relay can be scaled down inversely proportional to the number of antennas at the relay. Moreover, for the imperfect CSI case, these transmit powers can only be scaled down inversely proportional to the square-root of the relay antenna count. Thus, even with imperfect CSI, the benefits of employing a massive MIMO-enabled relay on transmit power savings are significant. Moreover, our analysis shows that although the detrimental effect of CCI can be asymptotically negated completely, the residual interference due to pilot contamination cannot be mitigated even in the limit of infinitely many relay antennas.