Asymptotic Equivalent Performance of Uplink Massive MIMO Systems with Phase Noise

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with a large number of base station (BS) antennas can provide significant spectral and energy efficiency. However, phase noise introduced by the impairment of oscillators can cause a severe performance loss in wireless communication systems. In this paper, we study the effect of phase noise on uplink MIMO systems with imperfect channel state information. We consider a setup that the BS employs different numbers of free- running oscillators. The asymptotic equivalent (AE) expressions of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for matched filter (MF) and minimum mean squared error (MMSE) receivers are derived by using random matrix theory, respectively. Based on the AE expressions, we show that the system performance degrades as the number of oscillators increases. Then, we demonstrates a phase noise impact comparison between the MF and MMSE receivers. The MF receiver shows greater robustness but a lower sum rate performance than the MMSE receiver under the effect of phase noise. Moreover, we investigate the relationship between the sum rate gain and the data transmission interval. Due to the phase noise, the length of the data transmission interval is limited. The derived AE expressions provide valuable insights on the effect of various parameters on the system performance and the optimum choice of the data transmission interval length.