A Survey on Massive MIMO Systems in Presence of Channel and Hardware Impairments

Massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology is one of the promising technologies for fifth generation (5G) cellular communications. In this technology, each cell has a base station (BS) with a large number of antennas, allowing the simultaneous use of the same resources (e.g., frequency and/or time slots) by multiple users of a cell. Therefore, massive MIMO systems can bring very high spectral and power efficiencies. However, this technology faces some important issues that need to be addressed. One of these issues is the performance degradation due to hardware impairments, since low-cost RF chains need to be employed. Another issue is the channel estimation and channel aging effects, especially in fast mobility environments. In this paper we will perform a comprehensive study on these two issues considering two of the most promising candidate waveforms for massive MIMO systems: Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and single-carrier frequency domain processing (SC-FDP). The studies and the results show that hardware impairments and inaccurate channel knowledge can degrade the performance of massive MIMO systems extensively. However, using suitable low complex estimation and compensation techniques and also selecting a suitable waveform can reduce these effects.