Wideband channel estimation for THz massive MIMO

Terahertz (THz) communication is considered to be a promising technology for future 6G network. To overcome the severe attenuation and relieve the high power consumption, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) with hybrid precoding has been widely considered for THz communication. However, accurate wideband channel estimation, which is essential for hybrid precoding, is challenging in THz massive MIMO systems. The existing wideband channel estimation schemes based on the ideal assumption of common sparse channel support will suffer from a severe performance loss due to the beam split effect. In this paper, we propose a beam split pattern detection based channel estimation scheme to realize reliable wideband channel estimation in THz massive MIMO systems. Specifically, a comprehensive analysis on the angle-domain sparse structure of the wideband channel is provided by considering the beam split effect. Based on the analysis, we define a series of index sets called as beam split patterns, which are proved to have a one-to-one match to different physical channel directions. Inspired by this one-to-one match, we propose to estimate the physical channel direction by exploiting beam split patterns at first. Then, the sparse channel supports at different subcarriers can be obtained by utilizing a support detection window. This support detection window is generated by expanding the beam split pattern which is determined by the obtained physical channel direction. The above estimation procedure will be repeated path by path until all path components are estimated. Finally, the wideband channel can be recovered by calculating the elements on the total sparse channel support at all subcarriers. The proposed scheme exploits the wideband channel property implied by the beam split effect, i.e., beam split pattern, which can significantly improve the channel estimation accuracy. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is able to achieve higher accuracy than existing schemes.